do you carry a credit card on a daily basis ?

Status
Not open for further replies.
I have a checkbook. It's the only way I can pay my property taxes without paying a surcharge.

I have actually written 3 checks this year, one for my above taxes, one for a contractor that I hired , and one for wedding present. They are becoming a thing of the past....
 
Talk to a few folks who bought stuff with debit cards at Toys R Us on Black Friday. Many folks we charged insane amounts in fees and interest because when Toys R Us's double charge snafu overdrew their accounts and every additional purchase they made from the time the overdraft happened incurred additional overdraft fees and interest. Toys R Us cheerfully refunded the amount they overcharged but neither the banks involved nor Toys R Us were willing to refund fees charged. That is until all the negative publicity made Toys R Us change their mind for some specific circumsances.

The gotchas and because we can fees are definitely there on the debit cards. All you have to do is read the agreement. It's not to say credit cards don't have gotchas, but the key difference is debit cards already have your money and you have to take action to get money refunded in case of an error. Credit cards need to sue you for the money if you dispute the charge and cannot come to an understaning. You have the money and they have to come for it! You can then put the disputed amount of money in escrow until a resolution. Neither you nor the card have the money until the dispute is resolved. It gives you a hell of a lot more leverage.

Toys R Us Double Charges Black Friday Shoppers - The Consumerist


5 worst holiday gotchas: Hidden debit card fees and more

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/your-money/credit-and-debit-cards/primercards.html


Debit card facts
Debit Cards: Much greater liability risk than credit cards

CardTrak.com - News - Debit Gotcha



See ya
Tony

I've never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever had any problems using my debit card. I'll continue to use it the same as I always have.

See ya
yorktown
 
I write checks only when I have to. My maid service insists on an old fashioned paper check so they get it.

As for cash i use it for some things but i prefer the reward points and legal protections of a credit card over those for cash or debit cards. I too used to say i had never been harmed by a debit card until the day i was a victim of identity theft.
 
I've never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever had any problems using my debit card. I'll continue to use it the same as I always have.

See ya
yorktown

It only takes once. :)

I have a few credit cards: Amex Platinum that I use for basically everything so I get the points.

Discovercard - backup if places don't take Amex but still get cashback

Mastercard - Has a crappy rewards program, but it is a backup if neither of the above are accepted

Visa Debit Card - Only use to get cash out if I want a little walking around money.

I usually only have $100 or less on me and use it for incidentals (vending machine, tips, etc) but not really for purchases.

I can't remember the last check I wrote. I still have my original free set of checks that came with my checking account 6 years ago. Gotta love Free Bill Pay!
 
I've never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever had any problems using my debit card. I'll continue to use it the same as I always have.

See ya
yorktown
Your funeral. No one ever has a problem until the day they do. :) With CC you have codified legal protection. With Debit cards you have the "good will" of the bank. I'll take the legal protection.
 
I have 4 Credit Cards (2 Store Cards, 2 Mastercards), but only use one and pay it off every month.
Also carry my Debit Card.
Hardly ever have any cash on me.
 
I might be able to claim the title of CC king here, again. Two years ago I had 45 credit cards from different banks. I used them as a means to finance my business as my lines of credit and credit scores afforded me interest rates at 2% or less, many at 0 %. My business required I stake production costs for up to 60 days and I used CC to fund that. Plus I used CC to purchase equipment that generated income direct. In the process, I was able to finance my business for over 10 years this way at under 2% interest, normally carrying about 60-80 thousand in debt. For personal use I carried a couple of cards, AMEX for travel expenses, a cash back card for household expenses, and a third card for car expenses that gets discounts in cash ( Hess gas card) I also have a card I use for just online purchases. All these I pay off every month and they do carry obscene interest rates if I don't. Most cash back cards do.
The secret of using lots of credit cards is never be maxed out and only charge what you can pay back. and never ever be late. I would actually calculate my amortization on my running balances to amortize in 18 months on equipment purchases and 2 months on production costs. That formula worked well for me over the years.
I never carried a CC balance for personal expenses.

