I was really impressed when I forgot to pay a monthly bill for me AT&T
Universal Visa card.  They sent me a friendly reminder and a new envelope
to send in the payment after the due date had passed.  They charged the
expected interest because I didn't pay off my balance in full, but they
did not add a late charge for failing to make a minimum payment!
 
Anyone want to share positive or negative expirences with plastic money?

21 responses total.

I have one credit card, a Visa charging 14.something interest, and
I only use it for telephone ordering or when traveling. I keep my
credit limit at $1500 by refusing the yearly offer of a higher
credit ceiling, and I pay the balance, in full, each month.  Oh,
maybe once or twice a year I'll take a couple of months to pay off
a large purchase, but never more.  It didn't used to be this way.
In my younger days I had maybe four cards and they all carried
healthy balances and frequently I would have already worn out or
discarded the item I was still paying off.  Yech.  No more.

About a month ago I got a debit card.  Looks just like a Mastercard
and it can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted except it pulls
money directly from your checking account.  Very convenient.  There
is no charge for its use (if you normally write checks without a 
charge per check).  Highly recommended and a wonderful banking 
service.

  
  I like debit cards. I hope that more places will begin taking them.

Checking accounts, on the other hand.... don't get me going on that.

Interesting about your "...more places begin taking them."  When
I first started using the debit card I'd hand it to the clerk
and ask if they took debit cards.  An awful lot would say that no,
they didn't, and I'd then tuck the card away and pull out my checkbook.
Then I stopped asking if they took debit cards and just used it like
a Mastercard *credit* card (looks identical). The clerks cheerfully
accepted it, it clears all the necessary authorization, and I was 
on my way speedy-quick.  The money was drawn from my checking account,
usually the next business day.

I've used it at places like Zings, Disneyworld, Krogers, Laky's Salon,
Hudson's, gasoline service stations, and for telephone mail order, to
name just a few.  Just don't tell 'em it's a debit card, they get
confused.

Yes, a debit card that looks like a Master Card or whatever can be used
wherever they take Master Card or whatever.  I agree, don't confuse 
cashiers with the fact that the credit-card-looking-thing is not really
a credit card.  But some places are now taking wiggly ML cards which
are not Visa or Master Card.  Just an ATM card with a wiggly ML on it.
That's what you're hoping will become more widely accepted, right aa8ij?

  yes. 

  Checks tend to take a lot of time to clear, and in that space, almost
anything can happen. 

The only advantage I can see to using a debit card is if you're maxed 
out on your credit card and/or you don't know how to manage a checking
account.  If you've got the money, why don't you just leave it in the 
checking account, use a credit card, then pay off the entire credit
card bill at the end of the month?

Indeed. I can't see any advantage to a debit card. It is a scheme
used by the banks to suck money out of your account much quicker
than they would otherwise get it. I use a credit card for everything
and always pay it off in full. That way I use the bank's money for
up to a month at no charge to me.

Well, Dan, it's an irrational sort of discomfort than keeps me from
using a credit card more often.  But I know I spend less when I 
use cash or checking account money than when I put in on a charge
card, even if it gets paid in full with the next bill.

To show you how irrational it gets I put most durable goods purchases
through a three questions test prior to plunking down any money.
   1. Is there enough slack in this month's budget for the purchase?
      (Yes, like most type A folks I use a budget)
   2. Is there room to store whatever it is I'm buying?
   3. Will it need dusting?

All of my credit cards offer the option to skip a payment, and that might
be why no late fee was assessed in #0.  For me, the late fee takes the form
of the interest I wouldn't have had to pay if I had paid off the month's
balance in time.  I got socked for about $30 last month because I forgot
to pay it off (i.e. skipped a payment in visa's eyes).

A friend called the bank that issued his Mastercard and asked to cancel
it because he didn't want to pay the annual fee.  The agent said "Just
a moment", a few seconds passed, and he was told that if he kept the 
account there would be no annual fee...  I tried the same thing with my
card, and the agent said "Just a moment", then responded with "Ok sir,
you'll get your final statement in a week."  I expected that, since I 
literally hadn't used the card for about two years.

Some credit card issuers (MBNA among them, I believe) have a policy
of issuing cards with no annual fee for the first year. Then if you
call them up after a year and say you want to cancel because they are
about to instigate their annual fee, they'll happily waive it
*for another year*. You do have to repeat this process every year.
If you already have cards that involve no annual fee, I don't see the
point in this annual ritual, but if this is the only way you can get
a card with no annual fee, I think it's perfectly reasonable.

