<p>True. However, credit card issuers prefer it if they have more opportunities to charge interest/penalty feels which are created when credit card holders are late or carrying over a balance into the next billing cycle. </p>
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<p>Assuming they aren’t inundated with customers who want to put a low cost purchase on their card to the point the fees exceed the profits or the total price of the item in question. </p>
<p>It’s one reason why some restaurants and other establishments have a minimum purchase amount for credit card users…even when it breaks some merchant/credit-card agreements.</p>
No one said it was “free money”. I said it is a free loan (which it is) to the “borrower” (credit card holder-- hence the term CREDIT card) and if they pay it off in full, there are no fees to the borrower. Sure the merchant gets hit with the fees. Tell me about it. I hate all the fees, and cant make heads nor tails out of most of them. Wish in my industry it was reasonable to use square or a similar device, but it isnt, for reasons not worth discussing here.</p>
<p>And merchants are NOT supposed to directly pass the cr card fees to the customer in the form of charging a surcharge for using a credit card. That said, they “can” offer a 2-3 % “discount” for cash. Same difference, but the latter is within the merchant services contract.</p>
Not true for fixed costs like copays for healthcare. We are not just talking about retail or food service. Many other industries use credit card services.</p>
<p>I know some law was passed lately that was supposedly going to stop many credit card companies from offering the freebies. I wonder if the law was about being able to offer a discount for cash. I forgot the particulars.</p>
<p>This whole credit card situation with my son has really struck me as odd. He’s already agreed to apply for credit cards before (so we could get airmiles), and I either forgot or decided it wasn’t worth it. I don’t think this is an objection against credit, plus I showed him how easy it is to pay it online. He’s a very smart techie, so he’s not intimidated by pushing a few buttons on his laptop to pay the bill. But I think I figured it out, it is an objection to change, when he thinks everything is working out just fine as it is.</p>
<p>Now, I’ve always been an advocate of, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but…if there is an obviously better way to do things, and it’s easy, I’ll change my ways. Son has always been stubborn about change, if he doesn’t think it’s needed. He does things that I think are extremely intimidating, and he seems to have no problem with change in major life events. But some of the little things, nope, not interested. So okay, that’s fine. He will still have a couple of credit cards in his wallet (as an additional signer), and we’ll just transfer what he charges into our checking account. Hey, maybe I should take a tip, let’s call it a “tax” for services rendered. I guess we’ll just keep collecting the points for his charges. He knows the pluses and minuses, so be it.</p>
<p>Actually, it is a benefit for healthcare providers when patients have quick and convenient method of paying so they don’t have to spend as much time sending and resending invoices. It makes them more able to pay in the spot and merchants don’t have to worry about bounced or not deposited checks and other headaches.</p>
<p>Sure it’s more convenient. But unless the patient is in the office it’s often just as hard for the billing people to get the patient to pay by credit card. May still require several calls and letters. Oh, and telephone payments hand keyed into the cr card machine without the actual card / magnetic strip in hand has yet a higher fee attached to that payment method.</p>
<p>^^I sure am glad that I get paid by automatic check deposit twice a month, and I don’t have to hope that people get off their butts and pay their bills! That must be a pain.</p>
<p>I try to pay at my providers offices but often they want to wait until they see what insurance will cover. I pay as soon as I get the provider’s invoice in the mail. It’s easy just to call and charge instead of hunting down checkbook and stamp.</p>
<p>Most often it is not hard to calculate what the copayment/co insurance will be and collect that at the time of service. This includes determining if the deductible has been met. In very high volume practices this could be very cumbersome to determine as it involves contacting the insurance company or getting on certain websites. To determine this for each patient.</p>
<p>I do tell providers the customary copayment and offer to pay by CC or check. A few accept and the others decline and say, “wait for the bill.” My copayment is almost always a standard $15, as I tell them but I don’t argue if they decline to accept payment.</p>
<p>This is getting way off topic so will respond but then hope to get back to topic. Oftentimes different procedure codes may have different copays. Sometimes one type of procedure has a flat copay (eg office visit code), but another might have a co-insurance (eg diagnostics code). Sometimes the way the company processes a claim differs from the benefits they quoted over the phone. And sometimes outstanding claims have processed since a person’s insurance was verified so a deductible balance may have changed. Then there are procedure codes that may be denied as not covered by the insurance company, and others that are paid at 100% (I just had a physical and a shingles vaccination. Both were covered at 100% of allowable). All of these can affect what a persons financial responsibility for any out of pocket expense, and the Drs office may have to bill, or possibly refund the patient anyway. Some outside billing/claims processors used by Drs offices have their own procedure they want to follow. Lots of possibilities. To me, collecting what the expected copay/coinsurance is at the time of service makes sense, but thats just me.</p>
