| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 11/5/2009 6:32:43 PM | ^^^^ Hmmmm, credit cards are expensive if you carry your balance forward, however, they are still attractive to people because they are convenient, and cheap if you are one of those who pay them off in full every month (the vast majority of people don't). Debit cards will not cost you money in the same way that credit cards do, because you are using your own money not the banks. Having said that, the credit card company charges the merchant a fee for accessing the service and charges the same fee regardless of whether you are using a debit card or a credit card. As a result the retailer will price the credit card fee into their selling price. Therefore you are paying the credit card fee indirectly whether you use a credit card, a debit card or cash.
The debit card is something that the bank will hand to people who they either can't sell a credit card to or can't trust with one. For them it is the next best thing to a credit card.
Perhaps the most insidious component (or valuable depending on your location in respect to the 'dividing fence') of the whole credit card system is the reporting attached to electronic funds transfer. Everything about every transaction is recorded and available to the bank, the credit card company, the government, the tax office, law enforcement agencies etc
Software is constantly building a profile of every single person who has a card based on every transaction that they make. They are databases that are always at work, monitoring everything that people spend money on, who, what, when, where, how. The banks and the government are very happy to keep the costs low and perceived benefits high in the consumers eyes because the real value to them is the information that they derive from their use.
Of course, if you are completely uninteresting, or care little for keeping things about you to yourself, then you've got absolutely nothing to worry about!
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| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 11/6/2009 1:56:16 AM | Xmas is a good one.....$$$$$....
judging by the amount of non christians spending up big buying pressies,draping the house with lights of Griswaldian proportions, quaffing hams,sharing exploding bonbons.......... getting into the spirit of the occasion.....    
a marketing success alright,,, | |
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| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 11/6/2009 3:43:19 AM |
The banks and the government are very happy to keep the costs low and perceived benefits high in the consumers eyes because the real value to them is the information that they derive from their use.
Hang on, is this a conspiracy theory? So the government are subsidising our credit cards and the like to build their database to………..um, what? Catch terrorists? Cool – I’m not a terrorist (this week anyway) but I benefit from a government subsidised credit card? Hey – I’m pretty happy if that’s the case! | |
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| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 11/6/2009 5:44:01 AM | With the Debit Card it actually depends on how you use it. I've HAD a VISA Debit card and if you use it LIKE a VISA card by selecting CREDIT whether you sign or PIN the Merchant is charged a fee and some banks charge you a fee. If on the other hand you select SAVINGS and PIN then it works like an EFTPOS card and there is no charge to the Merchant and no bank fee if you stay within your monthly use limit. (ie xx number of transactions) To them it's the same as cash as they get it right away.
There is still a yearly fee on the card etc etc so I dumped mine and went back to the old simple EFTPOS card, no annual fee and something like 20 free transactions per month. I just recently went overseas through three countries and was able to withdraw money in local currency from ATM's no problem with my EFTPOS card. I pay all of my bills online by direct deposit so don't need VISA there either
So in other words, don't need a Credit Card or a VISA debit card when I can get cash anywhere in the world. | |
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| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 11/6/2009 11:13:50 AM | | Just to be clear about the above post, if you are travelling and intend to book/pay for travels along the way over the internet like many people do, you need a credit card. Even a debit card is sometimes not accepted. | |
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| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 11/6/2009 3:00:32 PM | what about when the reserve bank lowers interest rates... it takes our banks a few weeks to pass on the savings..
but when the reserve bank lifts the interest rate like it did this week it took 12 minutes for the banks raise their rates..
the customer should be taken out for dinner or movie and kissed a little before they bend us over.!!! | |
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| Convenient Money Making Rorts - The Customer Pays !!!
Posted: 11/7/2009 12:00:51 AM |
Hang on, is this a conspiracy theory? So the government are subsidising our credit cards and the like to build their database to………..um, what? Catch terrorists? Cool – I’m not a terrorist (this week anyway) but I benefit from a government subsidised credit card? Hey – I’m pretty happy if that’s the case!
In this instance I was actually talking about debit cards such as debit visa or debit mastercard which can cost as little as $1 per month. They are not subsidised by the government, however, the data storage on all electronic funds transfer is never deleted and is available to banks, credit card companies, law enforcement agencies, the taxation dept etc. They don't need to control costs on credit cards too dramatically, the majority of westerners, with an almost acceptable credit rating, over the age of 18, have at least one of them, and seem perfectly willing to use them. Many banks will subsidise your credit card for the first 12 months in order to get you to move your balances over, often to ridiculously low interest rates. This gives you a clue as to how much they want to have their plastic in your pocket!
Conspiracy theory, maybe, or perhaps in the words of Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company "Its just good business"! | |
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