The 3% though is for either a debit or credit card. So you either use cash or check. Our bill for dinner was $70. I paid cash to avoid the fee, but then I figured out it was only $2 so I just use the debit card now. I never record debit charges though in my check register since it all appears on line before I even get home.
Yesterday though I ordered a subscription for my wife. Shirley after I got a fraud alert on my phone saying they denied the charge and wanted to know if it was really me. So I had to go through the whole thing again to re-order it. So I guess there are little irritations with using plastic. Donāt know what triggered it, if it was an Amazon deal or the amount. I do have daily purchase limits on them but was nowhere near the limit.
I also pay for dinner with plastic because the 3% surcharge is not onerous, but I donāt want to be socked with a 3% surcharge on either major dental work or on property taxes.
In the case of major dental work, that would have amounted to more than $40, and if I paid my property taxes with a credit card, the surcharge would be close to $100. Those are the only large purchases that I pay via check or a direct debit from my checking account.
In the past five years, I have received two checks! Everything else is direct deposit. Same here with property taxes something like 3% if CC but direct from checking is free.
I never understood why checks are OK but a debit card has the fee. Doesnāt the debit come right out of your checking account? Mine does, it shows online minutes after I use it.
Itās because they are issued by the same folks, visa and Mastercard and they are going to collect their fees. If you are a business, you have to take them on their terms. They broke ma bell up so maybe time to have at it.
For those poor folks that are up to their ears in credit card debt paying 28%, it is near impossible to pay it off. Worse than the mob. If you have other assets, good credit, and so on there is hope, but to others it is a death sentence.
We use checks to pay our bills unless the vendor will reduce our bill if we use direct payment from our checking account. These are all large, well known companies that would face stiff penalties if they mess with our checking account and the other thousands of customers they treat the same way. Iām not worried.
Ok, to get it back to cars, I just drove 40 miles in a snow storm. To all the air heads on the road, turn your gol dang lights on and back away a little more than five feet behind me. There is a reason Iām only driving 60 in a 70 limit. Lessons from a million miles and never in the ditch.
With all the AW Drive and 4WD drive vehicles out there today, these people think that it means they can drive in snow the same way they drive on dry pavement. WRONG.
I went in a ditch once. It was in the snow. I topped out on a hill and someone in a 2WD pickup coming up the other way lost traction and started to go sideways. I figured, well, take the ditch or t-bone the pickup. I took to the ditch.
Luckily it paid off. I missed the truck. The ditch was pretty shallow and no real harm done. Some good samaritan in a 4WD pulled me out. And I went on my merry way.
The first time I visited Logan UT I drove into town on a long, straight highway. It was snowing heavily. I was driving under the speed limit and was passed by a 4WD pickup going over the speed limit. I passed home after a couple of minutes. He slid off the road.
I believe that everyone should wear a seatbelt while driving and Iām fine with laws requiring it. Seatbelts save lives and prevent injuries. Most importantly, I donāt want people to die or be injured. Those not wearing seatbelts, aside from creating family tragedies, also cause financial ones.
Treatment of injuries and recovery from them is paid for by all of us through our insurance costs. If people leave the workforce their family suffers financially and it costs us through disability payments and possibly welfare payments. If kids are orphaned, it is expensive. Losing a productive member is sad. Etc. So it is a societal problem, not a personal freedom issue. And I donāt really get the freedom part here. There are many things that affect our freedom that are enforced for the good of society and there is no downside to wearing a seatbelt.
Back in the 70s before it was a law I had a friend of the family that would catch a ride with me on my way to work. She was very large and try as we did, the seat belt was not long enough to be able to buckle it. I was just pretty careful to drive without incident even in snow. Iām not sure it needs to be a law though, and you can justify anything going down the public cost slope.
There are still people that think it is better to be thrown clear of an accident.
CJ5 with vinyl doors, darn right I wore my seatbelt long before it was mandatory.
+1 to Bingās comments. Heās probably driven in more big snow storms than I have, but Iāve driven in my share, and I have also had to deal with people who had no clue about how to drive on snow & ice.
My worst white knuckle experience was on the Ohio Turnpike (which apparently didnāt own any snowplows) circa 1982. Only one lane was even barely passable, as a result of the 18 wheelers forging a path. I made it across the entire state without incident, but I quickly lost count of the overturned cars and Jeeps that sped past me on the snow-clogged left lane, and that shortly wound-up on the medianāupside down.
