Credit Cards

I love them. I think most readers know that I run my own business. These days electronic transactions are popular. Paying bills by remote control is just so easy. Going through my accounts for the last month I found about $700 in cheques from businesses for various reasons – mostly refunds for varuious purposes although in one case it was for an item that a client had ordered but was not yet in stock.

I love credit cards. People can ring me up and pay bils, or go to the Post Office and pay though PostBillPay, or BPay me. It is so easy. I never need to see an actual Credit Card. Though my accounting software, I get a 1-300 number which people can ring to pay bills anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. Then the next day I get an email that I click on, and the email automatically tells the software that the clients have paid, and that the money is in the account. This is too easy.

My Superanuation is paid the same way. I just log into the software, say how little I have paid myself, and the money is transferred automatically. I also write some software that is fairly non-commercial. There are two pieces of software – one for US$20 and the other for US$5. I get paid through PayPal for these. I normally offset the income with software I get others to write which I also pay with PayPal.

Basically the world is changing. When I went to the USA in 1992, I took a Visa card, and it was great. Most things were pre-paid so I didn’t use much money. 1997 I took some traveler’s cheques but that was for hotels, and I used my card for everything else. 2000 in the USA I used my Credit Card until the company I was working for paid me, which would have been find if the hotel had not placed a hold on US$500 of my funds when I checked in.

My world trip last year was booked through a travel agency, mostly, and I just used my card for spending money…

When I went to New Zealand a few weeks ago I just booked the flight one way on my Visa card. Over there I went to the bank after a few days to get some spending money which was mostly used to buy some presents at the airport when I left. And when I was ready to come home I booked a flight.

With electronic money, the world really has changed.