Who uses credit cards for cash?

[rayvt]

We have two Fidelity cards - one for the auto-pays. 2% gets deposited from both into the same Fidelity account. Easy.

How do you get 2 card accounts?

And there is a redemption threshold of 5,000 points, so you have to charge $2500 on each card before you get the cashback.

 

[calmloki]

How do you get 2 card accounts?

And there is a redemption threshold of 5,000 points, so you have to charge $2500 on each card before you get the cashback.

We've had the Fidelity cards for years so details may be fuzzy, but I believe one card was a joint card and the other is in my name with the gal as an authorized user. I know we both have cards for both accounts with our respective names on the cards. They are from pre-Elan card servicer days and I think one was an Amex until Fidelity changed to Visa only. I don't worry about the points - they each build up and tip over into our Fidelity cash account when they hit the threshold, which might be every couple months depending on how hard we use them. Actually, I think each card hits the $50 point threshold independently before it dumps.

 

[jazz4cash]

We've had the Fidelity cards for years so details may be fuzzy, but I believe one card was a joint card and the other is in my name with the gal as an authorized user. I know we both have cards for both accounts with our respective names on the cards. They are from pre-Elan card servicer days and I think one was an Amex until Fidelity changed to Visa only. I don't worry about the points - they each build up and tip over into our Fidelity cash account when they hit the threshold, which might be every couple months depending on how hard we use them. Actually, I think each card hits the $50 point threshold independently before it dumps.

I'm not surprised they would offer 2 card accounts. I think they somehow think it's good for business to have more accounts even if the activity level is the same. It's surprising how many different store accounts are backed by Synchrony bank.

My question is how to tell them apart! I once had two cards with the same last four digits and got confused sometimes. I guess it's not a problem if you keep one at home and keep the other in a wallet/purse?

 

[calmloki]

....
My question is how to tell them apart! I once had two cards with the same last four digits and got confused sometimes. I guess it's not a problem if you keep one at home and keep the other in a wallet/purse?

Just so. They are both green Fidelity cards, but the one dedicated to auto-pays only stays in the drawer and NOT in the wallet where it might get used accidentally.

 

[meleana]

No on the cash advance- very bad idea, but yes on charging your monthly bills on the cash back cards and paying them in full each month.

 

[rrs26ja]

I try to pay for everything with my JetBlue Mastercard. I do not take any cash advances. I do this for a couple of reasons. The first is to gain miles as our number one expense is travel and vacations. Second, I use a program called Money Management through our credit union. This allows me to categorize all of my spending. I retired a little of a year ago, 07/01/18 and so far this is working out great for us.

 

[The HalfBreed]

I use my Credit card (they automatically bill it) and I take no cash advances.
So far, it works out well, and I pay my Cellphone, DirecTV, LA Fitness, Vonage, Netflix and AT&T Internet bill, as well as normal daily personal charges.
It removes the various date to pay as well as me having to remember, and I pay it once, in the beginning of the month.
It averages about $1,200 to as much as $2,000 per month using my Citi Double Cash card. I get about 2 or 3 $100 checks per year in return.

 

[GoodLife59]

I pay several monthly bills via CC. Watch out for utility companies, insurance companies, etc that may add-on a CC payment surcharge.

 

[Dtail]

I pay several monthly bills via CC. Watch out for utility companies, insurance companies, etc that may add-on a CC payment surcharge.

Yup, our utility company adds on $2.75 to the bill, but that is still smaller than the cash rewards of 2.625% we get back.

 

[morriss003]

Awe crap! I figured it was too good to be true. I didn't realize there were fees. I've never used cash advances on CC before. I thought it was just like swiping for a purchase. Well, scrap that idea!

There is only one bill of mine that charges extra for a credit card, and for that one I'll continue having it taken from my bank account.

And, COcheesehead, we're currently looking at different bonus point cards to find one with the best points. Right now we've got Chase Sapphire, which is okay, but there are better ones out there. Oh, and I only want Visa or Mastercard. I'm not interested in American Express. I had one in the past, and it seemed there were too many places that don't take it.

When you live in the middle of the Pacific Ocean you need a cc with airline miles. The best I've found is the Capital One Venture card.

 

[Old Microbiologist]

Living here in HUngary where things are still more primitive it is easier to use a credit card for bill payments. Here the "normal" way to pay anything is to pay it at the post office. Every bill has several ways to pay and many Hungarians do not have bank accounts at all so a nice little standardized yellow form is provided to pay at the Post Office. There are no fees for this kind of trans action. The normal alternative is cash transfer bank to bank which you can do online and can be set up for automatic payments. However, you cannot use a credit card and now the government has imposed a 1.5% fee on all bank transfers which is onerous at best. Because we don't like paying any taxes unnecessarily, we have switched everything to yellow cards and I pay once a month at the Post office using my Chase Card. I get 1% back and no fees. The other very nice thing is the Chase card (I use the Amazon one for this and the Sapphire card for travel expenses because of the $20k travel guarantee) uses the current Forex index without any fees so it is a far better exchange rate than you would get here at a bank or money exchange office here.