<p>My son, age 25, gets along without a credit card. He uses cash and a debit card. When he rented a car, he just paid for it outright ahead of time. Yes, you can buy things online with a debit card. </p>
<p>I think he would have a good credit history because he’s meticulous about paying his rent on time/early.</p>
<p>^^And apparently, with the debit cards with a Visa or Mastercard symbol, you can use those just like a credit card. Though it seems that a number of people think that is a mistake to have those kind of ATM cards.</p>
<p>I think he’ll have his rent set to be on autopay. Of course the only problem is, if you forget to stop it in time when you’re moving out, it will probably take awhile to get it back.</p>
<p>True. However, if you end up getting defective merchandise or end up getting ripped off altogether, it’s much easier to resolve if the transaction was conducted with a credit card than a debit.</p>
<p>Not only will your checking/savings account not face the possibility of being cleaned out, but if one has to dispute charges with the merchant for such issues, you just need to let the credit card issuer know the issue, request a stop payment, and the credit card issuer will end up disputing with that merchant on your behalf. In short, the dispute is then between the merchant and your credit card company handling it on your behalf. </p>
<p>In contrast, with a debit card, once the merchant cashes that charge, you’re completely on your own in disputing the charges with the merchant. That was my experience when I was ripped off for an order of computer parts not too long after graduating college and was a major reason I’ve stopped using debit cards except to withdraw cash from the ATM.</p>
<p>Yes, our CCard company has contested a charge when car rental company refused to supply the required documentation for insurer to pay the claimed flat tire repair. I was glad they hashed it out and I didn’t have to be involved in it. They have also helped when I got counterfeit merchandise and a few other times, including when someone used mg CCard # to charge hotel and it wasn’t me of H.</p>
<p>And I tend to prepay hotel rooms with my debit card. Twice now, although the room was prepaid, the hotel double charged when I checked out. Although the charges were on a debit card, both times I had the issue resolved and the money back in my account within 2 or 3 days (far before I would have NEEDED it for anything else).</p>
<p>I’ve been making purchases online since eBay started more than a decade ago. I do all my holiday shopping online, purchase textbooks for my own Master’s program and now for my son, since I live in a rural area - purchase most large items online and have them delivered (furniture, appliances), I have purchased many pro sporting event tickets online, book travel online…all using my debit card. In over a decade of purchases and hundreds of purchases (I always make sure the merchant I purchase from has significant positive feedback from customers and few if any complaints), I have had few incidents of any problem with my orders and although purchased via a debit card any problems are usually quickly resolved by the merchant. <em>One</em> time I did have to file a dispute with eBay and my money was quickly refunded. And 1 time I never got the item I ordered, but as it was less than a $15 purchase it wasn’t worth the time and effort to dispute it, I probably wouldn’t have bothered even if it had been purchased via a credit card.</p>
<p>For those that file disputes with your credit card company, have you just tried contacting the merchant and letting them know that you received the incorrect or a damaged item? If the merchant isn’t willing to correct a problem, not a place I’d probably be making a purchase from anyway.</p>
<p>Along those lines^, in my 30+ years as a credit card user, I have never once needed to involve my credit card company in a dispute about a purchase. All of the few incidents I have encountered were easily resolved by calling the vendors directly, same as jrcsmom, above.</p>
<p>Why the implication that we have not contacted the merchant first? I can assure you we did and only moved to involve our credit card companies when the merchant proves to be uncooperative in resolving the issue in a prompt timely manner or worse, not acknowledging any attempts to contact them on the issue. </p>
<p>Who wants to spend hours/days playing phone/email tag with unresponsive or uncooperative merchants selling defective items or when there’s a question as to the existence of the item in the first place? </p>
<p>IME with involving credit card companies…if the established merchant doesn’t respond in a prompt timely manner via email or phone to work with me to resolve the issue, I just call up my credit card company to notify them of the issue, request stop payment, and let them loose on that merchant. </p>
<p>Once that happens, a satisfactory outcome from the sketchy merchant usually follows in short order.</p>