How To Pay Monthly Credit Card Bills

[Alan]

My CC (Capital One) now e-mails (and also sends me a text message) me after every charge, regardless of the amount. Last week, my card was hacked and the thief did a trial charge at the Apple Store for $0.10 and I was notified immediately. Stopped them dead in their tracks.

What a pain having your card details stolen, but excellent that you caught it immediately.

 

[kimcdougc]

I have all my bills on autopay. Pay all I can with the credit cards, then automatically pay in full every month. I still use the old check register to put all my purchases down in. I check my credit card accounts everyday via the internet.

I still like to get paper copies of my bills as I believe the companies sending them should be on the hook for postage and printing them for me...it costs to much to print those bills being as I am queen of cheap.

 

[aja8888]

What a pain having your card details stolen, but excellent that you caught it immediately.

Yes, another incident at a restaurant, I suspect. We had a large party at Buca De Beppo for my DW and that was the only time my card left my hand in recent memory (paying the large bill). Next morning, the $0.10 charge appeared. I notified the store manager and he said he would look into it. Who knows....

 

[Meadbh]

Yes, another incident at a restaurant, I suspect. We had a large party at Buca De Beppo for my DW and that was the only time my card left my hand in recent memory (paying the large bill). Next morning, the $0.10 charge appeared. I notified the store manager and he said he would look into it. Who knows....

When the US gets chip and pin cards, you can look forward to having the point of sale terminal brought to your table.

 

[Alan]

When the US gets chip and pin cards, you can look forward to having the point of sale terminal brought to your table.

Back in 2010 in Toronto we ate at a restaurant where the waitress brought a hand-held swipe terminal to our table. The US just does not like change and I suspect that even when they have CHIP and PIN that they won't actually advance onto wireless hand-held terminals as well, so I expect I'll still be scratching off the CVV code on the back of the card for when it leaves my sight. At least thieves won't be able to scan the card to store the details and will have to resort to old school writing down of numbers.

 

[aja8888]

When the US gets chip and pin cards, you can look forward to having the point of sale terminal brought to your table.

We are starting to get the cards (chip and signature, not pin yet), but most of the retailers have not put in the readers yet. And like Alan stated, they will certainly be slow with wireless card readers,

 

[Meadbh]

We are starting to get the cards (chip and signature, not pin yet), but most of the retailers have not put in the readers yet. And like Alan stated, they will certainly be slow with wireless card readers,

Around these parts I can also wave my credit card at the POS terminal for purchases less than $50, provided the retailer has the latest version. This does not make me feel more secure. A thief could wave my credit card just as well as I can.

 

[athena53]

I like to keep a close eye on the bills. I get paper statements and pay electronically from my bank's online payment center to the creditor. The only auto-pay I have is my mortgage. I do have one auto-pay directed to a rewards card. I have had several screw-ups with ACH which snowballed.


Maybe if I travelled for a few months at a time I would consider auto bill pay.

Yeah, I'm a control freak. We have 3 credit cards, all due within a week of each other. I download all the transactions, make sure there are no suspicious ones, and then use my bank's on-line bill-pay, entering each manually. Other than the time I accidentally sent both Amex payments to my corporate card instead of routing one to my personal card, there have been no problems. And, since I'm retired, the corporate card no longer exists!

 

[Danmar]

Our cards have been hacked several times. Usually after an Internet purchase but sometimes a restaurant charge. Once after a purchase at the airport in Montego Bay. Less so now with the hand held terminals. That's why we check our cards every day. The crooks almost always charge a trivial amount through first to test the card before the big amounts hit. If you check every day you can stop them quick. You will need a new card in any event. Use a separate CC for Internet purchases so you don't have to change all your auto pays.

 

[meierlde]

When the US gets chip and pin cards, you can look forward to having the point of sale terminal brought to your table.

Actually Chillis has put old fashioned readers at each table. The alternative many restaurants adopt is to have folks visit the cashier on the way out, it seems simpler to do it this way.

 

[W2R]

Yes, another incident at a restaurant, I suspect. We had a large party at Buca De Beppo for my DW and that was the only time my card left my hand in recent memory (paying the large bill). Next morning, the $0.10 charge appeared. I notified the store manager and he said he would look into it. Who knows....

I don't know if it helps us or not, but even though we eat at restaurants every day we always pay in cash and this includes a generous tip. The wait staff is so underpaid, that a credit card just seems like it could present too much temptation to some.

I guess that's always an option. It might be a little awkward when paying a large bill for a large party as in your situation, though.

 

[aja8888]

I don't know if it helps us or not, but even though we eat at restaurants every day we always pay in cash and this includes a generous tip. The wait staff is so underpaid, that a credit card just seems like it could present too much temptation to some.

I guess that's always an option. It might be a little awkward when paying a large bill for a large party as in your situation, though.

Yes, cash is the answer until the US gets wireless card readers. I also get restaurant gift cards and use those when paying the bill. For our birthday party, the bill was over $1K so the card was the only way I could handle it. Live and learn. Goes to show how much theft is going on.

 

[rodi]

We are starting to get the cards (chip and signature, not pin yet), but most of the retailers have not put in the readers yet. And like Alan stated, they will certainly be slow with wireless card readers,

Upgrades are happening. I took my son to goodwill to supplement his back to school wardrobe and they had a shiny new chip card reader. She tried to swipe my card and the reader told her to insert it instead. I was only the second person she'd had to do the chip reading. But if goodwill can get chip card readers the trend is coming.

 

[Amethyst]

There are times when control-freakery is called for, and this is one of them!

It does take a bit of discipline to keep track of multiple "rewards" cards, that all have slightly different terms/billing cycles. I made a little chart that I consult every few days, to be sure I pay everything on time while meeting the various "rewards" terms. Between that, and periodically checking our balances on the various CC web sites, I've caught those sneaky $.10 "fraud" charges a couple of times, and once caught a large charge for air fare.

Yeah, I'm a control freak. We have 3 credit cards, all due within a week of each other.

 

[grasshopper]

We decided to try a new restaurant, TripAdvisor said the food was great, but pay cash folks are getting skimmed. Useful information for a change.

 

[kcowan]

In Milan we were at a sidewalk cafe that the tableside reader would not accept my PIN. Turned out that they needed a new battery for the terminal. But by then the bank had locked the card. Luckily my DW partner card still works.

My card is only useful for online and most hotel purchases.

 

[kcowan]

Around these parts I can also wave my credit card at the POS terminal for purchases less than $50, provided the retailer has the latest version. This does not make me feel more secure. A thief could wave my credit card just as well as I can.

I believe the limit is $100, at least at the liquor store. And the crooks can read the RFID chip through cloth. No need to wave it!