[speaker001:] okay hi do do you have lots of credit cards
[speaker002:] yeah we well we have quite a few but we don't really use them a lot we have well we like a lot of gasoline credit cards because we like to be able to stop you know when we're traveling and stuff wherever there's a station but as far as like MasterCard and Visa
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] we don't use those too often what about you
[speaker001:] um I used to have a ton of gas credit cards and now I have one or two of them but I think I've even let some of them expire but I was living out of the country for a while so I wasn't using them too much and I don't drive that much but I have
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] you know MasterCard and Visa and you know I have a MasterCard and an American Express now I got rid of the Visa because it was getting out of hand having fifteen million cards but as long as like my
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] MasterCard is um free as long as you spend about I don't know three thousand dollars a year or something like that and so I tend to buy almost all major purchases on a credit card when I have the choice
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah
[speaker001:] and um I used to even use it for my grocery shopping and stuff the stores around here don't let you do it too much
[speaker002:] oh really
[speaker001:] and so I don't but I was living in France and there you pay for everything by credit card but it's not really a credit card
[speaker002:] huh oh is it like an automatic debit or something oh huh
[speaker001:] it's a it's a debit card yeah and um just you know it's many times you get out of the store faster if you pay with that than if you pay with cash bye thanks um yeah because they're just so well set up with it
[speaker002:] really yeah we use our credit cards sometimes for a big purchase but we always have the money set aside already to and then we just pay it off the next month we never pay we don't like to pay interest on the credit cards at all
[speaker001:] right well yeah I I never pay finance charges on them except when I screw up which I occasionally do
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and you know I'll forget to pay the bill by the due date or this last month I mailed the check to them on the twenty second and they didn't get it until the thirtieth and it was due the twenty fifth
[speaker002:] gosh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and yeah so I thought I and so I got hit up with a credit uh finance charge on it which pissed me off
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] because um you know I really did mail it in time
[speaker002:] right yeah
[speaker001:] but they have no proof of that I don't I don't want to I'll probably talk to them some more discuss it but I I never um usually never pay finance charges
[speaker002:] yeah that yeah we we screwed up one time like that too we mailed it and they just never did get it and we had to finally mail them another check
[speaker001:] I had that hassle one time and I that went on for months and months and months because and they eventually found the check and deposited it and months later they were still telling me that I owed them finance charges and um late fees and things like that and I said well I mailed you a check and you eventually did deposit it
[speaker002:] huh
[speaker001:] so you know I guess I don't know who the the burden of proof is on
[speaker002:] yeah I don't either
[speaker001:] you know it's kind of a because you never do when I pay bills I don't make a Xerox copy of it or I don't
[speaker002:] no you figure you'll get your check back if you have to
[speaker001:] um right or I don't get a I don't mail them all a signed receipt whatever I you know at the bank
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] to have a proof of when I mailed it and I mean you can't do that it'd be ridiculous
[speaker002:] really I like to use my card if I buy something through the mail which I don't do real often or something from out of state you know where if something's wrong
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] you don't want to end up having to pay for it a couple times I've had to write big credit card companies and say you know I didn't really get this or
[speaker001:] well you can
[speaker002:] I don't know what this is
[speaker001:] right or I returned it so don't charge it yeah well that's basically what happened with us is we bought a computer and the computer um
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] didn't wasn't didn't do what these people said it would do we need to just put external cards in and it wouldn't do that so he brought it back to them and they're supposed to modify it
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and so I called the credit card company and said well we haven't really taken possession because it's not useful for us we can't use it
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and then they said well then don't pay it and then a month later I had to dispute it in writing and I was out of the country and got back and I took care of it as soon as soon as we got the computer back and it was okay I mailed off a check but then it was too late so now they're hitting with a finance charge
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] but it's sort of you know it's it's half our fault
[speaker002:] yeah since it well yeah if you filed that letter with them then they'll kind of
