Vent-I finally get why people are so upset about CC issues

[hercamore]

It only takes one wrong move to get in trouble with these cc companies, doesn't it.

I once sent a check for $14 to pay our $1400 bill accidently. We always pay our bills in full.

I was under stress at the time due to family matters, but I caught it in time and fed exed another check for the balance before the bill was due.

I just got a lenghtly letter from Visa regarding changes in our acct.. I better read it carefully.


herc

 

[mommy2taylor]

I noticed this too. We always pay our Disney bill in full from the prior month. For example, last month the satement was 732.00. I paid 740.00 because I knew we had charged other things after we received the bill so I just rounded it off. When the bill came this month, I had charged 800.00 and I plan to pay that in full when this bill is due. For the first time, I had an interest charge of $14.00 due to the new purchases or revolving credit line.

Guess what, I won't be using my Disney visa anymore. The small amount of rewards isn't worth the interest charge.

Crystal...look back on your statements..at some point you must not have paid the FULL amount of the bill, and that is why you are accruing interest. say you have a $500 bill, and you pay $499, then next month your bill is 301, you pay that in full, and the next month your bill is $600, and you pay that in full...you will pay interest charges on all those months. It's the way they get you. If you pay EACH BILL in FULL every month there are no finance charges....I think you messed up somewhere, like the OP. I also have a disney visa, and I just looked at the front and back of my statement, no interest...you might call them!!

 

[TheRatPack]

The new legislation is hitting us hard....credit limit decreases left and right Our Chase card limit was cut in 1/2 and just today our Target Visa was also slashed .....oh well, guess it's time to start cutting them up.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

Thanks for clearing that up. I think Dave offers one of the best ways to get out of debt so I knew who he is, but I did think the comment was directed at me (wasn't offended but was more like, "Wow, I thought I'd pretty much stressed that we were very responsible with CC's. What's up with that post"). You bring up a very good point though...even people who are really responsible with their credit can end up doing something stupid.

Enjoy your day! It's beautiful here this morning. Spring has finally sprung!

You know even someone who never uses a credit card can make a mistake. You could bounce a check by mistake. You could overdraw your account with auto payments. Those things can be costly too. I don't think the Dave Ramsey quote was fair. Does he also tell people not to use a checking account? I know a lot of people like him, but he just bugs me.

I had the revolving credit thing happen one time when I didn't pay in full by mistake. It happened to me over 10 years ago. I learned my lesson, and haven't done it again since. Now if they do away with the grace period I will no longer use credit. Until then.. I will continue as always.

 

[deerhart]

You know even someone who never uses a credit card can make a mistake. You could bounce a check by mistake. You could overdraw your account with auto payments. Those things can be costly too. I don't think the Dave Ramsey quote was fair. Does he also tell people not to use a checking account? I know a lot of people like him, but he just bugs me.

Last month I wasn't paying any attention that I had scheduled a payment on a bill very early in the month. A few weeks later, realized the bill was coming due, checked my online banking to see if I had paid it and saw no payment scheduled. So I paid it again *duh*. The scheduled payment was processing that day so I couldn't see it as it had been paid out, but hadn't registered in my account yet (because that processed at midnight).

 

[feezle]

Yeah, ok....will be discontinuing use of this card.

 

[Ka' eo]

I'm so irritated that I just had to vent to all of you budget conscious people. We have two CC's with balances. One is a Best Buy card with three years no interest so I pay 1/36th of the amount charged every month. Although I have the $$ to pay it in full I'd rather leave it in the bank. That's all well and good.

The other CC is our Disney Visa. We almost always have a promo rate for a trip so I just deduct the amount of the promo rate and pay the rest of the balance in full (and sometimes add a few hundred to whittle down the promo balances). I check my charges online to watch for fraudulent charges (someone bought a computer once with our card) but don't look at my statement until about a week before the payment is due.

