I don't know how, unless the transaction somehow gets 'lost' in the system. My credit card company actually debits my checking account the very same day they receive my check, even before they deposit it. They send the check along later........
Pay off your credit cards, get labeled a terrorist suspect?
- Thread starter Manedwolf
- Start date
- Status
alan
Member
Given that my wife and I have NEVER run any kind of BALANCE on any of the credit cards that we use or have used, we examine the statements when we get them, and barring the appearance of something "funny", we write a check for the amount shown, I suppose that we have been on someone's "list" back to that long forgotten time before lists were kept.
I also suppose that the credit card companies don't really like us much, possibly due to the fact that they have never collected a penny of usurious interest rates they charge from us. They simply have to get along on the "bite" they take out of merchants.
Funny thing is that while I feel for them, I just cannot seem able to reach them.
I also suppose that the credit card companies don't really like us much, possibly due to the fact that they have never collected a penny of usurious interest rates they charge from us. They simply have to get along on the "bite" they take out of merchants.
Funny thing is that while I feel for them, I just cannot seem able to reach them.
The Real Hawkeye
member
That's despicable! I don't recall the national referendum about giving up our rights due to 9/11. I never got a chance to vote on it.
LiquidTension
Member
Well my tax refund is paying the balance of my credit card so I guess that's yet another "list" I'll be on.
The Real Hawkeye
member
Yeah, but you know what? The rules of the game say that the Federal Government is a government of limited and delegated powers. Those powers are delegated by only one document, i.e., the US Constitution. Neither Congress, nor the Supreme Court, nor the president, can legitimately add one iota of additional power to their list of powers. Any effort to do so makes them simple despots, not representatives. Despots deserve the Mussolini treatment. I believe they hung the man, along with his assistant despots, by his feet in the public square, while the people hurled rocks, did they not?
gunsmith
member
if you don't remain in debt
then the terrorist win
then the terrorist win
Travis Lee
Member
Well, Mongo is right that corporations are always blaming their policies
or misbehaviors on some law or government agency....
But it just does NOT take very long for checks to clear any more.
Lots of businesses scan checks, and electronically process them as soon
as they go to the accounting departments.
You can't play the float anymore.
--Travis--
or misbehaviors on some law or government agency....
But it just does NOT take very long for checks to clear any more.
Lots of businesses scan checks, and electronically process them as soon
as they go to the accounting departments.
You can't play the float anymore.
--Travis--
Hawkeye: Valid point.
However, the gub'mint has worked themselves into a position where they have more money, more resources, and more men than you, and all of those men are armed much better than you could ever hope to be, because you're not allowed to own the equipment they use. And weather or not they actually have the legal authority to do any of it, they think they do and so do all the armed men in their employ.
You figure out a way around that and I will be right next to you leading that charge, brother.
However, the gub'mint has worked themselves into a position where they have more money, more resources, and more men than you, and all of those men are armed much better than you could ever hope to be, because you're not allowed to own the equipment they use. And weather or not they actually have the legal authority to do any of it, they think they do and so do all the armed men in their employ.
You figure out a way around that and I will be right next to you leading that charge, brother.
I've gone from making minimum payments to paying off a credit card (5k+) in one shot several times in the past few years. Even with that nasty compound interest, i end up in the green year to year (and its a pain to liquidate investments to get by on the short term). Someday i'll learn that christmas, a vacation, and major car repairs are things that should be kept as far apart on the calender as possible. I don't get paid regularly, but when i do it is a large check (large enough the bank has to report it). And sometimes i have made bank to credit card company "direct" transfers that were likely large enough to legally require reporting. I fear the IRS more, but they are happy and quick to cash my quarterly estimated tax payments.
Now what really really REALLY bugged me happened about 2 years ago. Was buying a nice low mileage formerly leased car for the wife, and had cash in the bank. Agreed on the price, made the deal, then started doing the paperwork. The salesman said he needed my social security number to comply with the patriot act (well, to make sure i wasn't using it to build a bomb was more along the lines of what he said). I've bought used AND new cars before, paying cash, and not once did they ever require my social security number. Then again, in the past, the dealers i'd bought from in the past just asked to photocopy my DL and insurance, and would let me take the car out for a spin solo. This time, the dealer sat in the back seat. So we argued about it, but my wife wanted that car (and i felt we were getting a good deal on it), so i wrote down my social security number. Form gets run over to the payments department. Sat there for 20 minutes, then they asked if we could come to one of the offices in the finance department. Sat down, and another salesman pulls up my entire credit report. ***!! He tells me it would be a far better thing to finance the vehicle rather than pay cash. After 15 minutes of debate, i told the guy i was paying cash or i was walking out the door. Drove the car home, although i still to this day feel sick about having done business with them. That credit check cost me 12 points too
I really don't think there is a provision in the patriot act that is meant to be used to attempt to earn a commission selling auto financing. But they sure as hell lied to me about what they were using it for.
