What's in your wallet?

I am using electronic transfers for most of my checking transactions. There is no delay. My bank and the payee generally show the same date. This has been speeded up in the last few months, even for paper checks. In many cases because banks no longer need send the paper check but use an image transferred electronically.

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I would suggest to get one widely-accepted card and carry it at least when traveling--they can be a life-saver should some unexpected problem arise when you're not at home...

I use them routinely to avoid writing many checks for individual items but pay the bill when it comes. I am able to avoid compulsive buying...shopping is not on my list of things I like to do...

yea me too .. sort of online checking with my bank, it's like having free envelopes and postage and real easy! Bill comes in mail, open it, connect to my account, schedule payment for a day before the due date and forget about it.

Some they pay direct transfer, some they mail with enough lead time to cover mail delivery - I leave that up to the bank and payee to decide - as far as I'm concerned its a mailed check which I get a cancelled copy of once per month with the statement. Can send a check to anybody in the US - they say allow five banking days max for it to reach their mailbox. Can't send a us dollars check out of the us though - Oh well- someday.

You have to be careful though, some credit card companies lay a trap for you. MBNA in particular.

I've had an account with them for about 10 years. I went to electronic payment since it was easier. Most times I carry no balance, but once in a while a big purchase can stretch a few months. A few months back, I had a payment due on a Monday. I sort of forgot about it until the Friday before. They require a 2 day advance notice on the electronic payments. I set up the payment, but it would not be accepted for posting until the following Tuesday, making me late. They also charged a late fee.

I called to complain stating that every other bill I pay on lines will post either the same day or the next. This is the 21st century and there is no reason for the delay except to trap people close tot he pay date. The reply was that I could have paid by phone ($15 charge for the privilege) or just pay sooner. As you can imagine, the account was closed that day.

I pay my electric bill, phone bill, cell phone bill, newspaper and have never encountered a problem. MBNA is hoping to trap suckers and get excessive late fees.

Wow, you must have a terribly boring sex life.........

Little badly worn picture of Jesus, who reminds me the real reason for the season.

Mine let out the little white smoke. No work no mo.

Now you said that, I remembered. Cash is in my wallet. The true reason for this season. Being truthful, think, if Christ was the central point of the holiday season, like Easter, then would it be as big a bash as it is today?

Early christians banned Christmas Celebration because the Holiday Spirt of the season has nothing to do with Christ.

Just keep the faith and the truth, and celebrating everyday as Christ's day, with or without cash in the wallet. :-P

Merry Christmas Everyone! Oh, keep spending! Make that Cash Flow!!!!!!

later,

tom @

I did the same thing with a "People's Bank", or something like that, a few years ago (when interest rates were much higher than they are now.) $11,000 balance, paid off in about a year -- I think I paid $1.20 in interest on that last payment because the 0% rate ended on the first of the month and I thought it ended at the end of the last month.

I never did use that card, but they kept sending me additional special offers and stuff for about a year before I eventually cancelled the account. The company couldn't care less that I had taken advantage of the deal.

BTW, if I had been a day late with any of those payments, the "default rate" would have kicked in immediately, and I think it was almost 30%. Plus a $29 late fee. That's what they were counting on, but I religously made my payments 2 weeks early (minimum payments for a while to bask in the 0%, then big payments to ammortize the loan over the remaining 7 or 8 months before the rate jumped.)

Best regards, Bob

You could have just used Next Month Online. They will postpone your payment until the next billing month. I use them whenever I get myself in to situations like that. If you want to check them out, their address is

I have been caught by that once or twice, and I call as soon as I get the next statement and ask them to waive the late fee. They always do

Bob

That is what really PO'd me. I've never been late with a payment, this one was a day late due to their two day deal and they would not waive the fee. So I cancelled the account.

I haven't been late with paying MBNA, so don't know how it goes.

I've had an account with Citi for years. I know some don't like them, but I've had luck with them. One time, I put the check in the mailbox to be picked up by the postal worker and found it days later in the snow. I called them and they waived the fee. I had to call them again about doing a phone transfer of funds or something, and the other person I talked to knew the whole story and we had a laugh. Also, I opened the account in only my name, and my husband had to fly back for his mother's funeral and needed to rent a car; they delivered his own card to him to our house the next day. The main thing I don't like about them is that when you call about something they often do this spiel to try to make me buy into other "services."