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Best Airline Rewards Credit Cards

I'm pretty anal when it comes to budgeting and keeping track of my accounts. The thought of paying any interest whatsoever to a credit card company is something that I absolutely refuse to do, so I definitely think it might be worth opening. Thanks for the info!
 
Given that there are merchant fees of 1-3% for credit card transactions, it would really kill banks, etc if they allowed customers to make payments with their cards.

Makes sense now that I think about it. I just started thinking about how I could charge All the Things on it to make All the Money and got a little carried away.
 
If you have any self-control, credit cards instead of debit cards is a no-brainer. Bonuses at sign up, cash back or points, and much greater fraud protection. Plus usually other protections including rental insurance, extended warranties and theft or loss reimbursement.
 
I'm in this category, and the thought of missing out on free money is grating me right now, and like I said I will never pay interest to a credit card company again.
 
Makes sense now that I think about it. I just started thinking about how I could charge All the Things on it to make All the Money and got a little carried away.

Yeah, that's the same reason you will have some places impose a minimum on CC purchases (which actually generally isn't allowed) or firmly state they prefer cash (cabbies are the worst about this).
 
Yeah, that's the same reason you will have some places impose a minimum on CC purchases (which actually generally isn't allowed) or firmly state they prefer cash (cabbies are the worst about this).

I was at a small family-owned restaurant in Boston once where they posted how much revenue they lost to credit card charges in the previous month. The total was north of $10,000 I think.
 
I was at a small family-owned restaurant in Boston once where they posted how much revenue they lost to credit card charges in the previous month. The total was north of $10,000 I think.

Except that if they put "We only accept CASH" in the window, they'd probably lose $30,000 a month in potential business. I think I read the average increase in revenue for restaurants that start accepting credit cards is 20%-25%.

Hiding revenue from the IRS is the real driver for the majority of cash-only businesses.
 
I was at a small family-owned restaurant in Boston once where they posted how much revenue they lost to credit card charges in the previous month. The total was north of $10,000 I think.

It's a cost of doing business in the 21st century and is built into the prices people are willing to pay so time to get over it. That said, for cabbies in particular I do tip extra to cover the card cost (and, frankly, the taxes on the transaction too...normally tip ~20%, which I assume is way higher than most people), but if they bitch about me using a card then you better believe that tip is going down. The other week in Miami I actually tipped $20 on a $27 cab ride because apparently most cabbies in that city don't take cards (took 10 minutes for the cab guy to find me one who did).

Also, that implies the restaurant is doing close to $5M in revenue a year (given a 2.5% merchant fee).
 
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Except that if they put "We only accept CASH" in the window, they'd probably lose $30,000 a month in potential business. I think I read the average increase in revenue for restaurants that start accepting credit cards is 20%-25%.

Hiding revenue from the IRS is the real driver for the majority of cash-only businesses.

They weren't cash-only, just asked for people to pay in cash if they could. I try to use cash at small businesses when I can.
 
It's a cost of doing business in the 21st century and is built into the prices people are willing to pay so time to get over it. That said, for cabbies in particular I do tip extra to cover the card cost, but if they bitch about me using a card then you better believe that tip is going down.

Also, that implies they are doing closing to $5M in revenue a year (given a 2.5% merchant fee).

I thought that the biggest reason cabbies didn't like cards was because they didn't get their tips until weeks later, after the transaction had been processed. Same with waiters, bartenders, etc.
 
I thought that the biggest reason cabbies didn't like cards was because they didn't get their tips until weeks later, after the transaction had been processed. Same with waiters, bartenders, etc.

No, its because then they have to report all their income to the IRS.

And getting paid for work done weeks ago? Welcome to every office worker's life.
 
uh, if we did that, sure - but we don't because it's not a good deal.

I would pay my rent on a credit card in a heartbeat for $75, but then again rents in Singapore are ridiculous.

Assuming you value UR points at around 2 cents per point, your rent needs to be at least $3750 to break even there.
 
I have no idea how that works...Can you not pay your mortage, car, student loan, etc payments using a credit card instead of having it drafted from your checking account?

1) Definitely get a CC. If you treat it like a debit card (never spending more money than you have; always paying off your monthly balance), it's far superior.

2) I had several types of student loans and nearly all of them required payment from a checking account. I have one specialized loan that lets me pay with CC, which I gladly do.
 
Just got my Citi Double Cash Card and I'm pretty excited to start charging utilities to it along with everything else I use my debit card for. Right now I bank through Wells Fargo and use billpay to pay everything from one place. I don't think Citi has a feature like that, so maybe it's not a standard thing to setup billpay through a credit card? Just curious if that sounds right. I don't mind paying bills on separate websites for each company but I'd rather pay them from one place if possible. thanks.
 
comcast does, but thats about it. it annoys me to no end that i have to pay rent, utilities, and student loans with essentially cash. so many miles!
 
lbe/HTTD, what are your thoughts on the CSP now that you seem to have had it for a while?
 
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