@HarvestMoon1 , it was years ago, but I insisted and got an ATM-only card. They will look at you sideways and weirdly, but at BoA and my much-smaller local bank, they were able to accommodate.
ETA: overdraft protection and LoC are separate issues to a debit card. One doesn’t require the other.
@greenwitch My Amex card was linked to the PayPal account. I never used PayPal again.
@IxnayBob I never bought anything on eBay again either and probably never will.
The incident I described was probably 4 years ago.
A little more explanation of why Amex is better than Visa.
With Visa, if there is a contested charge, you send in paperwork, you write letters to the vendor, you send all that to Visa and then, maybe, they take the charge off the account. I had one where I was charged for a hotel where I reserved but cancelled and it took too long to get the charge removed.
With Amex, one call. They take it off the bill. NO hassle.
I had no problem with paypal refunding money for an item I bought but didn’t receive. Ebay wasn’t helpful. Maybe it was easy with paypal because I hadn’t been tricked into signing for a package.
One thing I didn’t like about Amex, our bill was many pages long. They just itemized the charges in a sloppy way that took up a lot of space. I don’t know if all Amex bills are like that or just the Costco one.
But no, I sent no paperwork in to Visa for my recent contested charge. I called, they jumped. But this is my Chase Marriott and I seem to have some special handling. And the annual fee is little, considering the way points add up and the free hotel stay.
We posters seem t have had different experiences with customer service. It;s got to be some YMMV and luck.
Yes, using a debit card vs credit card at the register can mean extra fees.
I don’t think anyone mentioned that you can sometimes negotiate a better deal with a card company. If one is offering some teasers, you can ask another if they can match or extend the low/zero rate time frame or bal transfer terms.
Costco Amex bill looked fine online. Just one line per charge, but then there was a clickable tab that could expand the details of each charge. I think Costco Citi Visa tries to do the same thing, but they lack the details such as air ticket number and many other useful things.
In our recent experience, Amex also wanted us to contact the merchant first, which they require if the charge is simply off. Ours was not a fraudulent charge, just a wrong charge - someone else’s dinner got charged to Mr. B’s card in addition to Mr.'s own dinner. The manager of Vito first did not want to deal with it at first, but Mr. insisted, so he eventually issued a refund. Amex did not suspend the charge while it was being questioned.
Whew ok catching up now.
I’ve (knock on wood) never had to dispute a charge but I did have to reorder my visa credit cards earlier this year when I lost my wallet (thankfully later recovered it). That was super easy and the customer service was great. However, it was through the bank/company (Chase, a local bank, etc) and not through an actual Visa person. I hope that makes sense, I’m not sure how else to explain it.
I think a $450 annual fee is too steep for me. I’m definitely keeping in mind all of these travel options but right now it is physically nearly impossible for me to fly. When I travel to conferences, I’ve mostly been able to drive. But later on when I’m flying more, I’ll definitely look into these.
I’m going to look into the Chase Slate card mentioned by @busdriver11 15 months is definitely more than enough time for us to get the balance paid off.
Almost all of my online purchases are through Amazon (being able to stay on Student Prime is a wonderful thing lol) and I’ll probably continue using my Amazon card for that for the 3% back. I’ve never bought anything off ebay but I do occasionally buy etsy stuff.
All of my statements are online. I always opt out of paper statements so no problem there.
Another question: is it worth going through any of the offers we get in the mail as opposed to just going online and applying? Mr R and I literally get about 5 offers every day between the two of us and I know Chase and AmEx are the two that we get the most of (followed closely by Discover).
Don’t make AmEx your only CC. First off, it is the least accepted of the credit cards out there. Second, the number of businesses accepting the card has been in decline for years.
If you do decide to get an AmEx, keep a backup card (Visa or MC) just in case. My wife and I use Discover primarily, but ~10-20% of the time, the card isn’t accepted at businesses/restaurants we shop at. For these situations we use an Amazon Visa card.