So, in a sense we are using our card for most transactions. One other thing here is the government has made a serious attempt at trying to develop ways to capture VAT for all sales. This ended up forcing every vendor to install credit card readers and cash registers which benefits me. They also use the newish NFC payment system so I use my watch to make payments by waving it at the reader. My Hungarian Debit card (K&H Bank) does the same but none of my American cards have NFC built in so I use Samsung Pay instead which is tied to the Chase card. For what all used to be cash payments and could avoid paying through no receipt sales. They have government shoppers running around trying to catch this and the penalties are severe so compliance is now excellent. Of course, if the government would reduce the insane 27% VAT to something more normal like Germany's 19% people would be less likely to try and avoid paying it. It could be worse though Belgium has a 35% VAT which is stupid as Luxemburg has a 17% VAT which is reduced to 14% for most things. The EU has a mandatory minimum 15% for all member countries. Luxemburg is right next door so many people just drive down to go shopping there.

 

[davidfin]

Never unless traveling outside of the USA. HEFTY fees for cash advance withdrawals in Europe but still preferable to exchanging greenbacks. I have started to make early multiple cc payments to minimize interest on cash advances that begin immediately.

 

[davidfin]

OTOH, we pay as much as possible with credit card for everything possible to maximize rewards. Use credit union debit card for occasional cash needs from member ATMs. No fees!

 

[davidfin]

One more thing. Been traveling in Italy Switzerland and Croatia. Lots of places permit Apple Pay. Very convenient.

 

[sengsational]

Interesting. I'd always figured that cards used for online purchases were most likely to be hacked, but maybe that's not true.

For those of you who were plagued by CC compromises in the pre-chip era, I'd say you might rethink the situation. Lots of compromises happened at card present transactions, like restaurants and gas station (skimmers). Someone would skim, make a look alike card (low tech to do), then use it. Now, with places requiring chip transactions, compromises in those scenarios are probably happening less often.

Never unless traveling outside of the USA. HEFTY fees for cash advance withdrawals in Europe but still preferable to exchanging greenbacks. I have started to make early multiple cc payments to minimize interest on cash advances that begin immediately.

I don't use the Visa debit card issued by my bank for much, but it seems to be the best way to get cash in various countries. There are often a few big bank brands that have ATMs prevalent, and I use those big brands. The debit card pull might have an ATM fee, but that's usually small compared to the cash advance fee of $10 plus 5% or something.

 

[Camas Lilly]

I dont think points are awarded on cash like purchases are, and yup the initial fees will make it a bad idea almost always.

also, with many cards there may be zero-days of grace period on cash advances.

I do the same thing, everything on the credit card except mortgage. Mine doesn't pay cash back for cash advances though.

 

[HFWR]

No to cash advances...

I pay for nearly everything with cc. Only use my debit card to replenish pocket cash at my cu’s (or its network) ATM.

 

[Drake3287]

And as for compromised credit cards, the multi-million dollar question is why don't credit card companies require a customer to enter a PIN every time they use a credit card just like they do getting cash from an ATM? Technology is already there and it would cut down on literally millions of illegal credit card transactions.

I was once told by the BofA Fraud Department that the amount the banks loose isn't large enough (billions) to overly worry about and that smaller credit card fraud cases like mine aren't even investigated. Apparently they treat it as the price of doing business.

Pretty sad.

 

[Nemo2]

And as for compromised credit cards, the multi-million dollar question is why don't credit card companies require a customer to enter a PIN every time they use a credit card just like they do getting cash from an ATM?

Hereabouts it's the norm to enter a PIN.

 

[davidfin]

It’s all about convenience of the user. Make it too hard customers will opt for alternative payment scheme.

 

[gwraigty]

And as for compromised credit cards, the multi-million dollar question is why don't credit card companies require a customer to enter a PIN every time they use a credit card just like they do getting cash from an ATM? Technology is already there and it would cut down on literally millions of illegal credit card transactions.

My Target CC requires a PIN. I seldom shop there anyway. Ironically, a new grocery store in my area has a rewards program that requires a PIN to have the discounts applied.

It’s all about convenience of the user. Make it too hard customers will opt for alternative payment scheme.

Probably true. At one store I used to shop at weekly, it wasn't uncommon to see elderly women swipe a debit card, then look at the cashier in confusion when they couldn't proceed without entering a PIN that they couldn't remember (or didn't realize they needed).

Cashier: "You need to enter your PIN."
Confused customer: "Can you help me with that? I don't know it."
Cashier: No, I can't. I don't know your PIN."
Confused customer: (Stares at cashier, as if cashier should be able to just push a button and make the transaction go through.)

I seldom have to go inside a post office, but I've seen the above scenario there, too. I can only imagine how many times a day this happens.

 

[Janet from FIRE Planet]

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