Bruce, My real question is about how Paypal works, not how credit cards work. Paypal seems to allow me to use any payment type I want regardless of what the seller accepts. I understand how it must seem that CC charges are a rip off of the business owners profits, however, I beg to differ with you on it creating jobs. Do you have any idea how many people are employed in the finance industry? The business model for cc charges is that the convenience increases your volume of sales sufficiently to more than offset the costs- which you then pass on to the consumer in the form of higher prices. If it does not in fact increase your sales volume and/or your market conditions don't allow you to increase pricing to offset the associated fees, then it is a service that does not make sound business sense. But the fact is most customers will spend more per purchase with a credit card than they will by check or cash only. I, for one, am willing to pay the extra few dollars per purchase for the convenience factor of this service. In fact I don't even mind if a few small retailers charge me that 3% directly on my purchase. I don't write checks at all anymore and prefer to simplify my record keeping by writing one single check per month to pay off the credit card charges. And I have walked away from businesses w/o making a purchase because they did not accept credit cards- not to be stubborn but just that I don't carry cash or checkbook. I don't use the credit card for carrying debt so rarely pay any finance charges- and you should have seen the store clerk's face when I walked in to pay off a $20,000 bill one month. I understand how many people get into impossible debt using credit cards but believe it should be the consumer's responsibility to use credit cards wisely or not use it at all. It should not be the retail industry, bank industry, or government to force us into any particular method of managing our finances. It's also up to the consumer to find & use the credit card with the best terms. Just my $.02

Just for fun I'll post in this ancient thread LOL Joyfulguy Your thoughts on Costcos etc. is how I feel about bottled water. Why buy it when it comes free from the tap and has flouride in it to boot. :) My state is ranked very high on cleanest water anyhow. Anyhow as far as the Costco sitch I side with Costco. Of course it is annoying for the purchaser when they don't know the rules. Who's fault that is I won't touch because I myself don't always pay attention to the rules and get caught out there too. Hey it happens. As to why pay someone for the priveledge to shop in their store. For me I'd rather give them $40 bucks a year and save hundreds over that year than give the local markets all my money for less food. Plus I shop less often and don't have to make trips to the local markets to try and find which one has the sales. Just the amount I save in meats alone is worth it. I was sick last month and didn't feel like driving to BJ's and went to the market. I came home with very little and spent so much money. I wished I had just bundled up and took the drive. BJ's around the Holidays is great! I spend $40 to save literally hundreds. There are other things I won't pay for a membership figure why should I pay you just to join but in the case of BJ's etc. I can see the worth and $40 not bad at all. I'm single but I imagine it would be even better for those with children. So will this thread continue to live or will it die again! Its kinda like Jason Vorhees, it just won't die!

I can still post today! And for those of you who may have wondered, all that trash was dumped effortlessly into the garbage truck and whisked away to the landfill. Now, one of my most important stretches of kitchen countertop is clear, that is the nearly six feet between the main sink and the back door/garage area of my house. Formerly, that spot had been loaded, and I mean fully covered and stacked, with papers, hair doodads, ballet shoes, Boy Scout patches, files, coupons, receipts, bits and pieces of small toys, playing cards, etc. Cleaning off that counter space has finally given me a landing pad for groceries or other gear that is carried in from the van. So now, when I grocery shop, I don't unload bags onto the kitchen floor, I have the counter. This is so much easier on my back and we don't trip over the bags until they get unloaded. In order to clean this countertop, I threw away as much as I could, then I asked my teenage daughter to simply stuff everything else into a milk crate or I moved the papers to the kitchen table. I asked her for help because I was burning out (I worked on this counter for the better part of the weekend in-between everything else) and had the goal of finishing the job by Sunday dinner. When I got to the point where I simpy could not stand to look at another tangible sign of my inability to get it together, she willingly stepped in. She couldn't dejunk a whole lot, but she could move it to milk crates and the kitchen table (we eat in the dining room). So, of course my table is unusable. Today I've got to tackle my kitchen table. I have stacks of papers from the three different schools my children attend, in addition to receipts, recipes, books, magaizines, church bulletins, etc. So that's how I'll spend the better part of my morning. To celebrate my "new" counter space, I found a lovely white embossed decorative pot (in my closet), and bought some cheap silk white geraniums and pale yellow roses for the pot. Now that arrangement sits in the corner and it helps me keep that place clean. It has been clean for about a week. My laundry room is now at the point where I have a clutter free place to put my laundry-sorting totes (I have nine of them; one for each member of my family, plus a tenth for linens and towels), that place being the top of the dryer and across my freezer. So.... I hope to fold and sort laundry in the laundry room as it leaves the dryer rather than toss it on a sofa (where it typically sits for days on end). My laundry room is also my office, I'm sitting here right now on my computer at the conter height desk we built as a part of our remodel. Anway, Talley, my son had a friend coming over yesterday and that burst of cleaning has left my house neater than it has been in months, thanks to slow but steady progress with dejunking. And D.A.Y.Y. I agree 100% about consumable gifts. And what a great idea about making the card special, that's the perfect way to demonstrate the feelings behind the gift. And Talley, I got rid of my stackers. They were in the laundry room (the only place I could set them was on the dryer, and I need that real estate for my folding) where they basically stored papers. I need a better way to deal with the vast amount of paper I receive in any given day. Using a calendar faithfully will help immensely. But letting go of all of the precious things my children bring home is what I need to do. Childhood is so fleeting, I want to treasure each thing each of my children does, that is sit down with them, talk about their work, shower them with praise..... but of course that doesn't happen. Anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print. I'm heading for the kitchen table! Thanks again for all of your encouraging replies. ~Cindy

I lucked out on that one, huh Joy! Usually I pay the day I get the notice and would have, had it not been for PayPal. Urlee