Scarab4life... We signed up recently through AAA for a Royal Caribbean Cruise in September. We had to give passport and CC information to pay the down payment required. When I emailed AAA for a receipt and asked a few questions.. one being when our date was to pay the balance.. They replied "Your deposit of $500 has been processed by Royal Caribbean and your final payment will be charged to the card on file July 1, 2014." That was news to me.. but I was watching over hubby's shoulder when he filled out the online AAA travel form to sign up for the cruise where you enter all that info.. I suppose it's possible that there was a box checked regarding the rest of the balance being charged to the card.. I'm not sure.. or something maybe in the terms that I'm sure we had to check a box for .. They did seem nice and helpful enough in their reply.. and either way we will be paying from that account on that date.. so I'm ok with it I guess. I did like that we got a couple of extras going through AAA like A Complimentary Soda Package and One Dinner for two at a Specialty Restaurant on Board the ship in addition to the extras from Royal Caribbean :) Have a great trip.. This will be our third Cruise through Royal Caribbean. Jazziegirlie

But to keep shopping for cards - I hate to have so many opening and closing credit cards on my credit. When they cross me, I just inform them that I won't be using their card anymore...that it will be stored safely at the back of the file (or whatever) and never carried or used....just to let them know it is unlikely I will ever be using them. I rather think that the average joe customer service really does not care much. Maybe it would get their attention if one was to drop the 'approved amount from 5, 10, 20, or 50 K down to say $500...and then stick it in drawer. It seems they really want to give us some money (debt) yet aren't willing to give folks even with super credit rating, super rates. I just checked and my Discover (the only one I regularly use and always pay off each month) has a rate of 17.49% for purchases, and 22.99% for cash advances. Sheesh...Let's revolt! I think I'll call now and ask that they remove that cash advance option....suggesting for security reasons. That rate is outrageous. When I checked a score (it wasn't FICO but some other name and scale) a year or so ago, it said my score was 98.5...only 1.5 away from being 100 percent perfect. Shouldn't that warrant a pretty decent rate? Sue

Greg H, Your message tells me how you are managing ... debt. Wisely, yes. To your advantage, yes. It's still ... debt. D-E-B-T - a four-letter word! Cut it whatever way you like, it's still debt. Which can be become a *serious* problem when it's misused. That you are obligated to pay - even if you get a temporary lay-off, or with certain specific skills no longer in demand, a pretty well permanent one, or suffer permanent disability, or have a kid who subsequently develops a need for $50,000. worth of uninsured medical care - or even die. There's only one way you can avoid it - go bankrupt. Which steals from other folks who gave you services in good faith, from which you walked away. Some do that several times - walk away ... smiling. The message was, as I said earlier, not directed to the likes of you or people anywhere near as smart as you when it comes to managing money. Like, maybe, your friend's kid who, though s/he was in college, wasn't too smart when it came to money management. A local Canadian financial consultant complains that they don't teach much about it in school. If the corporations, including the financial ones, get their feet more heavily into the schools, there'll probably be even less. In his book, he offers advice on how to make a rate of return of 40% or better on your money - guaranteed. Proviso - you can only make that (before-tax) rate on store-issued credit cards whose balance you pay off. Maybe, had your friend's offspring not been willing to pay attention to his/her parent, as being out of the dark ages when it came to instructions as to wise ways to live, s/he'd have listened to you had you offered some advice. The reason for making the point about it actually being a debt that was being incurred when you use the card was to try to get some people who know much less than you about money management to begin to think about it somehat differently. The point of the message was to show them how they might reduce their cost somewhat if they followed a different pattern than some may have started through following the easy path of signing up for a store-issued card. I approached it with some trepidation, for I was advising ... taking out an additional card. Which could (too?) easily have a major debt run up on it, as well - leaving the holder in a deeper hole than previously. Should I become aware of that result springing from advice which I had given, it would trouble me greatly. Much more concerned than I was about complaints such as yours - which I hear about half of the time that I make this point. By the way - you didn't say that I was wrong - you just said that everybody does it, right? By the way, elsewhere in the message, when I was not dealing with the specific issue of the debt aspect of the card, I referred to them without using the quotation marks. Your country - government and people - is drowning in debt. And digging the hole deeper, daily. The "value" of your dollar is dropping - had you noticed? Good wishes to you for wise management of your money - and assets, Greg. ole joyful

I am a merchant who accepts credit cards. On this end it's pretty cut and dry. I get a notice of a chargeback and I must produce my copy of the credit card receipt with their signature on it. It must be either imprinted or through a terminal. With online sales I must produce the hard copy of the order. I have 5 business days to either send or fax my copy proving the charge, or the money is automatically deducted from my bank. Plus a $25 fee. I get chargebacks because I'm an artist who does art and craft fairs throughout the northeast and there are times people in say, New Jersey see a charge from a company they never heard of in Vermont. "I've never been to Vermont!" So they challenge. I produce the receipt and a note they made a purchase at such and such craft fair, and it's done. Go to your credit Union in person and talk to someone who can actually help you. Have someone with some authority help you. You're finding out phone tag doesn't work. Go up the chain of command at the CU to get things done. You have 24 months from the date of the alleged charge to challenge it. The merchant has 5 business days to answer.