I Hate Using Credit Cards

[thedude2340]

I’ve never had a fraudulent charge on my credit cards. I guess I’m just lucky ?


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

That’s bad juju bro

[::: :::]

It's amazing how few people ask for a cash discount. Buying a couple hundred bucks worth of stuff from a mom and pop shop? Ask for it. If they say no, plop down the cc. But if they say yes, I'd rather have 5% off today than a 3% check 10 months later.

My mom/pop business doesn't accept cards currently exactly because of the 3% fee.
Few people want to tack that onto our fees & I'm not eating it when I'm not inflating fees to cover that cost.

3% onto multi-thousand dollar professional fees is stupid when it's the same charge if I were selling packs of gum. Owners are fine burying a few cents for the convenience of digital payment, but not hundreds for a single transaction. I guess some could see it as balancing with quickly earned points schemes, but still...seems exorbitant per transaction comparatively

[AdironRider]

Nice cover for being an architect.

Almost always aren't people paying for that with a check? Is it really a thing to run a card for that service?

[old_newguy]

Nice cover for being an architect.

Almost always aren't people paying for that with a check? Is it really a thing to run a card for that service?

If I can get 2% back it is.

[RootSkier]

Law firm here, we take credit cards because it is worthwhile to put certain people on automatic payment plans and take the 2% hit rather than spend time sending letters asking politely for checks, etc.

[XXX-er]

I used to be almost completley a cash guy cuz I was getting a lot of cash from the tennants, fisherman ect, if you looked at my bank statements it looked like I was dead but now days i'm 100 % visa and I never had a problem with CC fraud

back in the day a GF's teenage kid wrote the PIN on the back of the card, her friends dirtbag brother (known to police ) cleaned her out, was caught on camera at a gasbar ATM & she got the money back, sounds like a pretty dumb kid but she recently completed med school and is now making 250K a year, not sure if you want that girl working on you in the emerg

[dunfree]

Why not? I am in favor of capping credit card fees just like the EU has done. Why couldn't the US pass a similar law? Reason why it is hasn't happened is politicians are in bed with big business credit card companies. And in the end, we all suffer.

you need to think bigger. Overseas direct debit ban transfers are far cheaper, but the us banking system is expensive and antiquated (checks? Wtf?)

[Danno]

Here's another way credit card companies rip us off. For my Costco cashback visa, once a year I get a check that I can only redeem at Costco. They encourage you to use that check to pay for Costco purchases rather than get cashback. But if you use the voucher for Costco goods, you don't get the 1% cashback on that amount. It is smarter for the consumer to always pay using the credit card (so you get the 1%) and get the reward as cash. You have to go talk to customer service to get the amount in cash. 1% on a $300 voucher is pretty trivial, but it all adds up.

My REI VISA card does the same thing. They give you the voucher on month 1 that you can only use on REI purchases (but lose out on the 15% reward I get with the REI card). You have to wait a few months to covert the voucher to cash, and REI Visa knows most won't do this. My City double cash also plays this game. Rather than take cash they try to get me to use my reward on physical items (that I won't get the 2% reward if I go this route).

So you're bitching at all the sheeple who use credit cards and make everyone pay higher prices, yet you juggle at least three different rewards cards?

[highangle]

You have to call merchants because you either have re-occurring automatic billing or a card on file. Some convivences you wouldn't have the option of w/ cash. Maybe stop doing that and you'll have less to complain about?

Right. OP has card on file with random merchants he's forgotten about, and complains that his card get breached on a regular basis?

If one wants the convenience of automatic bill pay, it's much safer to set it up through the bank or CC company and keep control of one's own money, rather than give all one's numbers to various retailers, utilities, and SaaS providers and authorize them to make recurring charges.

[::: :::]

Nice cover for being an architect.

Almost always aren't people paying for that with a check? Is it really a thing to run a card for that service?

people do ask -- it's so common with many online retailers that it's just a modern convenience now

some of the gc's we work with just list the 3% fee in their contract and that pathway is available to owners who want it

i do pay one of my consultant engineers online via quickbooks -- he must have it built in to his fees

[Flounder]

It's amazing how few people ask for a cash discount.

I do ask, mostly for larger purchases where the retailer has a bigger incentive. New bike that’s coming is a good example. I also pay cash or check for businesses that I’d really like to see succeed. Big corporations in all in on the points. Amex for 6% on groceries, Costco for 4% on gas, and USAA for travel rewards.

[XXX-er]

On a vaca in Sayulita i met a bering sea fisherman who had run out of cash so had to borrow off his buddy the AirBnB host cuz he had no cards no credit of any kind

Buddy was 40ish had owned trucks/ houses/ sleds/ boats worked hard all his life but no cards, so I pointed out maybe he should get some cards/ establish credit and he looked at me like I had 2 heads

[altasnob]

So you're bitching at all the sheeple who use credit cards and make everyone pay higher prices, yet you juggle at least three different rewards cards?

Not at all. If you are not juggling cards you are an idiot leaving lots of money on the table. I'm bitching that apathetic and ignorant consumers (and voters) who have allowed the credit card industry to get out of control. Merchant services fees have remained unchanged in the last 20 years (or even increased) where as technological invocations should have brought these fees down. But as more and more people are using credit cards, and enjoying their annual free ticket to Hawaii, there is more and more pressure on merchants to give in to the credit card fees. Sure, credit cards offer something of value that the companies should be compensated for. But 3 to 5% of each transaction is unreasonable. Your perks aren't perks, it is just you trying to claw back some of that extra 3-5% that you are spending on everything, with the amount you are not able to claw back windfall profit for credit card companies.

