Credit Card Fraud (maybe not from my trip but...)

[ldubs]

On 11/6/2019 at 1:57 PM, pacruise804 said:

Thanks for the update. Catching and switching all the auto payments is the biggest pain since there isn't liability.  Glad you can find some humor in your situation 🙂 

 

Hmmm, Mrs Ldubs recently had her card compromised and received a new one with a new number.  The CC company recognizes the auto payments from the old number.  We didn't have to do anything.  

[pacruise804]

Glad that worked for Mrs. Ldubs.  We always had to switch - I guess just like cruising the credit cards are different too 🙂 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, pacruise804 said:

Glad that worked for Mrs. Ldubs.  We always had to switch - I guess just like cruising the credit cards are different too 🙂 

I was once notified to switch auto payment by IIRC our newspaper. The card number had not changed, but the old one had run out and I now had a new one with obviously a different expiration date.

[clo]

22 hours ago, SRF said:

 

It all depends on circumstances.

 

We bought a vehicle, where the manufacturer offered 1.9% financing.  Inflation rate was about 5 - 6% at the time.

 

Hmm, no wonder we financed every penny of the purchase. 😄

 

Know what you mean.  We bought a car some years ago.  It was no money down, 0% financing and 90 days until the first payment was due.  Duh 🙂  This purchase decision was more because "timing the market" is something that we never want to do and nowadays there have been huge swings.  We'll probably pay it off in one or two years.

[clo]

10 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

Hmmm, Mrs Ldubs recently had her card compromised and received a new one with a new number.  The CC company recognizes the auto payments from the old number.  We didn't have to do anything.  

We've had this happen three times IIRC.  The last time we had something like 45 days to switch over the auto-pays.  That helped a lot.

[SRF]

On 11/9/2019 at 12:20 AM, ldubs said:

 

Hmmm, Mrs Ldubs recently had her card compromised and received a new one with a new number.  The CC company recognizes the auto payments from the old number.  We didn't have to do anything.  

 

I have had that happen with a few cards

 

[pacruise804]

On 11/8/2019 at 12:34 PM, SRF said:

 

It all depends on circumstances.

 

We bought a vehicle, where the manufacturer offered 1.9% financing.  Inflation rate was about 5 - 6% at the time.

 

Hmm, no wonder we financed every penny of the purchase. 😄

 

 

I'm genuinely curious what I'm missing here.  Assuming a $20K vehicle financed over 3 years, why is it smarter to pay an extra $1100 for the vehicle rather than paying cash?  Either way the vehicle is a depreciating asset, so I'm not sure where the inflation comes into play.  

 

We replace our vehicle when it needs replaced, not based on inflation.  We also pay ourselves a car payment so we have the funds to purchase our vehicles without financing, so again inflation isn't something I factor in the decision.

[SRF]

Because, next year I am paying with inflated money.  If inflation is 5% per year, my $100 payment is really only $95.  And the next year $90, etc.

 

We did not buy BECAUSE of the financing, we needed a new vehicle, but we took advantage of the offer.

 

So in your case you save the money.  So you save $100 today, one year from now it is worth $95, and the next year $90.50, etc (at 5% inflation).  So after several years, you have saved up enough, but in reality you are also paying more for the vehicle. Since the money was worth more when you saved it.  Now yes, you do earn some interest on that money.  But the interest paid is always less than inflation.

 

Think of it this way, how about if you could have your salary of today, but buy a car at the prices even 10 years ago?  Would that be a savings?

 

I am not talking about the value of the vehicle.  We keep ours for a long time.  My newest car is over 7 years old.  The next newest is 17 years old. 

Edited November 12, 2019 by SRF

[clo]

10 hours ago, SRF said:

I am not talking about the value of the vehicle.  We keep ours for a long time.  My newest car is over 7 years old.  The next newest is 17 years old. 

We currently have our second new car in over 30 years.  The other is a 97 Subaru.

