simplifying credit cards?

[Koolau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skipro33 I would have simply called the number on the back of the card and ask for my credit to be increased for that card. I've done that in the past without any issues and takes place immediately or next day, can't remember.

We have since done that more than once, but as I recall, we tried that at the time. For some reason - keep in mind we're talking 35 years ago - we were unsuccessful. It may be they reviewed our credit "worthiness" which had recently been "strained" by a huge (for us) mortgage taken out on our second property (a Hawaiian rental.) In any case, the second card (and mom) came through for us. YMMV

[Montecfo]

Not sure why this discussion is ongoing after W2R played the "I am 72" card, effectively ending any questions on this topic.

More seriously, I thought I have 2 cards, the Costco Visa which is used for everything and then a seldom used backup.

But I must confess here and now. We also have debit cards which are also our ATM cards (anyone remember "cash"?). We also have one department store card and sometimes 2 or 3. We also have one or more other cards each of which was used to get a discount on a major purchase. And we have now cancelled our points cards with 2 airlines, which we churned to get bonus miles and boarding privileges. I'm lifetime Advantage Gold and have a bunch of miles at most airlines and use bonus miles to fill in.

But I don't carry any of these cards except the Visa, the backup and the ATM debit card. DW may carry the store cards, she has a purse. I already have the George Costanza wallet though it's gone on a diet. The other cards and a bunch of things like lapsed college ID, lapsed drivers license from another state and various reward cards are rubber banded together in a drawer in my desk for ease of responding to the question "Do we have a card from store xyz?". Oh, that reminds me, I wonder if the ABC store issues a credit card? They should at least have a loyalty card.

So there I confessed. Can someone absolve me?

[Calpurnia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustic23 Not really sure how much more secure Apple Pay is than the standard chip credit card.

Apple Pay is interesting in that it uses a unique one-time-use transaction code, so your actual card number is never shared with merchants.

[FANOFJESUS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset More cards is less risk. As said before if a card gets stolen/compromised, just stop using it which is no problem since I have others. Phone CC company as it's their "risk" not mine. I don't have any statements mailed to me, so no mail risk at all. Again it's not my risk it's the CC "risk". I never buy anything with a debit card as that is super risky. Only use my debit for ATM actions.

Take the case where that card in the safe was used. Are you going to be on the look out for that I will be honest I would have missed that by a mile. No doubt hurting my credit score. It might be the CC risk but I think you are on the hook to report it in a timely manner. My thinking on credit cards is like W2R. I am not 72 but still set in my ways.

[Yoheadden]

I actually just canceled one yesterday. Admittingly, it was because I have a new cash back card with better rewards, so it was more of an upgrade. That keeps our total to 2.

I think it really depends upon your buying habits. If you frequent a store or Amazon often, then it may make sense to have there card. If you "normally" travel often, then a hotel or airline card may make sense.

[jollystomper]

We use 4 cards. Capital One primarily for travel, Chase Amazon for each of us, and shared Chase Freedom. These gives us a good balance of rewards for our needs. We choose not to expend the effort of chasing down various credit offers and dealing with managing them. We do have a credit card from our credit union but we use that maybe once every two years.

The Chase service has been outstanding, both in terms of contacting us ASAP about potential fraudulent transactions and managing 2 stolen number issues with minimal impact to us.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FANOFJESUS Take the case where that card in the safe was used. Are you going to be on the look out for that I will be honest I would have missed that by a mile. No doubt hurting my credit score. It might be the CC risk but I think you are on the hook to report it in a timely manner. My thinking on credit cards is like W2R. I am not 72 but still set in my ways.

Sure, I get emailed about statements, no card present charges, etc. I’d find out pretty quickly away.

[rk911]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FANOFJESUS Take the case where that card in the safe was used. Are you going to be on the look out for that I will be honest I would have missed that by a mile. No doubt hurting my credit score. It might be the CC risk but I think you are on the hook to report it in a timely manner. My thinking on credit cards is like W2R. I am not 72 but still set in my ways.

our "emergency backup" card is in our safe. we have alerts on all of our crediot cards as well as the debit card, checking acct and money market accounts set to e-mail and text us for any transactions >$1.