On a side note, I would highly recommend Discover if you are undecided on AmEx. I’ve been very happy with them. Their perks are a bit limited, but security and stability have been top notch.
“With Visa, if there is a contested charge, you send in paperwork, you write letters to the vendor, you send all that to Visa and then, maybe, they take the charge off the account. I had one where I was charged for a hotel where I reserved but cancelled and it took too long to get the charge removed.”
That has not been our experience. They have always taken the charges off. We have never had to write letters or anything like that. All we have had to do was call and they handle it. Once 22 years ago when there was someone who charged on our visa in Denver for over $4,000 and we lived in Illinois they sent us some paperwork that we had to sign saying we didn’t charge that stuff. However any time in the last 10 years that someone has gotten a hold of our card number and charged something it has been handled right away. And there have probably been 10 times in the last 10 years. Two of them in the last year.
We also have an Amex card. We use it mainly for internet purchases. So far it’s never been stolen so I have no idea how they are with that. However we have used the extra warranty time on purchases and that has worked out well.
No worries, I will always have a visa credit card on me too.
I just pulled my FICO score from my credit union (today I learned that my credit union gives me free access to my FICO score lol) and it’s 72x so slightly lower than I thought but still pretty solid. I’m looking through all of the recommendations given to me on here so I can compare them! 
I have a Discover More card and like the cashback feature. It is my normal go-to card.
Happydad’s go-to card is AMEX-Delta Gold. Delta is the only major airline that serves the city where we currently live, and the card came with enough bonus miles for him to make one round trip to one of the places we normally travel to in a year. The annual fee is $95. AMEX-Delta gives you one free checked bag for the main cardholder, so with two round-trips that person has covered the cost of the card.
Thank you all. I did some number crunching and ended up applying for both the Chase Slate card solely for moving over my balance for free (I will cancel afterwards- thank you for this recommendation!) and the Discover It card. I was approved for both with a very nice credit line from Discover. It’s 5% on Amazon and a few other things right now which is perfect for us since that’s what we use the most.
The traveling perks just aren’t quite helpful to us right now since the only traveling I do is to go to conferences where my stay is paid for by my department I’ll get a nice travel card as I get closer to the end of my PhD program.
Thank you all for your help!
ETA: I’m not worried about the double hit on my credit right now. We have a mortgage and 2 well running cars. The next time we will need to tap a credit line is probably to get one of us a new (to us) car but knock on wood that shouldn’t be for a few years.
Romani, if you are already dealing with a responsive credit union, be sure to consider their offers for VISA. I never had to submit paperwork for contested/fraudulent charges with my credit union.
I do have a credit union account and have a small credit card with them (Visa). The rep that I talked to when I was adding Mr R onto my account admitted that I’d get better credit card offers elsewhere. Their only cash back card is a 1% cashback.
American Express is a Charge Card. It is Not a Credit Card. You must pay the entire balance every month with AMX
@granny2, I think Amex now does allow balances to be carried forward, at least on some of their cards (eg, Blue cards).
I have.a Chase Sapphire Visa. No annual fee. Accumulates points that can be used for a variety of things. I squally just roll it into a payment on the bill.
DH has a Discover, and a Visa through our bank. No annual fees there either.
I’m probably going to get a Southwest Airlines card…but,im waiting for a great deal.
That wasn’t true of the cards I was looking at, granny.
If you don’t like the credit limit Chase Slate gave you, I’d call them and ask for an increase to a specific number. They’re pretty good about that.
I have 2 main credit cards I use. A Visa with my bank and AMEX Blue.
Originally I also had a Discover card which was my first credit card I used to build up my credit history so i could get AMEX Blue after they denied me the first time right out of college due to lack of credit history.
Discover closed it a decade ago due to inactivity. Ironically, they are now regularly send me solicitations to get back with them.
Also, regularly get solicitations from AMEX to get on their Gold and higher level cards with annual fees, but I don’t spend nearly enough or fly enough to justify the annual fees atm. The friends who do are ones who frequently travel for business and have far greater spendy habits than yours truly.