[clo]

22 hours ago, pacruise804 said:

We also pay ourselves a car payment so we have the funds to purchase our vehicles without financing,

Any big chunks of money have to come from investments.  We don't keep enough in a savings account to buy a car or motorhome.  We've had some wild swings in the market and we can just see taking a bunch out and having the Dow drop 400 points.  We have kind of a silly number that we use like "oh, we're ***'ers again."  Yesterday we talked about any time we get above that number, taking that amount out to put on the RV payment.  Also the payment we're making is about 10x what it needs to be.

[ldubs]

On 11/9/2019 at 3:38 AM, pacruise804 said:

Glad that worked for Mrs. Ldubs.  We always had to switch - I guess just like cruising the credit cards are different too 🙂 

 

Yeah it was a surprise to me and a real nice feature.  She still has to update other places that have a card on file, like Amazon, etc.  

 

Anyway, I have no idea what algorithms are used, but the CC company seems to be on top of things.  

[pacruise804]

On 11/12/2019 at 2:57 AM, SRF said:

Because, next year I am paying with inflated money.  If inflation is 5% per year, my $100 payment is really only $95.  And the next year $90, etc.

 

We did not buy BECAUSE of the financing, we needed a new vehicle, but we took advantage of the offer.

 

So in your case you save the money.  So you save $100 today, one year from now it is worth $95, and the next year $90.50, etc (at 5% inflation).  So after several years, you have saved up enough, but in reality you are also paying more for the vehicle. Since the money was worth more when you saved it.  Now yes, you do earn some interest on that money.  But the interest paid is always less than inflation.

 

Think of it this way, how about if you could have your salary of today, but buy a car at the prices even 10 years ago?  Would that be a savings?

 

I am not talking about the value of the vehicle.  We keep ours for a long time.  My newest car is over 7 years old.  The next newest is 17 years old. 

Thank you for the explanation.  For us it would end up being (roughly) a wash: 5% inflation, but saving at 3% in CD's (we don't invest money we need in less than 5 years) balances out at around 2% - the amount of interest.

 

Some vehicles we have kept many years, some we sold or traded early because our life situation changed.  Our current plan is purchasing 2-4 year old vehicles (already had bulk of depreciation loss), but upgrading after another 5 years or so.

[SRF]

What ever works.

 

My last two cars were either about or under 1 year since release, for a desirable performance car (cars are also my hobby).  So no depreciated ones for sale.  Not even ones for test drives. Both are ordered.

 

There are 3 cars bought off the lot, all three were needed NOW.  But managed to work a very good deal on them.  One was the one mentioned with 1.9% financing.

 

I have purchased 3 used cars in my life.  The first one was because that is what I could afford.  The next was a special circumstance.  And the third one was a collectible, that is currently worth some 4 times what I paid for it. 😄

 

Edited November 13, 2019 by SRF

[clo]

5 hours ago, SRF said:

I have purchased 3 used cars in my life.

I've read that car-wise the best thing you can do for the environment is buy a used car.  More pollution occurs in the manufacture than anything else.  Makes sense to me.

[Mike981]

Put us in the drive old cars crowd. We both work out of the house and only have one vehicle, a 2002 with 174,000 miles. I joke it's old enough to drive itself. Of course it's paid for and insurance is minor compared to a new or mostly new vehicle.

Just like food, everyone has different tastes.

[ilikeanswers]

2 hours ago, clo said:

I've read that car-wise the best thing you can do for the environment is buy a used car.  More pollution occurs in the manufacture than anything else.  Makes sense to me.

 

Well it depends how old the car is. The fact is newer cars do have technologies that make them pollute less (unless the company is doing the dodgy like Volkswagen). And one has to also factor in the newer safety features modern cars have. Usually the recommendation is buy a new car but keep it as long as possible. But if buying second hand don't buy too old make sure it has the technology that reduces emissions and petrol consumption. 

Edited November 13, 2019 by ilikeanswers

[SRF]

12 hours ago, clo said:

I've read that car-wise the best thing you can do for the environment is buy a used car.  More pollution occurs in the manufacture than anything else.  Makes sense to me.

 

Except, since I keep mine a LONG time, I prefer new, so I know it is treated right from day 1.  

 

Right now, I have a 2012, a 2002, and a 1995.  The 95 was used, but a collectible.