I looked at the statement today to pay the bill and I was charged $19.68 interest on this bill. What the heck?! Well, unfortunately I added up the eligible promo charges (original amount) instead of the balances (current amount) and underpaid our card by $46.84. I was charged interest on $1600+ so I called to find out what that was all about.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who didn't realize this, but once you don't pay your balance in full you no longer have a grace period on your future charges. GRRRR! So I was charged interest for anything that was charged between the time the payment was received and the next billing statement was sent AND will be charged interest on my next statement from the time that billing cycle started until the date the payment was received on those previous purchases PLUS the new purchases that I've made. (I paid it instantly when I found all of this out).

So, lessons learned...

1. check my math
2. check my statement
3. and for everyone else that didn't know...if you never pay your balance in full you never get a grace period. Unfortunately I use the Disney Visa for everything so it always has a large revolving balance.

Hope others who didn't understand this will learn something too. Well, I've vented and now I'm off to enjoy some fresh air.

Hi, how frustrating for you! One thing you can do is sign up for automatic payments for the balance due. They compute it for you, there is never a mistake and you won't find yourself stuck like this. It has worked great for us.

However, we are moving over to American Express Blue Cash. The rewards are 5% after you spend $6,500 for the year. We use it for EVERYTHING, utilities, insurance, groceries, etc. If you charge 10-15k at least, it is a great alternative. I will miss my Bambi card. But with Amex, we'll have more money back which means more trips.

 

[ohlas]

You know even someone who never uses a credit card can make a mistake. You could bounce a check by mistake. You could overdraw your account with auto payments. Those things can be costly too. I don't think the Dave Ramsey quote was fair. Does he also tell people not to use a checking account? I know a lot of people like him, but he just bugs me.

I had the revolving credit thing happen one time when I didn't pay in full by mistake. It happened to me over 10 years ago. I learned my lesson, and haven't done it again since. Now if they do away with the grace period I will no longer use credit. Until then.. I will continue as always.

Well we are all human thats why we arent perfect... Darn it if you havent made a banking/ money error of somekind in your life you are in the small minority...

Got to love Dave and his one minded veiws on money management, but hey they work for him and it works for somepeople that follow him...

Credit cards arent evil but some people cannt control them selfs and yes if you play with fire you will get burnt, if you play with snakes they will bite you, etc etc,, if you use credit cards you are bound to pay interest sometime... that is just a fact,,, oh well it not that bad it just money you will get more right..

 

[Ava]

However, we are moving over to American Express Blue Cash. The rewards are 5% after you spend $6,500 for the year. We use it for EVERYTHING, utilities, insurance, groceries, etc. If you charge 10-15k at least, it is a great alternative. I will miss my Bambi card. But with Amex, we'll have more money back which means more trips.

I have an Amex Blue Cash but I haven't switched over to using it exclusively because you don't get the cash back until the end of the year and you only get it as a statement credit, you can't "cash out" for anything. Also the 5% is only on certain categories - groceries, gas, & one other I can't remember. Other categories are only 1.25% after you hit $6500. Before you hit $6500, it's 1% for those few categories and 0.5% for everything else. I like having rewards I can use throughout the year, and being able to get cash or other rewards, not just a statement credit. Also, we don't have a car so don't buy gas, which cuts down on our earning potential on cards where gas is one of the "preferred" categories.

Obviously though to each their own, different programs work for different people. I use my Disney Visa for most things, an Amazon Visa for certain categories that earn 2% & 3% (you can get different rewards through it now, not just Amazon certificates), and an Amtrak MC that I use to buy all our train tickets so we earn points towards free trips.

 

[Ka' eo]

I have an Amex Blue Cash but I haven't switched over to using it exclusively because you don't get the cash back until the end of the year and you only get it as a statement credit, you can't "cash out" for anything. Also the 5% is only on certain categories - groceries, gas, & one other I can't remember. Other categories are only 1.25% after you hit $6500. Before you hit $6500, it's 1% for those few categories and 0.5% for everything else. I like having rewards I can use throughout the year, and being able to get cash or other rewards, not just a statement credit. Also, we don't have a car so don't buy gas, which cuts down on our earning potential on cards where gas is one of the "preferred" categories.