[speaker001:] and so we right if I had filed the letter to dispute it and then paid it eventually it would have been okay
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] so I learned that for the next time yeah
[speaker002:] I am like you too about the yearly fees I don't uh I don't like to pay the yearly fee for a card right now both the MasterCard and the Visa we don't have to pay a yearly fee on and
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] since we don't pay the interest it doesn't really matter what the interest rate
[speaker001:] right yeah
[speaker002:] is to us as long as we don't have to pay that yearly fee now we had American Express cards and my husband had always had that before we got married and those got so high we finally decided for him and me both to have a card it was like ninety dollars or something like that I can't remember but we decided let that one go and
[speaker001:] yeah well my husband and I both have that and I don't know what we pay for his card I pay I think I have a gold one so I think it's like seventy five dollars for me
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker001:] and I'm not quite sure what it is for him but I had really like there nowadays I'm not sure so sure that it's worth it but um in the past there you know there are some places that only take American Express
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah
[speaker001:] and then they don't have the credit limit because I've over done the credit limit on the other card if my husband and I both travel
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] if it you know a couple of plane tickets and a little bit more and you're over the limit on the credit card and um with the American Express they say there is no limit there really is but they tell y ou that but then that was one advantage but that's that's like I don't I think it's seventy five dollars for me and forty for him
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] for a year which is a lot
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] be
[speaker002:] but yeah like you said if you really if you need that extra for charging tickets and stuff
[speaker001:] yeah well we should probably get another um Visa card yeah one another one that's free because there are some like I think AT&T has one that's free if you make two purchases a year
[speaker002:] it's more worth it uh-huh oh
[speaker001:] well so
[speaker002:] yeah that wouldn't be too hard to do
[speaker001:] yeah and so that's easy enough to do and if that's true that's um it might be better off to have that as a second card just to have the credit
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and get rid of the American Express because it costs so much
[speaker002:] have you ever run into problems of charging up more than you meant to and having to be stuck with that we've never had that problem either
[speaker001:] no no I and I don't understand I mean I guess I do understand the mentality of people doing it but I don't understand yeah because people think it doesn't really cost them anything to pay I have had months where I was shocked at how much had come in because like I thought I would buy a big expense and think that it would take one or two months to process
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and sometimes it comes in right away and it's like oh well I guess I have to pay that too
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] because like many times I'll try I'll buy some things towards the end of the month thinking hey I won't get that bill until the next bill not this bill and it will come in on the next one you have to pay for it right away anyway
[speaker002:] right yeah
[speaker001:] but sometimes the is long like I've had things that I didn't get billed on for two or three months
[speaker002:] yeah I guess it depends on whoever you buy it from how fast they turn them in or something lot of places have
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] those I guess they're called those pointed sale terminals where it's like it goes in the minute you charge it yeah
[speaker001:] immediately yeah but that's what happened with us like we bought a washing machine seven months ago and then I got billed like the next day
[speaker002:] oh oh gosh
[speaker001:] it didn't matter because we couldn't have paid for it by check but we prefer like with the credit card you get the automatic um one year guarantee so if something breaks things like that
[speaker002:] yeah that's nice
[speaker001:] you can uh return it so like the washing machine we bought it in October and you know if something goes wrong with it within the first year we've got an automatic guarantee on it besides the manufacturer's guarantee
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and somethings like that are
[speaker002:] yeah I like that feature and the insurance like if you break it yourself even you know if you buy something that's breakable
[speaker001:] right or if it gets stolen or if you lose it or whatever it might be and so so that's you know another advantage and then even things like airline tickets you automatically get flight insurance which um you hopefully you never use but like if your baggage but things like if your baggage gets lost
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] you get money for that
[speaker002:] oh really
[speaker001:] to buy new bags and things like that
[speaker002:] oh I didn't know that
[speaker001:] and yeah when you rent a car you get that and sometimes you get discounts with the cards and so