NO automatic payments!

[ovrszd]

Years ago I allowed an automatic monthly withdrawal. Although the terms and dates were specifically set out, they did it when they wanted to instead, and cost me several hundred dollars in overdraft fees. Then I ended up sueing them for non-performance... I eventually got my money back but they had it, interest free for about 4 years. That's AFTER covering the overdraft fees, plus cost and hassle of closing that account and opening another as noted above.

Ummm, overdrafts are on you. Can't blame them on anyone else.

 

[ovrszd]

I tried that with my CU for a while, as they hold my mortgage as well as the checking account where my paycheck goes, and all of my bills are paid from. First, I don't like waiting until the bill is due before paying it; rather, I generally pay about 10 days in advance. Every month I would keep checking to make sure the payment was taken out.
Then I started trying to prepay a bit every month... that didn't work very well. It turns out that any extra I put in goes toward my escrow rather than the principal. That's stupid for two reasons... every year they send me a refund check for a bit over a month's payment into my escrow. They also end up charging me more for interest than if it had been applied toward the principal.

After reading this I apologize for my previous post.....

 

[Jstpssng]

Deleted

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

Wow. Two companies with which I would never intentionally do business. Having spent most of my professional life in financial services, these guys have some of the worst reputations.

Amex's system is a horrible deal. Much better off with MC or Discover.

I've had Amex since the 80's and I've had to use them with my expense account(s). They seem to be vicious when dealing with false charges which is nice, but they aren't without issues.

I had an instance where I was working at a refinery in New Jersey and got an email from Amex asking if I'd spent a few hundred dollars at a coin shop. I said no and they promptly shut the card down telling me they'd send a new one to my place of business overnight. I should mention I'm based out of Texas. But I had a personal Amex to fall back on.

The next day I got an email asking if I had spent a few hundred dollars at a golf pro shop on my personal card. I said no and they promptly shut that card down telling me they'd send a new one to my home within 5 business days. Great, now I have to fall back on my Visa which is tied to my checking account and I have to deal with corporate accounting to explain why I didn't use Amex.

I always thought that the problem must be on their end as I didn't have time to go anywhere other than the refinery or the hotel, of course, they'd never admit to that.

I've also had vendors refuse Amex due to their charging more for use of their system, but accounting loves detailed statements.

Other than the above I've never had any issues with Amex, I always pay everything off asap so there's no interest to worry about.

I had to get a Master Card because a few places in Canada wouldn't take either Amex or Visa.

I didn't know that Discover still existed, haven't had one in years since I've worked myself down to being debt free.

I still use Amex and a Costo Citi Visa for convenience's sake, and because if I have cash my kids can smell it on me and then it's gone.

 

[SgtSluggo]

You were duped. If the bank closes your card, you will take a hit. If you close it, not really.

Available credit cuts both ways. Too much available credit can hurt because of the risk you may use it all at once. Not enough is almost exclusively a problem for young or "new to credit" people. Cancel them.

Closing accounts can hurt your credit in more than one way. If you carry a balance on your cards, then closing a card can increase your credit utilization (higher is worse). It can also eventually decrease your average age of credit if you close an account that is significantly older than the rest, but that won't happen till it falls off (typically 7-10 years later).

 

[Torvy]

I've had Amex since the 80's and I've had to use them with my expense account(s). They seem to be vicious when dealing with false charges which is nice, but they aren't without issues.

I had an instance where I was working at a refinery in New Jersey and got an email from Amex asking if I'd spent a few hundred dollars at a coin shop. I said no and they promptly shut the card down telling me they'd send a new one to my place of business overnight. I should mention I'm based out of Texas. But I had a personal Amex to fall back on.

The next day I got an email asking if I had spent a few hundred dollars at a golf pro shop on my personal card. I said no and they promptly shut that card down telling me they'd send a new one to my home within 5 business days. Great, now I have to fall back on my Visa which is tied to my checking account and I have to deal with corporate accounting to explain why I didn't use Amex.

I always thought that the problem must be on their end as I didn't have time to go anywhere other than the refinery or the hotel, of course, they'd never admit to that.

I've also had vendors refuse Amex due to their charging more for use of their system, but accounting loves detailed statements.

Other than the above I've never had any issues with Amex, I always pay everything off asap so there's no interest to worry about.

I had to get a Master Card because a few places in Canada wouldn't take either Amex or Visa.

I didn't know that Discover still existed, haven't had one in years since I've worked myself down to being debt free.

I still use Amex and a Costo Citi Visa for convenience's sake, and because if I have cash my kids can smell it on me and then it's gone.

Amex charges an annual fee. I PIF my card balances monthly, so no interest charges and they give you perqs. On top of that, Amex has such a small footprint because they charge merchants 5x what MC charges (varies). Businesses that prefer Amex do so for 2 reasons. 1) They compare it to a personal card vs a business card. 2) They prefer their employees to be limited to merchants that take Amex.

Discover is nice because they are not part of the gun tracking (yet). Also more widely accepted than Amex and has a good cash back program.

 

[bnold]

Our Amex (business) has a great deal of benefits that we’d be sad to be without.

Was just in the centurion lounge in DFW last weekend waiting for storm to pass.

Can think of a problem with their service in the decades of service.

They don’t have USAA type service, but really nobody does.

 

[Torvy]

Our Amex (business) has a great deal of benefits that we’d be sad to be without.

Was just in the centurion lounge in DFW last weekend waiting for storm to pass.

Can think of a problem with their service in the decades of service.

They don’t have USAA type service, but really nobody does.

My point is that you can get the same benefits with a MC Business card. It can be used in more places and keeps merchant costs down, too.