I just saw an ad for a card that refunds the interest you've paid
at the end of twenty years.  I wondered how they could make money
doing that, but I guess they (a) get a percentage from the retailer,
(b) have a lot of cardholders that never claim the refund, and (c)
the present value of the interest is a lot more than its value 20
years from now when they pay the same number of dollars back to you.
Still, it sounds like a better deal than Discover's cashback bonus.

You're also betting that they're going to be around in 20 years.

11c is the main reason. They don't return any interest on the
interest they borrowed.

I never saw any point at all in pseudo-credit-but-is-really-debit cards.
They generally don't give you any of the perks or consumer protections
that real credit cards provide.  The only place I can see the need to
use them is if I didn't have the self-discipline to not use a credit
card irresponsibly.  True debit cards are at least useful for some
places that will not take credit cards, like some gas stations.  But
I've yet to see the debit card that covers flight insurance, car rental
insurance, warranty extension, cash back or those other little things
one expects from a credit card.

I was once traveling with a guy who only had one of those toy credit
cards on a business trip, and surprise surprise, they declined the $300
charge for his hotel room.  If I hadn't been there to bail him out he
would have slept in the rental car, I guess (which was also in my name
for the same reason.)

Are you talking about secured line of credit - credit cards or 
the money comes directly out of my checking account - debit cards?
If you're talking about the checking account-style debit card
then I'd have to say I think they're great.  I use mine all over
instead of carrying cash or writing checks.  I have to use
it just as responsibly as I would a true credit card, no difference
there.  If the card is lost or stollen it carries the same liability
that I'm responsible for the first $50 and need to notify them
within 3 business days.  And I've never had it refused.

I thought they used to have higher liability limits (like $500 instead of
$50); glad if that's changed.  In my experience you often lose some
other benefits (e.g. the rule for credit card purchases that allows you to
withhold payment if the merchant delivers unsatisfactory goods and you
have attempted in good faith to resolve the problem, free extended
warranties, payment of insurance when renting cars, frequent flyer miles,
cash back, or those sorts of things) with debit cards, not to mention the
grace period of up to 60 days interest-free.

Some credit cards (like Discover, I think) have a deal where they
automatically deduct the full balance out of your checking account every
month, which makes them like a debit card except you keep the time
benefit (and cash-back bonus, which was $70 last year for me.)

Yeah, you're right, my debit card doesn't carry perks like you 
mentioned.  But then, my one and only credit card doesn't either,
except those granted by law to all credit card users.  Anyhow, I
really like using it when I'd otherwise be using cash, like for
groceries, gasoline, restaurants, etc.  I'd never charge those
items.  They're too far gone by the time the bill arrives.

Sigh.  Until last month, i had a credit card from a nice little bank 
that ran its own little credit card department - with people who really 
cared, i felt that i sort of knew, etc.  Last month the little bank 
sold its whole credit card business to some big, faceless nation-wide 
800-number-and-attitude company.  Yuck!  I want to go back.  Does 
anyone know of a nice little bank in the greater Ann Arbor area that 
has its own you-always-talk-to-us-and-we-care credit card department? 

Finance 7 <-> Consumer 104

I am getting my phone, electric and gas bills automatically deducted from my
checking account but the long distance provider (Qwest) would only waive the
$4.95/month fee if they could deduct charges from my credit card.  I gave them
my bank debit card number (VISA) and explained it was the same money as if
they deducted from the bank account, but they insisted on the debit card. 
This only made them more work on the one occasion when I used the debit card
in an ATM machine (they would not let me deposit a check at the counter
because it was for cars only during remodeling) and left it in the machine
and had to get a new number and call it in to them.  I tried to explain that
it was the same money, that if my checking account was empty they would not
get their money in either case.
        I prefer the debit card because I don't have to write a check every
month (it saves time and a stamp and I only normally use the card for the
phone bill anyway).

My M/C works fine at hundreds of businesses all over the country,
*except*, so far, Glens in Gaylord and a motel in Munising. I had
a go round with the bank and the card company about this, and I was
surprised that their computers had records of those places and times
where I attempted to use the card but it was rejected. However no one
could answer the question, why, if they knew a valid card was rejected
at a vendor, didn't they do something about it to correct the problem?

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