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| "FU^%ING" Credit-Cards!!! |
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| DrG:
--- Quote from: Simon on June 26, 2020, 06:18:56 pm --- --- Quote from: rrinker on June 26, 2020, 05:18:58 pm --- That's how mine works. You need too be disciplined so as to not spend more than you can pay off, but since I also get cash rewards on my credit card, I buy everything on my card and just pay it off. I also earn interest on my checking account at my credit union, so leaving the money in the entire month until I pay off the credit card gains interest that way. I'm sure the credit card company hates me, I keep earning cash back rewards but I haven't paid a dime in interest or fees since I got the card. But like I said - it takes discipline to live like that, it's too tempting for some to just keep on charging right up to the limit of their card. --- End quote --- They charge the retailers a fee so they make money. They charge more than for debit cards. Several times I have had companies contact me including my own business bank to quote for card handling on my website and it can be as much as 20 quid or more a month and 8%!!!! which is mare than paypal or stripe. So the retailer takes this into account in their pricing, nothing is free and the end customer always pays. --- End quote --- Yes, you are right, the customer always pays, but not all customers pay the same and you can balance convenience and how much you pay and how. My favorite card lets me get cash advances at common places like grocery stores with NO cash advance fee or any kind of a bank fee. It is treated just as if I bought some bananas. It has literally eliminated the need for me to go to cash machines and play that "which network is my card and this machine on". Yeah, I get a 1% rebate on all purchases and a higher percentage on various places on various months. I once used the card to buy a US Savings Bond AND I got the 1% rebate (absolutely unheard of). I spoke with them at length before the transaction and they couldn't believe it either. Shortly thereafter the Government stopped offering payment for them via a CC. They are very customer-friendly about claims being filed. They offer a best price guarantee thing if you find an item cheaper. I bought a vacuum cleaner from a Dept. Store (that is now bankrupt). The online price was some $20 cheaper and advertised (and not with only good online). I discovered this when I went to buy it in the store. Even the clerks were surprised but could not charge me the lower price. I simply sent the lower price advert in a pdf with a claim form and the CC honored the difference in a credit. I ordered an expensive item through Amazon. Even though I was watching the stops on shipping day, it abruptly got damaged and was never delivered. Amazon wanted ME to cancel the order, which would produce a credit to my account, and then re-order. I said EFUUU, you entered the agreement, you honor it and I am not cancelling crap - give me my item...and I challenged the charge with the CC. They sent me the item which arrived the next day and I took an extra day before withdrawing the claim. For some reason after explaining to several Amazon employees in writing. the fundamentals of contractual agreements, they decided that I deserved a free multi-month Amazon Prime membership which they extended until it hit the if-then statement that said this guy isn't buying one. On a few occasions they have asked for verification on a large purchase - I am fine with that. It rarely happens anymore because I think my patterns are well understood programmatically. I don't carry a balance that incurs a finance charge ever. They don't care. Anybody who invests their money and carries credit card debt needs to ask themselves if their investments pay anywhere near what they are being charged for by the CC company, when they carry a balance. The answer is that they do not have safe investments that pay that much interest, period. The investment that the banks with the credit cards make is to borrow your money at something like 2% and then loan it out to you for something like 8%. Sweet angle if you can get it. I don't use debit cards because my understanding is that each transaction is like writing a check and I worried that in the case of fraud, there would be multiple claims that I would have to make. Not sure I am right about that, but I have no reason to bother with a debit card. The one fraudulent use case I remember was a different card and it basically got reversed using a phone menu and a simple form - that troubled me to realize how rampant the problem has become. Yeah CCs are a racket but with some research, you can get them to work well for you.... *knock* on wood. |
| Simon:
Well it's a case of what we want. Who do you think pays for all that insurance that you get on a credit card? The merchants fees that you pay. The retailer would still have a cost to deal with the cash as it needs people to sort it and bank it and that costs money so a small fee on a card is good for them as it's banked and documented without human paid input. Online is often cheaper. A friend saw a coat online that he liked. So he went to the shop to buy one only to find it £30 dearer. The manager assured him there was nothing ho could do about it, so he stood there in the shop, ordered it on his phone and collected a couple of days later. But the shops are a drag on the business, space to rent, people to pay, warehouses are cheap and run at optimum capacity, no one sitting around with nothing to do - ask amazon..... |
| DrG:
--- Quote from: Simon on June 26, 2020, 07:11:24 pm ---Well it's a case of what we want. Who do you think pays for all that insurance that you get on a credit card? The merchants fees that you pay. The retailer would still have a cost to deal with the cash as it needs people to sort it and bank it and that costs money so a small fee on a card is good for them as it's banked and documented without human paid input. Online is often cheaper. A friend saw a coat online that he liked. So he went to the shop to buy one only to find it £30 dearer. The manager assured him there was nothing ho could do about it, so he stood there in the shop, ordered it on his phone and collected a couple of days later. But the shops are a drag on the business, space to rent, people to pay, warehouses are cheap and run at optimum capacity, no one sitting around with nothing to do - ask amazon..... --- End quote --- Concur completely. I would only add that I have purchased at a brick and mortar place and simply offered to pay cash instead of a card if they cut the price - and they will sometimes do that (assuming a large purchase and a savvy clerk - like the owner). |
| Simon:
Well yes if it's a sensible size purchase and it's a small shop they won't put so much value on the time to handle cash, I'm thinking big shops like supermarkets that nationwide will be taking 1'000's per minute if not second. If they employed people to count all that money up and bank it they would find it more expensive that card levies as the bank will charge them to bank the cash as well. |
| Stray Electron:
--- Quote from: DrG on June 26, 2020, 07:21:35 pm --- Concur completely. I would only add that I have purchased at a brick and mortar place and simply offered to pay cash instead of a card if they cut the price - and they will sometimes do that (assuming a large purchase and a savvy clerk - like the owner). --- End quote --- The problem is that most shops are actually operated by sales droids that don't have the initiative or the authority to make a deal. That's another reason the brick and mortar stores are rapidly disappearing. |
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