clayton@mary.DEC (Cluster Verification, 261-3917, NIO/B2) (01/27/86)
<...........> I received several requests for the address of Mercantile Trust, however, because of a disk failure I lost return addresses, so I am posting this rather than mailing... I have read the fine print and what it boils down to is this: They do have a finance charge, and it is based on your "average daily balance" for the month, so in a sense you could call it interest on your purchases from time of use, except it isn't considered interest (no tax benefit). The amount of the charge is 1.65% (19.8 annual) for balance under $1,000 or .833% (10 annual) for a balance over $1,000 NOT TO EXCEED 1.50 per month. So there is a ceiling of $18.00 per year. Since I use my card for emergency or large purchases only I have never paid that much (most months I never even use the card which means no finance charge to compute with the average daily balance being $0.00). Soooooo, depending on how you use your card, this may be a good deal for you, it may not. Of course a maximum of $18.00/year doesn't seem too bad (compared to some I've seen) if you use the card a lot. They do, also, give the discount dollars credit for use towards purchase from VISAs catalog (Very uninteresting to me). Address: Mercantile Trust Company PO Box 306 St. Louis, MO 63166 Elizabeth ....decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-vicki!clayton
hlb@loral.UUCP (01/28/86)
In article <730@decwrl.DEC.COM>, clayton@mary.DEC (Cluster Verification, 261-3917, NIO/B2) writes: > > > They do have a finance charge, and it is based on your "average daily > balance" for the month, so in a sense you could call it interest on your > purchases from time of use, except it isn't considered interest (no tax > benefit). The amount of the charge is 1.65% (19.8 annual) for balance under > $1,000 or .833% (10 annual) for a balance over $1,000 NOT TO EXCEED 1.50 per > month. So there is a ceiling of $18.00 per year. Since I use my card for > > Mercantile Trust Company > PO Box 306 > St. Louis, MO 63166 > > Elizabeth > ....decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-vicki!clayton NOT TO EXCEED 1.5 should read 1.5% thus it would not have an $18.00/yr cap. The $18.00/yr cap would imply $1.50 x 12 months.
clayton@vicki.DEC (Cluster Verification, 261-3917, NIO/B2) (01/31/86)
>> >> They do have a finance charge, and it is based on your "average daily >> balance" for the month, so in a sense you could call it interest on your >> purchases from time of use, except it isn't considered interest (no tax >> benefit). The amount of the charge is 1.65% (19.8 annual) for balance under >> $1,000 or .833% (10 annual) for a balance over $1,000 NOT TO EXCEED 1.50 per >> month. So there is a ceiling of $18.00 per year. Since I use my card for >> >> Mercantile Trust Company >> PO Box 306 >> St. Louis, MO 63166 >> >> Elizabeth >> ....decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-vicki!clayton > >NOT TO EXCEED 1.5 should read 1.5% thus it would not have an $18.00/yr >cap. The $18.00/yr cap would imply $1.50 x 12 months. > No, it is $1.50/month cap, or $18.00/yr ceiling. The interest rates are as specified (1.65% and .833%), they do not fluctuate (of course, Mercantile reserves the right to change them, but they haven't yet). I will repeat as it has been cut out - depending on how you use your card this may or may not be a good deal for you (it is for me). Elizabeth