Now, about those Visa Check cards and debit cards. I will never ever carry one of those except in this specific safe situation- Open up a checking account with a completely different bank than I do all other banking. Then only deposit enough cash in that account to cover the planned expense on the debit card. After what happened to my neighbor a few years ago, where they cleaned him out of all his money, savings, CD's and even his IRA ( which I thought was illegal) to cover some lost check card that was used to run up thousands he had to cover until they fixed everything, that was 4 months.
I have an ATM card and while the banks don't like to admit they have them they still have to issue you one if you request it in this state.

Today- I am winding down my business and paid off all debt, including home mortgage and cars, not to mention CC debt in the business and am in the process of canceling all those cards. Times are a changing and what I once did, they are no longer doing easily plus they are starting to charge annual fees and other nonsense charges so having that many cards is getting expensive. 0% interest for 12 months is still available if you have high enough credit score but the balance transfer fees have also gone up. It would be much harder to do what I once did today.

I still carry some cash as you never know, in an emergency, if you need cash. I carry what I can afford to lose.


I give credit when it's due... Just a week ago I got a call from one of my Master card accounts to advise me that I had some very strange charges on my card. Seems I began charging utility bills in Germany. ha ha. The CC company detected this and called me before ever listing that charge on my account. After denying that charge, we cancelled the card. Don't need it anymore. They weren't disappointed because I hadn't used that card for over 2 years. Still, nice of them to call me.
 
IMHO.....

I hate debit cards. Too easy to empty your bank account fraudulently and then you have to fight your bank to get it back. Credit cards give me a month to pay and the half dozen bad charges I've had over 20 years have all been nixed before the bill was ever due (I check my charges online daily -- part to monitor my wife's spending for planning purposes and the other to watch for bad charges)

I have a Platinum Amex and MasterCard. The Amex is useful for access to airport clubs and other freebies (Sheraton, National, Hertz etc. Gold Premium Clubs). The Mastercard is used at those places that won't take the Amex. I get rewards points on both cards. Paperless billing to protect against someone stealing my bills from the mailbox. No checks to write as they debit my bank account.

The ONLY checks I write are for local taxes, state and federal income tax (if necessary), and the occasional charity that I need paper proof to take as a deduction. A box of checks will last me years now.

Everything else (utilities, E*, etc.) goes on the credit cards so I get points and a free 20-30 day loan. I pay everything in full. If I run out of funds, I have a home equity line of credit form the bank to draw on at 4% which I try to pay back down as quickly as possible.

And that's it.
 
Your funeral. No one ever has a problem until the day they do. :) With CC you have codified legal protection. With Debit cards you have the "good will" of the bank. I'll take the legal protection.

Your funeral....
:rolleyes:

I've never been shot in the chest while I was out in the yard cutting the grass and I don't wear a bullet proof vest when I cut my grass. I guess I'll never have a problem until the day I do. :)
My funeral I guess....
:haha
 
I have 4-5 credit cards but I use my Amex Platinum for every purchase for the points. Don't get why people use debit cards unless they can't control their spending habits. I'd be worried someone would clean out my account.
 
Your funeral....
:rolleyes:

I've never been shot in the chest while I was out in the yard cutting the grass and I don't wear a bullet proof vest when I cut my grass. I guess I'll never have a problem until the day I do. :)
My funeral I guess....
:haha

My last post on the issue...
Do you wear shoes when you mow your lawn?
Over 11000 injuries a year while mowing lawns out of millions and millions of people using lawn mowers.

72,950 criminal Credit/Debit Card Fraud cases out of close to 250,000 total unresolved complaints from internet purchases ONLY!!!! These fraudulent transactions ended up costing costing an average of $230 per complaint. Credit card customers paid no more than $50. Debit card customers paid the full amount. This is of course out of the hundred million debit cards out there.

You are at least as likely to be defrauded using your debit card than you are to get injured by a flying rock kicked up by your lawn mower.

