How many CC....

[Renate_do]

and bank accounts do you have.

While reading the threads here on the budget board some of you mentioned more than one CC or Bank account.

Here at Germany I feel very "exotic" to have more than one CC and more than one bankaccount. (beside one for checking and one for saving).

How do you usually get your payments?
Here you get it either in the middle of the month or at the end of the month by assignment to your account.

How do you usually pay your bills?
Here it is very usual that the companies charges your account some days after sending you the bill. You cannot pay bills with CC.

Greets Renate

 

[bdcp]

We have two checking and two savings plus a checking acct for my DH's travel expenses for work. We have 3 cc's. We owe nothing on one of them and don't use it. It's for emergency use only. Our salaries are deposited automatically into our accounts every two weeks. It works out that we are paid on alternate weeks so we have deposits every week. We pay our bills with checks and automatic withdrawals. If someone is using a cc to pay monthly bills they're probably in fianancial trouble and shifting debt around. People who say they charge everything (to earn frequent flier miles or other benefits/rewards) mean they're paying for groceries, gasoline, clothing, etc with cc's, not their household monthly bills like electric, phone, etc.

I know people who have 4 or 5 bank accounts and 5 or more cc's. Other's have one account for checking, one for savings and one cc. It's just personal preference.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

I'm diversifying my banking

I just opened a 3rd checking account. I was going to close my account at one bank because of the fee per use/annual fee for a debit card, but they took away the fees. I wasn't using the card often enough to warrant keeping it so I canceled it earlier this year. I went in to close the account a few weeks ago and they waived the fees, so I kept it open. This is the account that I have linked to ebay and PayPal and connected to an online account and is in my name soley.

We have one joint checking account and my new personal account at another bank. The joint account is linked to another online bank account and is used for paying bills, most of which I pay online with the debit card or direct debit from our checking account. I will probably link the new account (my name only, opened prior to closing the other one) to my online bank account to earn interest.

We have one major credit card that DH opened last year and I have a handful of department store cards, each with limits of $500 or less. I'm working at paying all of them off.

 

[LorieR]

We have two checking accounts and three savings accounts. I do pay any monthly bill I am able to with my credit card (eg. cable, phone, electric, gas, insurance, etc.) We are not having financial problems - I am using my Disney Visa and earning more rewards dollars that way! I pay all credit card balances off in full at the end of the month!

Lorie

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I have almost all of my accounts with one bank.

Primary Checking - general use
Secondary Checking - Used for automatic payments such as mortgage
Primary Savings - Money Market rate
Secondary Savings - Linked to PayPal and swept often to Primary Savings
Major Credit Card - not used much as no side benefits
Home Mortgage
HELOC - Balance zero, set up at home purchase for no additional fees
General Line of Credit - Zero Balance
Overdraft Line of Credit - Zero Balance

In addition, I have American Express with Membership Rewards, another major credit card tied to a hotel chain affinity program, and a card from Office Depot to help keep track of business related expenses.

 

[etwinchester]

Here's the list...

Checking #1 - Personal
Checking #2 - Mary Kay Business
Checking #3 - Real Estate Business
Checking #4 - Auto Repair Business
Checking #5 - ebay, Paypal, misc....
Checking #6 - Credit Union (only keep open incase I want a loan thru them)

Savings #1 - Personal
Savings #2 - ING
(Acct. 1 - Disney, Acct. 2 - Christmas, Acct. 3- Yearly Vacations)

This list does not include DD's account or retirement account.

I also have 5 credit card accounts. 2 are closed and I'm paying them off (debt snowballing). Then there are 3 that have small balances. Once I get them paid off, I will probably cancel 1 of them and just keep 2 on hand. One, which is Disney, for the rewards and pay off each month. The other has a very low % and I'd keep it for emergencies.

 

[disneysteve]

We have:
1 checking account
1 money market account with check writing
1 non-retirement brokerage account
1 college savings account (529)
3 non-retirement mutual fund accounts
4 major reward credit cards, 2 of which we use regularly
several IRA accounts between DW and I

Most of our regular recurring bills are paid automatically, either by direct withdrawal from our checking account or by billing one of our credit cards. I try to charge every bill I possibly can to maximize rewards earned.

 

[beattyfamily]

and bank accounts do you have.

While reading the threads here on the budget board some of you mentioned more than one CC or Bank account.

Here at Germany I feel very "exotic" to have more than one CC and more than one bankaccount. (beside one for checking and one for saving).

How do you usually get your payments?
Here you get it either in the middle of the month or at the end of the month by assignment to your account.

How do you usually pay your bills?
Here it is very usual that the companies charges your account some days after sending you the bill. You cannot pay bills with CC.

Greets Renate

We had one CC for years until the came out with the Disney Visa. I got the Disney Visa which I only use for our vacations and pay it off upon our return. I enjoy the rewards and benefits.

We have 4 checking accounts and 7 savings accounts (including my 2 DDs accounts).

My DH gets paid with a check and deposits it each Monday.

