Prepare for fees on most credit card transactions

Oh god, don't get bydesign77 back on here talking about how Southwest charges bag fees. Please.

 

Really. Always Visa or MasterCard. Every now and again Discover. But never American Express.

 

I much prefer AMEX. Great customer service. Typically I am able to get a nice vacation every one or two years from points gained. Small stores typically don't like it
because I believe the % is 3 verses Visa / Mastercard at 2%.

 

My father puts everything on his AMEX. I mean everything. He writes one check per month and piles up the Rewards points, which he then uses for trips.

 

How many points do you typically spend for a nice vacation? I've got over 500,000 on my business card that I've never used.

Have a fuckload of Starwood points built up on my personal card too I need to eventually use.

 

Until I recently moved overseas for the pretty much rest of my career, this was the ONLY credit card I had. It's still the only card I'd use if I could and used it as recently as yesterday to order Christmas presents.

I've since gotten a Visa, I think it is. I've had to use it already because Penzey's Spices didn't take American Express - likely because it charges more than Visa/MC.

But AmEx rocks.

 

I'm probably one of the few people under 40 using an AmEx. I do it to rack up points, nothing more. Now, as for using those points ...

 

I'll have to start paying attention at the places I regularly shop and whatnot to see if a lot of them take American Express. I'm not unwilling to give it a shot, especially if this Points Heaven stuff you people talk about is for real.

 

I'm not sure what it's called, but I saw a news story on this, maybe a year or two ago, and though I'm sure it's more complicated than this, it looked as easy as holding one smartphone up to another. In the story below, which is three years old, I'm not sure what the number in the opening sentence is supposed to be. The point is, I think there's new technology around the corner which is able to essentially say to the credit card companies, you can take your 3 percent fee and shove it . . .


Smartphones may soon displace some of the estimated 1Â billion credit and debit cards in American wallets. AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile are planning a venture to develop a mobile payment system that works with smartphones, posing a new threat to Visa and MasterCard, three people with direct knowledge of the plan say.

The partners aim to test the system at stores in Atlanta and three other U.S. cities, the people say, though they didn't provide a timetable. The trial would be the carriers' biggest effort to spur mobile payments in the U.S. "This is definitely a game changer," says industry consultant Richard K. Crone. Mobile carriers "are the biggest recurring billers in every market. They are experts at processing payments."

While the technical details are sketchy, the service would let customers make purchases by holding a smartphone in front of an electronic reader in stores. Transactions would be processed by Discover Financial Services, the fourth-biggest payments network in the U.S. behind Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. London-based Barclays would help manage the accounts, say the people, who requested anonymity because of confidentiality agreements. Representatives for the carriers, Barclays, and Discover declined to comment.

Retailers may be eager to support a rival network after years of tussling with Visa and MasterCard over transaction fees. "We have long argued that real competition is missing from today's payments market," says Brian Dodge of the Retail Industry Leaders Assn., which represents merchants such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Target. "A secure and reliable competing network that … reduces retailers' costs would be welcomed news."

 

Wow. I didn't even know they still offered the Discover card. I literally haven't seen one in a decade.

My Amex gets me 5 percent cash back on gas and groceries. Way better deal than points.

The Cap 1 Visa gets me 2 percent back on everything else. I'd say 98 percent of my spending goes on one of those two cards. Cash is inconvenient.

 

Do you still have to pay your bill in full every month on American Express cards?

 

In other countries, phones *are* the main way people pay for things.

They view our obsession with plastic as silly.