Chances are you wont have any problem considering the sheer number of debit cards out there. HOWEVER, you are banking "barefoot" with a debit card while credit cards, used responsibly (paid off every month) are the equivalent of wearing a thick pair of shoes and jeans to protect yourself just in case you hit that unseen rock.

It's your money, not mine.

See ya
Tony
 
...Everything else (utilities, E*, etc.) goes on the credit cards so I get points and a free 20-30 day loan. I pay everything in full. If I run out of funds, I have a home equity line of credit form the bank to draw on at 4% which I try to pay back down as quickly as possible...
I follow your plan pretty closely. I charge absolutely everything I can. I'm even to the point where I use a rewards cc at McDonalds, the few times I go there! I pay as many bills as possible on-line by cc. Unfortunately my electric utility bill (my only home energy source) and land-line phone bill will not accept cc's so I have to use a checking account debit for those 2, and I use debits from the same account to pay all the cc bills. I also have a HELOC but at 0 balance now and I hope to keep it that way forever! (Mine is a variable rate, can't recall the formula.)

The one debit card I have is with a credit union where I have only a checking account and a couple of CDs that can't be automatically accessed. All my savings and other holdings are with another CU. I do not do business with local banks any longer. The checking account is used only for my routine cashflow transactions (paycheck direct deposit, the a/m debits, and only a couple of checks a month where they don't take any plastic) and I keep only a small balance in there ("hand-to-mouth"). I carry that debit card but I really question why. I only use it at my CU's ATM, and only a couple of times a year, for both cash withdrawals and an occasional deposit, like a co. reimbursement check. I never use another ATM to avoid all the fees associated with a transaction at a non-affiliated institution.

My use of cc's is dependent on pay-in-full and no fees. When annual fees kick-in I will cancel those cards and find alternatives. When there are no alternatives I will probably stop using credit cards altogether. Even tho' the annual fees are far less than the benefits I derive, for me it's the principle...
 
Last edited:
Your funeral....
:rolleyes:

I've never been shot in the chest while I was out in the yard cutting the grass and I don't wear a bullet proof vest when I cut my grass. I guess I'll never have a problem until the day I do. :)
My funeral I guess....
:haha

Then again no one ever said that you were likely to be shot while mowing your lawn. We are talking about normal precautions for situations that do occur and really are not that hard to do. Your comment tries to paint the reasonable precautions as somehow ridiculously onerous but in fact they really aren't that hard to do and there are advantages to them.
 
I carry two credit cards, one for gas and groceries only (5% back on those items) and the other (with a large credit limit and points on everything) for everything else. Both get paid in full every month.
 
Seems we had this debate a year or so ago and there were far more debit card defenders than today. But, back then these debit card defenders had great faith in the word of their bank that they would have protection. I wonder what happened? :) Did the bank's credibility somewhere along the way go down the toilet?

I'm happy to see most of you all have figured out the way to use a credit card responsibly. Just be careful in the coming year. These banks are out to get your money in anyway they can. One way was to reduce the so called monthly no finance charge grace period. No longer 25 days but now 20 on several of my cards from Chase. I have mine set up on a bimonthly payment now to avoid missing the target date.

If you have a Heloc, watch that they don't cancel it on you for inactivity. Got a call from Wells Fargo last August about this. I opened it with Wachovia years ago and maintained it at zero balance. Had to borrow 10,000 on it for a couple months to keep it alive.
 
If you are a veteran or one of your parents is one (or of your spouses), I highly recommending getting USAA. They don't play games with credit lines, interest rates, etc. and they are a pleasure to deal with. Great insurance rates too. They used to be for officers only, but it is now open to all enlisted personnel and their immediate families (or one generation below).

Chase, Capital One, etc..... You can keep those. I used to have Citibank years ago, and they used to get creative every now and then and wind up costing me money. never had a problem since switching to USAA 10 years ago.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Arizona teacher on leave for taking students to HOOTERS

Do you carry a condom on a daily basis ?

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)