Selling Epubs via Flash Drives

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

It does feel like the whole of the US is years behind in electronic payments.
I found my cheque book recently, and I haven't written a check since 2010. Even our window cleaner accepts bank transfers! And with many car parks now taking contactless payments, the need for cash has pretty much vanished too, they were the last things I carried coins for.

A couple of issues come into play here. I've been paying our bills online for at least 10 years, but early on, some payments were made using paper checks sent by the bank. A lot has to do with the bank itself also. Now, all of my utility bills and the one credit card payment we make each month (in full) is all done electronically. The only "bill" I pay online that is issued a paper check is the one I send to our church each month. The bank sends the paper check, at no extra cost to me.

Transactions are typed into Quicken when submitted, and downloaded and reconciled easily each month.

I know some of the area banks are still behind the times when it comes to online banking, as I've heard the complaints from family members about late payments, and payments sent before the date set. In all the years I've paid bills using my bank online, I've never had one problem caused by the bank, nothing paid late, nothing sent incorrectly. We pay zero bank fees for the 3 accounts we have.

My MIL still believes that every bill I pay online gives the receiving company full access to our bank account.

We will not sign up for auto-withdrawal from any utility. A few years back, we upgraded our DirecTV receiver to HD. The next bill they sent was for $650, as the single upgrade was put through 3 or 4 times. It took 3 months and 20 hours on the phone to get it correctly straightened out. If they had my money, I'm sure it would have taken months to get that money returned to us.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It seems like a strange system. In the UK, pretty much all utility companies offer you a discount for paying by Direct Debit (automated withdrawal from your bank account) because it's less work and expense for them that way.

I have wondered about that -debit or credit card payments are probably automated, while a company that accepts checks would have to pay actual humans to process the payments, if only for the purpose of interpreting the check writer's handwritten amount.

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

We will not sign up for auto-withdrawal from any utility. A few years back, we upgraded our DirecTV receiver to HD. The next bill they sent was for $650, as the single upgrade was put through 3 or 4 times. It took 3 months and 20 hours on the phone to get it correctly straightened out. If they had my money, I'm sure it would have taken months to get that money returned to us.

I've never tried autopay from my checking account - I've always worried about the possibility of having something go wrong and ending up with my account overdrawn. I use my credit card for autopay of my prepaid cell phone service.

[Sirtel]

Most of the recurring payments are automated here too. Of course you can choose to pay them yourself, but why bother. Only very rarely has something gone wrong with automated withdrawals and then it's been all over the news in big bold headlines (never happened to me personally). So the banks and utility companies are very careful about such things.

One of the few benefits of living in a tiny country. There's not much going on here that's not grabbed up by media and immediately put into headlines.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I have wondered about that -debit or credit card payments are probably automated, while a company that accepts checks would have to pay actual humans to process the payments, if only for the purpose of interpreting the check writer's handwritten amount.



I've never tried autopay from my checking account - I've always worried about the possibility of having something go wrong and ending up with my account overdrawn. I use my credit card for autopay of my prepaid cell phone service.

Ditto.
Autopays only via credit card and monitored every month.
If something wonky should happen, I'll dispute it and let the credit card company settle it.
Nobody has direct access to my checking but me.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Most of the recurring payments are automated here too. Of course you can choose to pay them yourself, but why bother. Only very rarely has something gone wrong with automated withdrawals and then it's been all over the news in big bold headlines (never happened to me personally). So the banks and utility companies are very careful about such things.

One of the few benefits of living in a tiny country. There's not much going on here that's not grabbed up by media and immediately put into headlines.

Our car insurance payments are auto withdrawn from our checking account. One month last year my bank called to let me know that the insurance company had submitted debit for $14,000.00 for my monthly payment. It is a national Insurance Company and I called them after telling the bank I was not authorizing the payment. Someone had mixed up accounts and they were trying to debit me for a companies fleet insurance payment. They quickly rectified matters.
Some times human oversite, as in the case of the bank is great. And some times human oversite, in the case of the insurance company can cause all kinds of grief if not caught early enough.
Apache

[Barbara1955]

Rent, Gym .. we use the pool are paid by check. Electric, Cable & Insurance paid in Cash.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Ditto.
Autopays only via credit card and monitored every month.
If something wonky should happen, I'll dispute it and let the credit card company settle it.
Nobody has direct access to my checking but me.

Same with me.

My credit card info was hacked 5 or 6 times in one year. The bank had to keep replacing my card. So there is no way anyone is getting my checking or debit card.

And I still receive paper copies of all my accounts and I review them closely each month.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Same with me.

