How do I pay credit card bill?

A

AmericanWannabe

Registered Users (C)
This is not the right forum but apparently most of
you are right people to ask.

I am planning a trip outside the USA. I wannna know
how I can pay my credit card bills on time.

On most cards, it gives phone number for collect call.
Do banks really accept expensive collect call? If so,
 
why do you need to call the credit card company ?

you can pay your bill online or by check at any time. or you can go to the cc company's website and schedule payment there.
 
credit card payments

I went on a trip to India a few months back

My method -

two months before going I stopped using credit cards and started using only my ATM-Debit card.

I also paid all my credit card bills in full.

There fore no balance was outstanding - Hence I did not face any problem during my stay in India.

Another method that you could use is as follows.

I bank with Bank of America and they have an online system through the internet where you could use the Bill Pay option.

This option allows you to schedule your payments for the next six months.

So - If your bank has an online bill pay option you could use that to make minimum payments while you are out of the country.

Or open an account with Bank of America and do the same.

Or - you could write all your cheques and put them in envelopes and hand them to a colleague or friend to mail on a specific date - or you could give them to the receptionist in your office etc etc.

Hope the above ideas help
 
(1) 800 or other toll free numbers are NOT toll-free when dialled from outside the USA (perhaps Canada is an exception, I am not sure).

(2) I schedule payments before I leave (I use my bank's on-line bill payment service). Works very well. You can estimate how much you need to pay by checking your CC accounts before you leave. Although I try not to carry a credit card balance to another billing period, I find that can't be avoided at times since one can't always make an exact estimate of the amount. I pay back whatever is remaining when I return. As far as your credit rating is concerned, it will be fine as long as you make the minimum payment.
 
Online bill pay / Automatic Deduction

U can open a bank account which has an option for Online BuillPay, I have such an account at NetBank. A lot of other bank offer this service, look for the ones which offer online bil pay for free (NetBank is one of them).

Or in some cards u can have it setup so that your bill is automatically deducted from your designated checking accoun at the due date- I have a Discover & a mastercard & I have set this up for both of them . Uh..but do watch out for NSF (Non-Sufficient Funds) i.e. your balance should be good enough to pay the credit card bill otherwise u may be slapped with fees from both sides (Bank & Credit Card)
 
The toll-free 800 numbers for calling credit card companies do not work for calls from abroad. However, every credit card company should have a collect number available for calling from abroad. Usually this collect number is printed on the back of a card.


And yes, they definitely do accept those collect calls. I made a number of such calls myself (to my Chase and Citibank credit cards) when I was travelling in Europe and Israel .

So all you need to do is call them collect, find out your balance and then mail them a check for the amount due.
 
I thnink expensive collect call will cut down their profit margin greatly. I do not like automatic payment because if someone
used my card, I'll automatically pay for their misuse of my card.
 
reply

Let's say u bank with Bank of America and they allow you to schedule your payments

Now I can schedule to pay Card1 on November 5th for 30 usd
and card 2 on November 10th for 30 usd and card 1 on december 5th and card 2 on december 10th

hence I can make minimum payments on future dates from my current account with Bank of America to credit cards

Maybe your Bank allows you to schedule payments on future dates . In case your bank does not allow you to do so open an account with a bank that does allow you to do this.
 
I have cards with First USA. I have given them authority to deduct full outstanding balance each month. So I don't have to bother to pay it off. Just have to make sure that the due amount balance is available in my checking account. I don't have bill pay. I do the same for my mobile phone, phone bill etc. That is authority to charge the balance to my credit card. This way I just monitor my credit card through the web to make sure everthing is correct. Some card companies such as Sears do not have automatic deductions. I have such a card but use it only for getting discounts at Sears, likewise with store cards.
Regading AmericanWanabe's fear of overcharging. You get 3 weeks to make sure that your credit card bill is right. So there is no risk of overcharging etc.
 
AmericanWannabe wrote:

I thnink expensive collect call will cut down their profit margin greatly.
Click to expand...

Just let me get this straight:

You don't want to make a collect call to a credit card company
because... you are "afraid of cutting down THEIR profit margin".

Really ???! This is so silly, it is actually hilarious!
 
3 weeks should be enough time for you to see if there is anything wrong with your credit card bill. I can't remember when I had a wrong charge on my account. Even if you do have some problem, you can always do a reverse charge call to the lost cards number and ask to be connected to their billing section.
 
What I meant is not that I care about their profit
(though I think we should because the cost
will eventually be passed to us customers), rather
than my curisosity why banks want to take such collect calls
to eat away their oiwn profits.

I also cancled some credit cards since I have too many.
The doscover card persuavade me to stay by offering
me 20 dollars credits if I spent 100 bucks befor the end
of this year even though I specifically told them that
I would spend only 100 bucks. I do not see how
they cam make money by such deals if they only
take 2-3% of the $100 purchase, which is nothing
compared to 20 busck they gave me. A few month back,
because I did not use a card at all. The bank also sent
me $10 certificate for me to do a few dozen bucks
of purchase.

I don't know how to stop banks from sending credit card
solicitation letters. My family almost got one everyday.
I heard one letter cost roughly $1 to send.
I spent on credit cards roughly 10K to 20K each year.
2% means credit card earsn $200 to $400. If the
banks spent basically same amount of money on sending
solicitation letters to every credit card user out there,
the whole industry may not be profitable.

Of course, it is said that the biggest profit come from
the interests and finacial charges. But I doubt many people
really carry the balances from month to month. In my opinion,
the average amount of carrying balance in news media is
exaggerated, it include those who pay entire balace every
months.
 
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credit card info

credit card companies make money from

a) Late fees
b) Interest
c) Selling Your information
d) Per transaction fee (You buy goods worth 100 usd the merchant gets 97 usd and you are charged 100 usd - so the credit card company makes 3 usd)
e) Balance transfer charges
f) Marketing other services like insurance or magazines or Movie tickets etc etc
g) Selling other items like sunglasses etc etc


Many aggressive companies are marketing their services very vigorously and making a lot of money for example Citi Bank and Discover

There are some companies who are targetting high risk people and losing money trhrough bad debt like Capital one and Providian.

It is incorrect to say that the average american does not have the debts which are reported in the news media.

I know a lot of people who have debts and are paying a lot of interest charges.

If this industry was unprofitable it would make changes to get back into the green - but all these companies are prospering healthily.
 
It is easy to stop the all solicitations. Do a search for federal trade commissioner. I have opted out of phone solicitations, mail solictations and also removed the authority for credit companys to search my credit history without my permission and to mail me applications. It is pretty simple to do it and does not cost anything. I will probably save one tree in my lifetime.
 
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