Glory Days;917380 wrote:thought you could do this with credit cards too?

Absolutely, I almost never went to the ATM when we lived in the U.S. I'd always get $40 out of the self-checkout line at Kroger when I'd get groceries 2-3 times/week using my Discover card. No PIN required.

dlazz;917421 wrote:You can sometimes, but typically the creditor charges an insane interest rate on the cash withdrawn and the cash has to be paid back before you can pay on your balance.

I think my credit card company wanted 20-30% interest on cash withdrawals.

With certain retailers it isn't considered a cash withdrawal, it is simply an added dollar figure to the retail sale. Again as of February of this year Kroger had no problem doing this.

gut;917382 wrote:Which should warrant a fee, just like going to a non-network ATM. And the merchant should charge you, too. My business is not a bank.

QQ

Manhattan Buckeye;917888 wrote:Absolutely, I almost never went to the ATM when we lived in the U.S. I'd always get $40 out of the self-checkout line at Kroger when I'd get groceries 2-3 times/week using my Discover card. No PIN required.

yeah thats what i thought. i remember doing it when i was at the PX overseas with my AMEX card. they would just charge me $20 or whatever more than what i paid for my purchases etc.

Agree with most people on this thread. The fee is BS, and using a debit card is dumb. Credit cards are much safer and have built in safety net for consumers.

WebFire;917471 wrote:So wait. Now fiscally responsible people use credit cards?

If you are fiscally responsible, using the rewards from credit cards and paying the full balance immediately (at least once a month) to eliminate any chance of interest, is about the best idea fiscally you can do.

Shoot, for awhile (until they caught on and didn't allow it anymore) I put my mortgage and two car payments on my rewards credit card (I get airline miles myself). The day after it would charge on my credit card I would pay the credit card online through my bank account.

For a couple years I paid for EVERYTHING possible with the credit card. Now it has been limited (you can't put house and car payments on a credit card anymore...) I use it to buy everything that I would normally use a debit card or cash for.

I keep a small balance on purpose (credit card company has tried to up it a few times and I tell them no) to keep myself in check, and this forces me to pay the bill a couple times a month.

I will tell you this though, my wife and I have flown to Vegas a few times for free because of this (hotel paid for too).

Rewards aren't what they used to be, but agree with charging everything you can. I, too, would put my rent or mortgage on there if I could. Car payments would be nice, but the merchant pays the CC 2-3% so it's pretty understandable why they caught on to that trick.

I'm actually a little surprised places like cell phone carriers, cable, and some utiliity companies still allow it. You're talking fairly sizeable monthly fees and that's gotta hurt the bottom line. I guess in those cases the guaranteed collection outweighs the fee as it puts transfer some of the bad debt risk to the CC company (there's no collateral to seize with those examples).

gut;918259 wrote:Rewards aren't what they used to be, but agree with charging everything you can. I, too, would put my rent or mortgage on there if I could. Car payments would be nice, but the merchant pays the CC 2-3% so it's pretty understandable why they caught on to that trick.

I'm actually a little surprised places like cell phone carriers, cable, and some utiliity companies still allow it. You're talking fairly sizeable monthly fees and that's gotta hurt the bottom line. I guess in those cases the guaranteed collection outweighs the fee as it puts transfer some of the bad debt risk to the CC company (there's no collateral to seize with those examples).

yeah i just had two of my cards (Chase Marathon and Citi Shell) drop their 5% cash back gas rewards program. I am gonna drop the Citi one since i already have another Citi Card and it charges an inactivity fee.