The exact amount of the service fees depends on what merchant services the retailers use. Last I was looking into this, the ubiquitous Square used a flat amount (say 3.5%). But I found that Square, while simple and easy to use, was actually a rip off (at least for my small business). The cheaper merchant services charge a different fee for every single different transaction. The fee amount is based on the purchase amount and the credit rating of the purchaser (because each credit card transaction is actually a mini loan). Most of the cheapest merchant services also have a base monthly fee that retailers must pay. So even if everyone pays cash to try to help the retailer out, the retailer is still having to pay that monthly fee regardless of whether they make one credit card sale a month, or 1000. So paying cash does not help them out as much as you may think (unless they get rid of credit card payment completely).

Just a long winded way of saying I wish we had more regulation and fee caps of this industry like the EU.

[XXX-er]

do people who juggle cards and plans end up spending way more money to save/make money ?

so is it like why I don't have a costco member ship ?

[AdironRider]

If you are not juggling cards you are an idiot leaving lots of money on the table.

Yeah, this might not be the best advice ever posted on TGR.

[BCMtnHound]

Points.

As I am fond of telling my wife, no such thing as a free lunch. We play the points game against all the other sheep consumers but the real winner is the cc company.

We have a dividend card, and a crappy tire card. I preferred the real crappy tire money from the past. Still like cash for purchases under $100 but that aggravates the wife - perhaps an entry into the wife thread is in order?

Been lucky on the cc fraud stuff, maybe once or twice in the past 10yrs, and no cost to us in the end. And I give Apple, PayPal, and the Utilities companies nothing as it seems from friends that's where the biggest holes are other than being an idiot online.

[glademaster]

"The keys to happiness are low expectations and low overhead."

Still working on the former, but I've been pretty successful at the latter recently. No debt, cheap rent and a job with a housing stipend sure helps.

[Conundrum]

For any purchase over $500 (not sure why that is my number) and lower if I remember, I always ask for cash/debit discount. If they say no, I put my debit card away and use a CC. I get dirty looks sometimes. If I'm paying CC prices, I'll take the points.

[muted reborn]

I’ve never had a fraudulent charge on my credit cards. I guess I’m just lucky ?


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Now yer jinxed.

Do people keep their CC info online for autopayments and any online shop they happen to use? That may be why they are getting fraud charges constantly. And if they don’t use good passwords. I don’t store my CC info everywhere online (with some exceptions because I’m lazy) and I haven’t been hacked. Annnd now I’m jinxed too saying that, it’s science.

[BCMtnHound]

Ya, I don't trust any autosave web browser or other keeping my cc info. No online wallet with access to any funds. Every purchase I make gets a manual entry; I have one cc card memorized, along with both my debit card numbers for logging into online banking. And all my banking is done incognito to prevent anything being saved. I am starting to like the Ghostery web browser a lot too.

[PB]

For those that have been hacked: didi you discover the fraud, or did the cc company? I've been hacked 3 times: the first two times the cc company caught and notified me, the last time I caught it. When caught by the cc company, it was taken care of immediately, easy peasy; when I initiated it, ...... fuck me sideways. It took 3 months to straighten it out, with a lot of time getting bounced around in India. Curious to hear of similar or different experiences when reporting it yourself.

[jmedslc]

I have a notification sent to email or phone for every charge that hits. I’ve been hacked twice. Once they caught it and once I caught it. Both resolved very quickly on Southwest air Chase. I use a credit card (southwest, Rei or apple) for everything except mortgage. I mean free money - why not?

But I don’t “juggle cards”. I’ve got a 800+ score and not interested in the nickel and dime for a few Bucks at the expense of good credit.

[CarlMega]

Do people keep their CC info online for autopayments and any online shop they happen to use? .

If you are using a card on file solution, almost in all cases the card PAN data isn't stored with the merchant. The card is put on file w/ a processor who is adhering to PCI compliance in terms of encryption and storage. What the merchant gets is a token - basically a reference to the card so they can tell the processor to bill it.

[muted reborn]

If you are using a card on file solution, almost in all cases the card PAN data isn't stored with the merchant. The card is put on file w/ a processor who is adhering to PCI compliance in terms of encryption and storage. What the merchant gets is a token - basically a reference to the card so they can tell the processor to bill it.

But if they hack my password and UN to that site they can see my CC info if it’s stored with my profile, browsing as if they are me. If there isn’t any 2 factor authorization.

You clearly know more about all this than me though, ha.

[joeshek]

For those that have been hacked: didi you discover the fraud, or did the cc company? I've been hacked 3 times: the first two times the cc company caught and notified me, the last time I caught it. When caught by the cc company, it was taken care of immediately, easy peasy; when I initiated it, ...... fuck me sideways. It took 3 months to straighten it out, with a lot of time getting bounced around in India. Curious to hear of similar or different experiences when reporting it yourself.

Had it happen more than a handful of times over the years. Caught it both ways. Discover is awesome to work with, and had really good experiences with Chase's sapphire line of cards too...