Hold on credit card

[Clarea]

Thanks for all the info. I don't travel much and appreciate all the help from all of you. Got points for paying cruise fare, that was a no brainier.

 

But reading the responses make me think of two more things.

1. I have cc that has no foreign transaction fees. Is use of cc in the ports pretty secure?

 

2. What are TSA or Nexus fees. Never heard of them?

 

Thanks again for help

The fees for TSA Pre-check or Nexus are to get pre-screened by the government so you can pass through security faster.

[goodycruising]

My debit card has the limit I want on it, at any time. $500 typically, but if I want to spend a lot more, it's no issue to "raise" my limit by doing a near instant transfer.

 

Thank you for taking the time to explain how your system works. I totally get what you are saying.

 

We have been spreading the risk more the last couple of years as well as looking at annual fees etc. We have fee free accounts with a few different banks, a couple are debit cards, and fee free credit cards with different limits. The big limit card stays in the safe at work.

 

We have a friend who thinks we are mad, but you really have to do what suits you personally. We are not talking a lot of money. The little amount of interest we lose is a price we are prepared to pay to work things how it suits our risk assessment.

 

Your idea of sending luggage on is something I hadn't heard of before, and to be able to carry a light bag off the plane and bypass the luggage carousel waiting, and the damaged suitcases, brilliant!

 

When putting forward our experiences of what works for us, it is often taken wrongly by others as a criticism of their way of doing things. It is not. I am not going to do my travel your way, but I will take your ideas and cherry pick some to add to the way I do it. Neither of us is wrong or right, we all have different priorities. We get a similar thing with some friends who are determined we MUST do insides because they think it works best for them. Good on them, we will do the balconies that suit us. Neither is wrong or right!

[Npowers0731]

As an employee at a bank who has dealt with many types of fraud, I HIGHLY recommend using a credit card on all travel. Doesn't have to be a bank card, can be any credit card, but it is way easier to take care of fraud if anything happens on your side and the bank/card company side.

 

It does sound like dada2199cc has a prepaid card that he uses instead of a normal debit card that would pull directly from a bank account that could go negative and accrue overdraft charges if something happens on your trip. A lot of people think a prepaid card is it's own account but they have different terms to an actual bank account and in many cases cannot go negative, you only have what you have put on it to lose.

 

Yes the debit cards will typically have equal fraud assistance to a credit card but they can create so many more headaches and in rare instances if they get your money from your bank account, it could be gone forever. Typical time to get credit for a debit card fraud is 10 days and can really hurt anything you may have set up with your bank. If someone gets your credit card, just call your company and the worst that can happen is you don't have use of that card until you get a new one (same would happen to your debit card as you NO LONGER HAVE MONEY).

 

If something works for you for whatever reason, go for it, I don't claim to be the ultimate fraud protection advisor and I don't speak for my financial institution, I just know what I have seen happen to people and want everyone to be safe.

[gooddayz]

To all the great people who gave us info- just think we're going to do everything on credit and if something weird happens we can take care of when we get home.

 

Probably making more out this than should be. Was just kind of worried with all the pre authorizions, dropping off & added on, etc. won't be charging enough to worry about points, mainly looking for most secure and problem free way.

 

I think this brings up one thing.....I gotta get out of house and travel more🛳

[cruisinfanatic]

 

Now, with credit cards and travel, twice have I had the number copied and both times it was a bit of a headache dealing with the credit card merchants (who did investigate and didn't charge me anything, but the offending international retailers fought the charge backs). $11,000 on a credit card with a high limit when you're traveling is still a headache, and since I only put a $500 on my debit when I travel, it's impossible to happen.

Had some problems over the years with credit card fraud. Pretty rare if you haven't if you use them.

 

Exactly but you do have to do the work to make sure it works for you. I can't count how many friends of mine will brag about free airfare but keep secret the $4800 a year they're paying in interest. It makes zero sense to me, but if they think they're getting a value, yay I guess.

I brag about my free airfare and I pay no interest. The last time I did was because I forgot to pay the bill on time one month.

Not using a rewards card loses you a lot of money for purchases you make regardless of payment. Using Southwest there are no baggage fees and they go where I want to go. When not using my southwest card I use another card which pays 6$ for groceries, 3% on gas, and 1 on the rest. Not taking advantage of the perks reward cards give is throwing money away. I haven't paid for air (4 round trips most years) in 6 years

 

I suspect most people that don't use credit cards know they can't control their spending with them

Edited December 9, 2015 by SeaUs

[1SGCruiser]

Not to say that the smart and thrifty consumer can't get amazing perks from using a mileage or rewards card, but the majority of folks who use them are probably pay 18% at some point. CC'ers may not be in that group, but I have no idea as I haven't seen your credit card statements and would prefer not to.

 

Good point. If you end up paying interest on your purchases made via CC, that's not a good idea because the interest costs are so high. So, we ensure that even though we purchase virtually everything on a CC, we pay all CC debt off each month to avoid any interest costs. We haven't paid interest on any credit card in well over 10 years. I understand everyone can't do that, so using CC's to accrue points or miles would (or should) be out for them.

Edited December 9, 2015 by 1SGCruiser

[AZCactusCruiser]

 

It does sound like dada2199cc has a prepaid card that he uses instead of a normal debit card that would pull directly from a bank account that could go negative and accrue overdraft charges if something happens on your trip. A lot of people think a prepaid card is it's own account but they have different terms to an actual bank account and in many cases cannot go negative, you only have what you have put on it to lose.

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure he knows what type of card he has and if you actually read what he writes, you'd know he uses a debit card too.

[BARNET]

We choose a cash account Royal will allow you up to $500 before asking for any payment, them the day before or even the last day go down with either a debit or CC and register it then that way we no that no hold will even be on the cards.

That works for us.