On Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:16:30 +0100, Phil Cook wrote:

>> You can with some cards in the US as well.  We do autopay for nearly
>> everything (but we also look at the bills closely, too)
> 
> Well yeah, I don't understand people who don't bother.

I think it's a matter of trust - I can understand that.  It's also (for 
us) a matter of checking the bills out carefully before autopay goes 
through.  Some things, though, like the mortgage payment, we know the 
amount that it should be so if it varies that raises a red flag for us.  
(And it hasn't varied).

>> Got hung up *once* with this because the payment I put in ended up
>> being less than the minimum (had to get the brakes done on the car -
>> and we used the wrong card) and I got a call from their collections
>> department the *day* after the bill was due.  We got them to reverse
>> the late fee and reinstate the 0% transfer balance, but it was really
>> surprising they turned it over to collections so quickly.  Discover
>> Financial apparently is struggling.
> 
> Well the setup on my credit card is that the full amount is taken
> automatically unless I change it, but I could set it up to take the
> minimum only; again unless I change it. The only account I then have to
> monitor money-wise is my bank-account.

Yeah, if we were to do that, we'd bounce payments at the moment.  My 
parents worked things like you do, though - pay it off every month.  
AFAIK, my mom still does that.

>> (Of course you wouldn't know anything about them in the UK, since
>> virtually nobody accepts them over there)
> 
> Who now? :-) It's Visa and Mastercard here (for credit cards), unless
> it's somewhere fancy that'll accept Amex. Heh read a piece from Amex
> justifying their higher-then-others transaction charges, people with
> Amex spend more so you make more profit then the el-cheapo cards; to put
> it another way rich people use Amex so let them do so at your store. To
> put it yet another way if you see a store accepting Amex expect all the
> prices to be double :-P

Yeah, like I said. :-)

We did get an Amex card - I use it to the tune of a whopping $11.99 per 
month for a credit monitoring service (which is handy as well, because 
that tells me if anything hokey goes on in my accounts).  But the reason 
we got it was so we could establish some form of credit that would be 
accepted when we move to the UK.  Our Visa/Mastercard cards are usable 
over there, sure, but from the research my wife did, if we want to open a 
bank account, it's easier if we have an Amex account to show good payment 
history.  I don't recall all the details on why this worked better, 
though.

Jim

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