We pay most of our bills online through our bank. There are a couple we pay automatically with our main CC like phone, electric and cable.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

we have no CC
if we cant pay $$ we dont buy it

 

[got2lovedisney]

1 - personal checking
1 - joint checking with BF
1 - ING savings
2 - Savings for DD
1 - joint ING with Mom with the $ from refinancing the house to be used for house repairs

Hmmm...credit cards? Let me think...Disney VISA, Universal Studios Mastercard, 2 Discovercards, JCP Mastercard, Sears Mastercard, AX Blue, Rooms to go, Brandsmart, The Disney Credit Card (I'm sure I've forgotten something)

I get paid 15th & 30th of the month, direct deposit.

I have my mortgage and Florida Prepaid College deducted from my checking automatically. I pay my electricity, water/garbage and Southern Bell by check. Everything else is including cable/internet, cellphones, car insurance/tag renewal is paid by credit card, not because I'm in finanicial trouble, but because as others have mentioned, to maximize reward$/cashback bonus$.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

We have:

1 joint checking acct.
1 savings acct in my name
1 savings acct in DH name
I'm debt snowballing so we have 2 major credit cards that will be paid off in 4 months, and a military store cc that we will be paying off and then keeping (no interest for military clothing purchases that often pop up with no warning!)

DH gets paid direct deposit on the 1st and the 15th of every month.

Our student loans and insurance is automatically withdrawn from our checking acct. each month. All of our other bills I pay through my banks online billpay or with my debit card.

 

[patsal]

Three checking
Four Savings (not including the children's accounts)
Four CC--none carrying balances

My job does not have Direct Deposit so I have to still do some banking--everyother week. DH's check is Direct Deposited and usually we do not get paid the same week--he gets paid bi-monthly on the same dates, I get paid bi-weekly so occasionally the "dates" fall in the same week.

I have CC accounts set up with payment dates that coincide with DH's checks--I only get paid 10 months out of the year since I am a teacher and we are paid "seasonally" and don't want to worry that $$ isn't available to pay the bills.

 

[ladyelle]

I have been thinking of opening a separate checking account for ebay. I was going to use a different bank than my primary checking account and was wondering what others have done for a side business.

 

[branv]

One checking for debit and direct deposit
One checking for bill pay
One savings account for...well, savings
One etrade account & one Fidelity account (which I count as savings accounts)

After getting our Disney card last night, we now have 4. We never use them to accrue debt, however, and we have to have them for business travel.

We have an AMEX, well, just b/c we really like AMEX. Our AMEX is linked into our Costco membership, SO we don't have to pay an AMEX annual fee, just our usual annual Costco membership.

We have one with miles, and we use that one for purchases we already have cash to pay for (i.e. to get miles). Using a credit card gives us an added bonus b/c we like to use it to purchase items we think we'll want the extended warrenty protection for (which has already saved me $300 when a camera broke a month outside of its warrenty) and to purchase online b/c I refuse to risk using my debit card. I know banks will now offer protection, but there's no telling how long it will take to clear that up and to get your money back.

And now of course the Disney one, which we'll use like the miles one and to take advantage of any extras like rebates and offers (the meet & greet).

Our last one is some random department store one my DH has had since he was 19 I think we used it once to buy a camcorder from the store b/c the credit card offered a 10% discount. I really don't know why he hasn't cancelled that one yet.

 

[disneysteve]

I have been thinking of opening a separate checking account for ebay. I was going to use a different bank than my primary checking account and was wondering what others have done for a side business.

When I was ebaying big time ($1000 or more per month in sales), I checked with my accountant and he said there was no reason I needed a separate account as long as I kept accurate records. So my ebay money went into our regular checking account and I kept a detailed ledger so at tax time I could separate out the ebay transactions from the personal ones. Never had a problem doing it that way.

 

[etwinchester]

I keep my ebay seperate just for security. Especially now that the ebay rules will be changing. If you accept Paypal, you MUST accept credit cards (starting 8/12).

I want to link a bank account to transfer the funds to, which will allow me access to my money sooner. I don't like the idea of linking my personal checking account just incase a buyer files any kind of complaint with Paypal. Thus, they will freeze or withdraw funds from your account. I feel more comfortable keeping it in a seperate account.

As far as keeping good records, I use Quicken for that and assign everything to a category. With my Mary Kay, Real Estate, Auto Repair and eBay business, it makes everything much easier for our accountant & me. I have categories/sub-categories and print a report for each account at the end of the year...

 

[ladyelle]

I should have added the main reason I was inquiring of a separate checking account for ebay is for security. I am a former accountant so I should be able to keep track of everything.
Thanks for your help.

 

[CarolA]

Well since I have been in the middle of a move I have had two savings and two checking accounts. It has been driving me crazy. The TN account got closed TODAY!

I have large numbers of credit cards LOL! Very few of them ever get used.... I just never get around to cancelling them.

I have never gotten into paying bills by credit card. I just use ebill and pay them on line.

 

[Chicago526]

2 major credit cards, 3 department store credit cards, 2 checking, 1 savings. 1 majore cc is due on the 18th, the other the last day of the month. The 3 department store cards almost seem random, because I swear they change every month (they don't but it seems that way, I think they are all due around the 15th or so).

I'm working on NO credit cards, once I pay down the debt I'm closing them all then opening a Disney credit card to earn money for Disney vacations, but I'll pay it off at the end of each month. No more paying stupid interest for me!

 

[etwinchester]

No more paying stupid interest for me!

CHEERS TO THAT !!!

I'm with you...