ron@brl-vgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (04/03/84)
My VISA and MC cards from Rocky Mountain Bankcards (originator of the PLUS network) have taken to giving these premium bucks. When you apply the premium bucks you get the list price down to what the discount catalog places such as Best products, LaBelle's, or whatever it's called in your area is. In addition, the little flyers of items never seem to have any thing I want to order (just things like ghetto blasters and other useless crap). I have a card from Citicorp called CHOICE. I got it when they bought out two local credit card companies: NAC and Central Charge (formerly owned by the Riggs National Bank in D.C.). They give a half a percent rebate at the end of year provided you spent $600 dollars (as I pay for my Gasoline with this card it was no problem). They used to give you 5-1/4% interest on your account if you overpaid it, but some stupid government agency made them stop in order to protect the consumer. Unfortunately CHOICE is only good from Northern Virginia up to New York. No one else has ever heard of it. -Ron
wally@cornell.UUCP (Wally Dietrich) (04/03/84)
I have a VISA card with NO annual fee through a credit union. Do most credit unions charge for charge cards?
mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (04/04/84)
Execucharge? Gag! We got hooked by them too. The 1% sounds wonderful, but they charge a high annual fee and a 21% (as I recall) APR. They also feature a very low minimum payment and lots of programs to let you skip the payment at all some months. The whole thing is geared to having you buy lots of stuff on that card, then take the maximum amount of time to pay it back. So they make a fortune in interest. Once we figured out that we could only lose, we paid the card off as fast as we could afford and cut it up. State Savings in Columbus has free checking with a free Visa. If you ask around you might find some savings and loans or credit unions in Atlanta that have a similar service. Mark
rpw3@fortune.UUCP (04/05/84)
#R:emory:-131200:fortune:39400006:000:1219
fortune!rpw3 Apr 4 23:53:00 1984
Re: nice "VISA" deals.
This is only nice if you normally carry a bit of money in your checking
account, but a "Schwab One" assets management account gives you a free
VISA [*], free checking, and reasonably good interest on your money.
You have to have $5000 to open it, but the balance can get down to $500
before they complain. (You can also buy/sell/margin/option stocks, which
is what they really expect you to do.)
I've only had an account there for a short time, but so far I've had
no problems (...said the man as he fell past the 15th floor...).
Anybody else got any experience with these folks?
[*] Catch: the VISA card is really a DEBIT card, not a CREDIT card.
What you "charge" on it comes right out of your account, boom! On the
other hand, your "authorization limit" is ALL of your cash (less $500)
plus 50% of your marginable stocks, so you could walk in a buy a car
with it if you had enough to back it, I suppose. (They also extend true
credit against your marginable stocks at pretty low rates, but not
against your cash.)
Rob Warnock
UUCP: {ihnp4,ucbvax!amd70,hpda,harpo,sri-unix,allegra}!fortune!rpw3
DDD: (415)595-8444
USPS: Fortune Systems Corp, 101 Twin Dolphin Drive, Redwood City, CA 94065woods@hao.UUCP (Greg Woods) (04/06/84)
I have one of those AAA VISA cards ($6/year, through Rocky Mountain Bankcards)
too. I don't use it much, because I have another free VISA card at my credit
union. The credit union also offers free checking with 6% interest, as opposed
to the 5.75% the banks pay. The second card from AAA serves to increase my
credit limit (which I may need soon, as I'm buying my first place and don't
want to use the crappy furniture I now have, and I will need some applicances
too), and I get free American Express travelers checks from the local AAA
office (i.e. without the normal 1% fee). Of course, it costs $35/year to
belong to AAA. You do get some benifits for this, but it just goes to show:
They get you one way or another.
GREG
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