[clo]

6 hours ago, SRF said:

 

Except, since I keep mine a LONG time, I prefer new, so I know it is treated right from day 1.  

 

Right now, I have a 2012, a 2002, and a 1995.  The 95 was used, but a collectible.

Up in Seattle we keep a '91 Camry. One owner and the Carfax (or whatever it's called) showing 30 oil changes )

[SRF]

My Carfax reports will show 0 oil changes.  I do them myself. 🙂

 

But I keep records on each car.  Each oil change, date and mileage.  And actually track each fill up, date, miles driven, gallons, and price.

[Mike981]

3 hours ago, SRF said:

My Carfax reports will show 0 oil changes.  I do them myself. 🙂

 

But I keep records on each car.  Each oil change, date and mileage.  And actually track each fill up, date, miles driven, gallons, and price.

 

This is the kind of person I want to buy a car from. Good on you!

[ldubs]

3 hours ago, SRF said:

My Carfax reports will show 0 oil changes.  I do them myself. 🙂

 

But I keep records on each car.  Each oil change, date and mileage.  And actually track each fill up, date, miles driven, gallons, and price.

 

I do that for the boat motor.  But the cars, nope.  I haven't dealt with car maintenance for many years, so rely on copies of the dealer paperwork as a record.  I kind of follow your same model.  I buy cars new off the lot and keep them for a long time.  I recently traded in a 12 year old truck for a 2018 diesel truck.  The new technology made me feel like I had to relearn how to drive.  Haha. 

 

Anyway,  good job on the documentation.   

[pacruise804]

3 hours ago, SRF said:

My Carfax reports will show 0 oil changes.  I do them myself. 🙂

 

But I keep records on each car.  Each oil change, date and mileage.  And actually track each fill up, date, miles driven, gallons, and price.

My dad always did his own oil changes when I was little - sometimes I'd help 🙂 A benefit to your older cars is being able to do more work yourself without needing the computer.

 

I've had changes done by others now. Apartment living in early years didn't lend itself to changes, and now I wouldn't know where to take the oil for recycling.  

 

The record keeping is one area where we actually are similar 😄 I don't track price within the mileage spreadsheet (I do in my budget though), but do track date, gallons, mileage, miles driven, and MPH.  

[pacruise804]

4 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

I do that for the boat motor.  But the cars, nope.  I haven't dealt with car maintenance for many years, so rely on copies of the dealer paperwork as a record.  I kind of follow your same model.  I buy cars new off the lot and keep them for a long time.  I recently traded in a 12 year old truck for a 2018 diesel truck.  The new technology made me feel like I had to relearn how to drive.  Haha. 

 

Anyway,  good job on the documentation.   

 

We recently donated our 2001, 227K mile Blazer.  Since we now only have 2 drivers at home we aren't planning to replace for a while.  I've been talking to my 14 yo about driving when I take him to/from school to hopefully help make the process smoother for him when he turns 16.  He didn't realize we weren't replacing and said he hoped our next car didn't have a back-up camera so he could learn "the old-fashioned" way 🤣I let him know to just ignore the camera on the cars we have (CR-V and Pilot) when it's his turn to learn.  I guess he should learn both ways 😉 

[ldubs]

20 minutes ago, pacruise804 said:

 

We recently donated our 2001, 227K mile Blazer.  Since we now only have 2 drivers at home we aren't planning to replace for a while.  I've been talking to my 14 yo about driving when I take him to/from school to hopefully help make the process smoother for him when he turns 16.  He didn't realize we weren't replacing and said he hoped our next car didn't have a back-up camera so he could learn "the old-fashioned" way 🤣I let him know to just ignore the camera on the cars we have (CR-V and Pilot) when it's his turn to learn.  I guess he should learn both ways 😉 

 

The new truck has a back-up camera.  First for me.  Sure makes life easier.  

 

Aww, the student driver is just around the corner.   I recall those days with our kids.  I think that is when I started to turn gray.  Haha

[clo]

10 minutes ago, ldubs said:

The new truck has a back-up camera.  First for me.  Sure makes life easier.  

 

Especially for parallel parking in tight spaces.