|
Best of Web: credit card management
Share
Email
Print
CommentNovember 18th, 2008
November 11th, 2008
October 20th, 2008
October 14th, 2008
September 16th, 2008
When we look at what we can now do on the World Wide Web, which far exceeds our wildest dreams ten years ago, we’d be hard pressed to find a bigger breakthrough than credit card management.
Some technology complicates more than it simplifies. A perfect example was the early versions of Quicken, which automated reconciling your checkbook. Did we need a computer to do that? How about a pencil?
Some technology complicates more than it simplifies. A perfect example was the early versions of Quicken, which automated reconciling your checkbook. Did we need a computer to do that? How about a pencil?
Technology has come a long way, and so has the Web. I’m thankful for the services it offers, and I’m most grateful for credit card management and online bill paying.
Coming back from Tokyo, Japan, back in 1990 — one year after the Web was invented and well before it was any force at all — I was strictly a cash man and proud of it. The Japanese carried wads of cash around in their relatively safe country, and credit cards were a no-go there. Plus, it took up to a ten-day wait to cut a simple check.
Coming back from Tokyo, Japan, back in 1990 — one year after the Web was invented and well before it was any force at all — I was strictly a cash man and proud of it. The Japanese carried wads of cash around in their relatively safe country, and credit cards were a no-go there. Plus, it took up to a ten-day wait to cut a simple check.
Nowadays I think of the cash in my wallet as my emergency stash. Checks are snail cash, and paying by credit card is so automated.
But I still hate paying bills. So the convenience of paying all the credit card bills online, while saving on postage, too, is huge. It’s a ritual that I actually enjoy, setting up the payment to coincide with my automatic paycheck deposit, another innovation from the 90s that’s now taken for granted.
But I still hate paying bills. So the convenience of paying all the credit card bills online, while saving on postage, too, is huge. It’s a ritual that I actually enjoy, setting up the payment to coincide with my automatic paycheck deposit, another innovation from the 90s that’s now taken for granted.
It’s not just the convenience but the paper-saving that I find so gratifying. Setting up your account as a paperless one is an important step that I recommend to all. Usually there is more than one setting to change. It’s important to make sure that you aren’t receiving e-mail alerts but still receiving snail mail versions, too. Sometimes you can arrange for all paper documents to go away, but unfortunately companies still insist on sending all those promotions to get you to take advances or transfer balances. I wish they’d just knock it off.
I take pride in the fact that I no longer write any checks except for rent, which is one of two bills each month I haven’t automated. The other is the garbage bill on my rental home in Portland, Oregon. Landlords by state law have to pay it, and it’s not yet automated.
But the day is coming. Imagine how far we’ve come. When we shop online, at eBay, Amazon or dozens of other stops, we can pay via credit card or PayPal, and then set up an automated pay system. Our goods arrive in the mail.
Both my Comcast cable and my Blockbuster are also set to auto-pay. Come to think of it, so are my insurance payments. And let’s not even get started in this column about investments, but I will stipulate I handle 100 percent of them online, too. I personally fancy Ameritrade, having used that firm for a decade now. Online banking and CDs are breeze.
A warning, though: Just because it’s easy to automate your credit card bill-pay and turn off paper statements doesn’t mean you should stop reviewing your charges, if only to keep an eye out for fraud. I’ve caught online fraud a couple of times and got the charges reversed.
I take pride in the fact that I no longer write any checks except for rent, which is one of two bills each month I haven’t automated. The other is the garbage bill on my rental home in Portland, Oregon. Landlords by state law have to pay it, and it’s not yet automated.
But the day is coming. Imagine how far we’ve come. When we shop online, at eBay, Amazon or dozens of other stops, we can pay via credit card or PayPal, and then set up an automated pay system. Our goods arrive in the mail.
Both my Comcast cable and my Blockbuster are also set to auto-pay. Come to think of it, so are my insurance payments. And let’s not even get started in this column about investments, but I will stipulate I handle 100 percent of them online, too. I personally fancy Ameritrade, having used that firm for a decade now. Online banking and CDs are breeze.
A warning, though: Just because it’s easy to automate your credit card bill-pay and turn off paper statements doesn’t mean you should stop reviewing your charges, if only to keep an eye out for fraud. I’ve caught online fraud a couple of times and got the charges reversed.
No comments posted.
Join the conversation
Comment guidelines
All comments will be screened and may take several hours to be posted.
• Keep comments clear, concise and focused on the topic in the story.
• Comments exceeding 300 words will not be posted.
• Refrain from personal attacks, degrading comments or remarks that do not add to a constructive dialogue.
• Comments implying suspects in crime-related stories are guilty before they have been proven so in a court of law will be deleted.
• Do not post e-mail addresses or links except for pages on Napavalleyregister.com or government Web sites.
• Comments will not be edited - they will be approved or declined.
• Comments may be used in the print edition of the newspaper.
• If you feel a posted comment has violated our guidelines, please contact dross@napanews.com or bkennedy@napanews.com
For further information on the comment guidelines, click here.
|
|