[FANOFJESUS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 Sure, I get emailed about statements, no card present charges, etc. I’d find out pretty quickly away.

To each his own. I'll take the lazy way out with one card.

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FANOFJESUS To each his own. I'll take the lazy way out with one card.

Sure, no problem, everyone does what they are comfortable doing.
I was just explaining how I do or view my CC.

One does have to notify within 30/60 days of the statement date or could be on the hook for the $$.

Due to alerts, which I set for all CC and Bank accounts.

I had the case of a card not being used for a year, and suddenly I had a bill of ~$1,100. I still had the CC, so they just made a fake card with the numbers.
They then spent it in another state, at 2 gas stations, in 1 day
My purchasing history with that card was to use it at 1 store as it was a Menards card.

I phoned the CC company, pointed out the false charges and after a couple of emails, and a letter. I was off the hook.
I actually cancelled that CC, as their CC security is lousy, and I wasn't using it anyway as it was just a store card.

[FANOFJESUS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset Sure, no problem, everyone does what they are comfortable doing. I was just explaining how I do or view my CC. One does have to notify within 30/60 days of the statement date or could be on the hook for the $$. Due to alerts, which I set for all CC and Bank accounts. I had the case of a card not being used for a year, and suddenly I had a bill of ~$1,100. I still had the CC, so they just made a fake card with the numbers. They then spent it in another state, at 2 gas stations, in 1 day My purchasing history with that card was to use it at 1 store as it was a Menards card. I phoned the CC company, pointed out the false charges and after a couple of emails, and a letter. I was off the hook. I actually cancelled that CC, as their CC security is lousy, and I wasn't using it anyway as it was just a store card.

See crazy stuff can happen with them. One time someone spent about $500 of one of my cards in England. I have never been to England. Crazy The credit card company covered it but I still found it scary. I guess the reason I want one card is so I can keep an close eye on it. I had a dozen of them when I was 21. That was before the internet I found them to be a pain. I have only wanted one ever since.

[audreyh1]

Compromised credit cards don’t bother me at all. I’m not responsible. It happens, fortunately not often at all. It is usually caught very quickly. Meanwhile I have backup and am not inconvenienced.

[Dtail]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 Compromised credit cards don’t bother me at all. I’m not responsible. It happens, fortunately not often at all. It is usually caught very quickly. Meanwhile I have backup and am not inconvenienced.

Same here and also why I would never use a debit card except for a BOA ATM.

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FANOFJESUS See crazy stuff can happen with them. One time someone spent about $500 of one of my cards in England. I have never been to England. Crazy The credit card company covered it but I still found it scary. I guess the reason I want one card is so I can keep an close eye on it. I had a dozen of them when I was 21. That was before the internet I found them to be a pain. I have only wanted one ever since.

Why is that crazy stuff? How different is that from printing off a check with your information on it, signing it, and using it to buy something? Easy info to get, pretty much unstoppable. And just like with the CC, not your problem. You just would have to notify the bank that it was fraud and they'd take it from there. And with all the cards I have I have only had fraud type issues once every 5 or so years. And I use my cards for everything, so plenty of opportunity. Those issues are an annoyance, but nothing more.

I'm sure having a dozen or so cards was a pain pre-internet. Lots of paper. But there is the internet, and seriously, I can check 25 card statements in less than an hour. Most of them aren't used so it's a quick "sign on, check for $0 balance, sign off" process. As a matter of fact, tonight is my credit card processing night. I'll start watching The Stand and I'll be finished before the show ends.

So, sure. If you only want one card, drive on. But it's not a big deal, or a big problem.

[tulak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 Compromised credit cards don’t bother me at all. I’m not responsible. It happens, fortunately not often at all. It is usually caught very quickly. Meanwhile I have backup and am not inconvenienced.

Happened to me a couple of weeks ago on my Fidelity card. They sent me a fraud alert text that somebody bought $120 worth of pizza in Missouri. I responded that it wasn’t me, they froze my card and sent me new cards which I had a couple of days later. A bit of hassle to change recurring payments, but other than that, not a big deal.

[ransil]

I had one at one time, it was compromised and I was with out for a few days waiting on new ones.