Obviously though to each their own, different programs work for different people. I use my Disney Visa for most things, an Amazon Visa for certain categories that earn 2% & 3% (you can get different rewards through it now, not just Amazon certificates), and an Amtrak MC that I use to buy all our train tickets so we earn points towards free trips.

Yes, you are so right. We spend about $300 a month just in gas and with a family of 5 we spend alot on groceries too. We can also put our horrid 2,300 a year car insurance on the blue card. But you bring up an excellent point that different things work for different people.

Have you tried Discover?

 

[Ava]

Yes, you are so right. We spend about $300 a month just in gas and with a family of 5 we spend alot on groceries too. We can also put our horrid 2,300 a year car insurance on the blue card. But you bring up an excellent point that different things work for different people.

Have you tried Discover?

No, I get offers for Discover all the time though. I usually just throw them out because I feel like I have enough CCs already, but maybe I'll actually read it the next time one comes in the mail.

 

[Ka' eo]

No, I get offers for Discover all the time though. I usually just throw them out because I feel like I have enough CCs already, but maybe I'll actually read it the next time one comes in the mail.

Me too, but we finally opened one a month or so ago. It came but I have not activated it yet. It can be good, as they have 5% back on things each period. March is food and gas. April to June is clothing and other merch, I think. Summer is gas and travel.....I have to call them and get clarification on the limits. The language is confusing.

I did an analysis on some credit card site and it looked like Blue was best for us and our spending, Discover came in second. I will still keep my Visa, in case we don't see the rewards we anticipated on Amex, or Discover.

 

[MrsPete]

OP, Dave (a personal finance guy) is not an advocate of credit cards, to put it mildly. He often uses that quote when people who thought they wouldn't have any problems with credit cards end up with problems, usually by accident. Wasn't directed at you personally, sorry.

Credit cards are a tool -- they are neither good nor bad. It's how you use them that turns out to be good or bad.

My husband and I have two credit cards (and he has one from his office that's just for buying plane tickets for work, but I'm not counting that), and by using them we've had hundreds of dollars of reward points over the last decade. These was literally free money -- mostly in the form of restaurant gift cards.

I am aware of the pitfalls of credit cards, but we don't buy things that we wouldn't buy if we were paying cash, and we pay every month. We pay in full each month, and we're getting the good end of this deal.

 

[MrsPete]

You know even someone who never uses a credit card can make a mistake. You could bounce a check by mistake. You could overdraw your account with auto payments. Those things can be costly too. I don't think the Dave Ramsey quote was fair. Does he also tell people not to use a checking account? I know a lot of people like him, but he just bugs me.

I'm completely neutral on Dave Ramsy, but you're exactly right when you say that you can make a mistake with other forms of payment:

I'm thinking back to a time when we were dating, and we'd been out to dinner . . . it was a rather dark restaurant, and DH looked at the check, removed some bills from his wallet, left them on the table (enough for the tip too), and we left the restaurant. The waitress chased us out into the parking lot saying, "Sir, sir, I need another $10". I don't remember the check amount or what denominations of bills he'd left, but it was something like he'd looked at a $20 and left a $5 -- totally by accident; he is not a person to try to skip out on a check. He was mortified, tried to explain (she probably thought he was a liar), and I think he gave her all the money he had in embarassment. He still won't go back to that restaurant.

Mistakes happen, and sometimes they cost money. We try to minimize them, of course, but there's no need to beat yourself up about them.

I do find that using online banking makes it easier to avoid bill-paying mistakes.

 

[MrsPete]

I did an analysis on some credit card site and it looked like Blue was best for us and our spending, Discover came in second. I will still keep my Visa, in case we don't see the rewards we anticipated on Amex, or Discover.

Discover is our card of choice, especially since they've been running extra-reward point specials (perhaps it's an extra 5% back on hotels and movies this month, drug stores and gas next month). And I like the spending analysis pie-chart that I can view online.

But I also have a VISA because everyone doesn't take Discover, and it gives some pretty good rewards too.