My credit card info was hacked 5 or 6 times in one year. The bank had to keep replacing my card. So there is no way anyone is getting my checking or debit card.

And I still receive paper copies of all my accounts and I review them closely each month.

Don't get me started on debit cards.
Worst of all worlds. No meaningful protection for the user and more risk and delays in case of trouble.
Not really needed either: just pay off the credit card at the end of the month or sooner.

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Don't get me started on debit cards.
Worst of all worlds. No meaningful protection for the user and more risk and delays in case of trouble.
Not really needed either: just pay off the credit card at the end of the month or sooner.

This depends on the bank that issues the debit card. Ours has the exact same protections as a normal credit card. That said, fixing a problem would tie up the bank account during the process.

We only use our debit card to get cash from our account. We don't use it anywhere to pay for stuff. When we did use it, we ran it as a credit card, not using our PIN.

Our Chase card earns points on every purchase, so that is what we use. We average $25-$30 per month.

[Apache]

Most merchants prefer debit to credit charges. The fees charged, to a merchant, are significantly less for a debit card. And unlike large corporate merchants most small merchants do not store any electronic payment information at all. Even the receipts no longer print out the full card number.
Apache

[theducks]

I have an ATM card without the Visa or Mastercard logo. The reason. Credit card fraud protection is by LAW, not by the good will of the issuer (who can take a long time to give it back, if ever)

My credit card info has been stolen 2 times (both had chips) in the last decade. The weird thing: I only have it linked online in less than a dozen places. I use cash locally because of all the 'skimmer' devices found. I pay the City Utilities by check because they have made billing errors more than once. Keeping the money is far better than waiting for them to give it back

A DVD is overkill. My entire Library would fit on 2 dual layer discs

A CD is 700MB ( The last CD I burned was when I ripped a couple of my LP's to CDA so I could play those in my car (no MP3 or Audio input)

[shalym]

Originally Posted by theducks

A DVD is overkill. My entire Library would fit on 2 dual layer discs

A CD is 700MB ( The last CD I burned was when I ripped a couple of my LP's to CDA so I could play those in my car (no MP3 or Audio input)

...not to mention that most laptops don't have CD or DVD drives, and many desktops don't anymore, either.

Shari

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

We will not sign up for auto-withdrawal from any utility. A few years back, we upgraded our DirecTV receiver to HD. The next bill they sent was for $650, as the single upgrade was put through 3 or 4 times. It took 3 months and 20 hours on the phone to get it correctly straightened out. If they had my money, I'm sure it would have taken months to get that money returned to us.

It depends on the consumer protection laws in your country.
In the UK, the rules for direct debits (automated withdrawal from main account) are very consumer-friendly.
It either has to be for a fixed amount every month, or the company has to inform you of the amount they plan to withdraw a certain number of days before the withdrawal. You can cancel the plan at any time, and if you dispute any payment your bank will credit you with the disputed amount immediately, then investigate the matter.
We do anything that can be done by direct debit that way, and have never had an incorrect withdrawal. Most companies/utilities offer a discount for direct debit.
Conversely in the UK it is a bad idea to sign up for any recurring payments on a credit card, as they are very hard to cancel if the company claims a payment.
Here, single payments: prefer credit card, recurring payments: prefer direct debit.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

It depends on the consumer protection laws in your country.
In the UK, the rules for direct debits (automated withdrawal from main account) are very consumer-friendly.
It either has to be for a fixed amount every month, or the company has to inform you of the amount they plan to withdraw a certain number of days before the withdrawal. You can cancel the plan at any time, and if you dispute any payment your bank will credit you with the disputed amount immediately, then investigate the matter.
We do anything that can be done by direct debit that way, and have never had an incorrect withdrawal.

Ditto here. Also almost everyone uses a debit card when shopping, and hacking or stealing card info is exceedingly rare. Many people even don't have credit cards here. Mostly those who travel often or shop internationally.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Ditto here. Also almost everyone uses a debit card when shopping, and hacking or stealing card info is exceedingly rare. Many people even don't have credit cards here. Mostly those who travel often or shop internationally.

Hacking/stealing card info was very popular here for a while. Most stores now have their POS card reader/terminals configured even if they are accidentally disconnected momentarily, it needs to be re-authorized which makes swapping out the device useless. A local Whole Foods was the posterboy store when it turned out they had been hit over 5 times. It didn't help that they didn't want to admit to having been hacked multiple times and took way too long to inform their customers that their credit/debit card information had been compromised.

In Canada, I seem to remember seeing an average of 2.2 credit cards per person. There are those who have none and there are those who are drowning in credit card debt.