I now carry 2 visa and MC from 2 different sources, I figure if the network of one is compromised the other will be ok.

[Koolau]

90 degrees to the discussion, but since CC fraud has come up (we've probably all had at least one example - we've had 3 or 4) it is my humble opinion that the CC companies don't do much to PURSUE the fraudsters. I can kind of see their reasoning. WE actually (cumulatively) pay for the fraud that the CC companies so "kindly" forgive. We pay with higher merchant prices (they have to cover the 2 to 3 percent cost for us using the CC at their store.) We pay high CC interest rates (well most of US here don't but...). So to the CC companies, it's (SWAG here) 0.1% additional cost of doing business.

Now, if they went after every fraudster, they'd catch 10% of them. But when was the last time you heard of a a CC fraudster being caught. Yeah, they guy who defrauds 20K, maybe, but not the 19 year old who buys pizza with your CC number. So, CC fraud will continue and everyone is "okay" with it.

SO, end of rant. Now returning you to tonight's topic since YMMV.

[Out-to-Lunch]

Admittedly, this was 20 years ago: I was in a foreign country and they did not accept a Visa card, but accepted my Mastercard. Since then, I have always carried both a Mastercard and a Visa.

[jollystomper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolau 90 degrees to the discussion, but since CC fraud has come up (we've probably all had at least one example - we've had 3 or 4) it is my humble opinion that the CC companies don't do much to PURSUE the fraudsters. I can kind of see their reasoning. WE actually (cumulatively) pay for the fraud that the CC companies so "kindly" forgive. We pay with higher merchant prices (they have to cover the 2 to 3 percent cost for us using the CC at their store.) We pay high CC interest rates (well most of US here don't but...). So to the CC companies, it's (SWAG here) 0.1% additional cost of doing business. Now, if they went after every fraudster, they'd catch 10% of them. But when was the last time you heard of a a CC fraudster being caught. Yeah, they guy who defrauds 20K, maybe, but not the 19 year old who buys pizza with your CC number. So, CC fraud will continue and everyone is "okay" with it. SO, end of rant. Now returning you to tonight's topic since YMMV.

The CC companies have done a cost-benefit analysis and decided the cost to staff to pursue fraudsters, given the percent of fraudulent transactions, is not worth the expense. It is easier to build that into their rates than to pay staff to do that. On two occasions I knew exactly where and when my card was compromised, but the CC company was not interested in the information.

In addition, their algorithms for detecting fraudulent charge patterns are constantly being improved to detect them much earlier in their cycle. At the that point I believe it impacts the vendor, not the CC company. The notifications work fine for me, and as long as they can quickly replace my card or provide a workable alternative, I'm fine with that.

It is really no different than stores assuming, no matter how much security they put in, that some percentage of their goods will be shoplifted or will "fall of the truck", and they build that into their costs.

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolau 90 degrees to the discussion, but since CC fraud has come up (we've probably all had at least one example - we've had 3 or 4) it is my humble opinion that the CC companies don't do much to PURSUE the fraudsters. I can kind of see their reasoning. WE actually (cumulatively) pay for the fraud that the CC companies so "kindly" forgive. We pay with higher merchant prices (they have to cover the 2 to 3 percent cost for us using the CC at their store.) We pay high CC interest rates (well most of US here don't but...). So to the CC companies, it's (SWAG here) 0.1% additional cost of doing business. Now, if they went after every fraudster, they'd catch 10% of them. But when was the last time you heard of a a CC fraudster being caught. Yeah, they guy who defrauds 20K, maybe, but not the 19 year old who buys pizza with your CC number. So, CC fraud will continue and everyone is "okay" with it. SO, end of rant. Now returning you to tonight's topic since YMMV.

I had the experience of a Canadian purchase on two of my USA CC's. When I checked the internet, there were plenty of people complaining about this exact charge.

Yet when I called the CC company, they acted like I was the first one.

In a real world, after about 10 or 20 complaints like mine, they should automatically deny the same charge for everyone as it's a scam. Then see if they get CC user's phoning in from the store to say they are really buying the item.

The CC company doesn't really care about fraud, as they get the merchant charge even for fraudulent charges.