‘Twas a sad day for me when my apartment complex stopped accepting credit cards to pay rent; I’d have hit that $6500 in short order! :) Unfortunately I think Amex might view my main grocery store as a “club” so I’ll just get the 1.5% cash back instead of 5%… anyone have any suggestions on that one? I go to Shopper’s stores in the DC metro area.

I know I’d save more money by paying monthly instead of weekly but I just don’t trust myself that much yet!

More concerning are problems with debit/check cards and cashier mistakes. On 2 occasions I have had cashiers ring up my amount incorrectly when punching in the payment numbers. Once was a charge of $240 that was mistakenly rung up for $2400! On a debit card, that money is gone from the moment the cashier enters in the number, to the time the business processes the voided transaction (up to 2 weeks). I caught both mistakes immediately, but was still without the use of my money for a substantial amount of time. I no longer use debit cards for any purchases, preferring the consumer protection of AMEX.

Think about it. Do you really believe that Helix and those of us who pay our balances in full every month don’t know if we are paying interest of not? When you get the bill, all purchases are listed as well as any charges or interest. Do you seriously think we are stupid enough not to distinguish $0 for interest and charges fields from some number that is greater than 0. Do you think we are all idiots? Do you think we cannot add up the value of our purchases and compare it with the bill amount? I’ve been using credit cards for 20+ years, I’ve never paid a penny in interest. I have a math degree, do you really think I cannot add up the value of my purchases and compare it with the amount of the bill to see if I am not paying more than I should?

You don’t need to pay weekly either. I never do. Why would I? I want my full grace period worth of interest that my money earn in a bank. What I do instead is use automatic payment of the full balance. On the due date, the credit card issuer takes the full bill amount from my checking. Sometimes they take it a couple of days later, but since I signed the automatic payment agreement, it is their responsibility. Yes, I still verify that all charges are correct and that they took only the amount of purchases from my checking and not a penny more, even if they took their time with actually taking the money.

I am the one. Read the credit agreement. You pay interest on average daily balance over the month. If you pay it off every week this may make the interest they would charge you below the level which they have agreed is the lowest level of finance charge they will charge you.

Again, I have nothing against Amex Blue, I love the card and have had it longer than any other credit card I have (well over ten years).

But, that being said, I still find the charge cards are a better value, even with the annual fee. It all depends, however, on your personal financial situation. Just like socket wrenches, one size does not fit all.

Plus their other perks (free roadside assistance, purchase protection, warranty extension) are great too.

I pay off my credit cards every month. I also take advantage of any cash back by charging other monthly bills to my credit card, i.e. cell phone and cable bills. I would have to pay these bills anyway and I might as well get a small discount by charging them to my credit card.

I like using the card and look forward to the days when I’ll get 5% cash back on groceries and gas (you have to spend $6,500 first, so I guess I’m not entirely looking forward to it in that regard). I’ve found it easier to manage my finances putting regular expenditures on the Amex card and paying it off each week.

You do need to be careful, as with anything else, but I’m an excel nerd and keep a running day to day budget going so that helps.

Now, I am debt free and still use 2 cc’s exclusively. I put all the charges on them that I can. To date Citi has paid me, in the last 5 years, from $12-1500 and Chase, which I opened about 8-10 months ago, just sent me a check for $250. In all that time I have never paid them a cent of interest. So the above money was free. That gives me a mighty big incentive to pay the bill off each month. And, I am a stage in life where big purchases are not a normal event. I do have enough in savings to pay cash for a good used car and enough to take a trip or two each year.

Cc’s also make my life easier because I do not have to write dozens of checks and send them off. Each month I get a statement that tells me of all my purchase’s and a categorized statement at the end of the year.

As someone else pointed out, cc’s also protect your card. In January I had 4 purchases I did not make. My cc had never left my possession. I called Citi and they told me of 3 more charges pending, which were also not mine. They immediately cancelled my card and sent another one to me. I owed them nothing. They withdrew the charges and started an investigation. Lucky for me that I check my statements on the computer every 2-3 days, or daily now.

Talking about cutting your nose to spite your face.

Yes, many banks took risks, over-leveraged and are paying the price. Many of these banks are already out of business. Some like Citi are paying the price with governments’ owning 30% of the shares. Incidentally, why doesn’t government follow the laws as everyone else? They own 30% of the common shares which makes them a single largest shareholder, so they can exercise their voting rights to make Citi do what they want in a legal way – by bringing issues on the board of directors and voting their shares – and not like a communist-style government that imposes its will regardless of its voting power? But unlike with Citi, the government doesn’t own Wells Fargo and USB. Yes the government lent money to both of these companies – in the former case the government showed the money down Wells Fargo throat against its objections, but they don’t have the voting rights; they have preferred stock not common shares. Lending someone money doesn’t give you the right to dictate to them how to run their business, not legally and not unless it was written up in an original contract. Not as long as they pay the interest. You cannot attach conditions to the loans you made, several months after the fact. Do you really want to live in a society where contracts are meaningless, where the rules are changed at will? So put your rightful indignation aside and think about the law and the global picture. Do you want to live in a lawful society or a lawless one?

Not all banks that took TARP were over-leveraged or needed the money. Quite a few took TARP because Paulson told them to. Paulson wanted healthier banks to take this money to avoid stigma attached to it. So what exactly are these banks supposed to pay for? For helping out the government in September?

As to pushing credit cards as drug dealers – drugs are illegal, credit cards aren’t. Any business has a legal right to advertise and sell their product. As an intelligent consumer you can buy or not buy. College students are over 18. How about some personal responsibility?

Also, it annoys me when people talk about banks as a single person. Banks employ hundreds of thousands of people – IT support, tellers, etc. Bonks’ shareholders include everyone who has index funds in their 401K portfolio; banks bondholders are regular people too – any bond index in your 401K? When banks are hurting so do all of us.

Gas, hotels, and rental cars are the big three but I’m sure there are more. All three types of services can put a “hold” on money in your account. If your use a debit card that means that they have the right to hold money that you may or may not spend with them for the duration of your stay/use even if you do not end up spending that money (or, with gas, until the actual transaction amount is posted a certain amount is held). You may have that money but it is taken out of your checking account and then put back a few days after the final transactions clear.

On a credit card these types of charges typically show up as a $1 open/pending charge that the business can then adjust to the actual spending of the customer once the final transaction clears.