Buck the system. Pay cash.
Now what really really REALLY bugged me happened about 2 years ago. Was buying a nice low mileage formerly leased car for the wife, and had cash in the bank. Agreed on the price, made the deal, then started doing the paperwork. The salesman said he needed my social security number to comply with the patriot act (well, to make sure i wasn't using it to build a bomb was more along the lines of what he said). I've bought used AND new cars before, paying cash, and not once did they ever require my social security number. Then again, in the past, the dealers i'd bought from in the past just asked to photocopy my DL and insurance, and would let me take the car out for a spin solo. This time, the dealer sat in the back seat. So we argued about it, but my wife wanted that car (and i felt we were getting a good deal on it), so i wrote down my social security number. Form gets run over to the payments department. Sat there for 20 minutes, then they asked if we could come to one of the offices in the finance department. Sat down, and another salesman pulls up my entire credit report. ***!! He tells me it would be a far better thing to finance the vehicle rather than pay cash. After 15 minutes of debate, i told the guy i was paying cash or i was walking out the door. Drove the car home, although i still to this day feel sick about having done business with them. That credit check cost me 12 points too
I really don't think there is a provision in the patriot act that is meant to be used to attempt to earn a commission selling auto financing. But they sure as hell lied to me about what they were using it for.Buck the system. Pay cash.
MrTwigg
Member
Paying off debt ? How Un-American !
I believe if everyone paid off just half of their credit card debt the banking industry would collapse.
I believe if everyone paid off just half of their credit card debt the banking industry would collapse.
Manedwolf
member
It's a fine thing when Americans, on a day to day basis, have to worry about the three-digit number that has come to represent their worth as a citizen. No longer is "trust" a matter of someone being a fine, upstanding member of their community for decades...it's measured from thousands of miles away on a sliding scale. A little number. Even some employers, more and more of them, check that little numer of worth before hiring someone. Ironically, not having debt gets you a low credit score.
And that number is subject to the whims and errors of (overseas) people who could care less.
To me, the need to worry about one's credit score and every little reprisal that can affect it (like a company running a check if you mouth off to them), the need to track down every little error or EASY theft of identity from corporate wastebaskets...is a particularly offensive sort of slavery that we, as a society, have run willingly right into the yoke of.
Sindawe
Member
Credit card debt?
Since the early '90s I've been a dead-beat for the credit industry. I pay off the one card I use with any regularity in full each month. Even when it cost $5k to fix a broken cat.
I guess I'm on all KINDS of government lists by now.
Since the early '90s I've been a dead-beat for the credit industry. I pay off the one card I use with any regularity in full each month. Even when it cost $5k to fix a broken cat.
I guess I'm on all KINDS of government lists by now.
Zundfolge
Member
Of course as soon as you try to buy any big ticket item like a car or a house than you're treated like a criminal and the money is seized by the authorities under Rico (and maybe even Patriot) because you're either a criminal or a terrorist if you use cash.
Face it folks, America is over and we're all ????ed.
Hmmmmm....
I'm one of those guys that learned about 20 years ago to pay down the credit card to ZERO each month.
If you can't do that then you don't have any business with a credit card. $10 or $10,000. You can't pay down to ZERO then don't use the credit card.
The one caveat is that if you truly have the self discipline to use the card to a fixed amount and then pay it off at some fixed rate that will drive the balance to ZERO in two years or less then more power to you. The interest sucks but what the hell - it's a signature loan if one uses it like that anyway.
Some folks have the discipline to use Credit Cards responsibly. Most don't. That's why homeland security can flag and investigate those that decide enough is enough and just pay the suckers off.
Those type of folk are - after all - the EXCEPTION and not the RULE and it is the exception that gets noticed.
I'm one of those guys that learned about 20 years ago to pay down the credit card to ZERO each month.
If you can't do that then you don't have any business with a credit card. $10 or $10,000. You can't pay down to ZERO then don't use the credit card.
The one caveat is that if you truly have the self discipline to use the card to a fixed amount and then pay it off at some fixed rate that will drive the balance to ZERO in two years or less then more power to you. The interest sucks but what the hell - it's a signature loan if one uses it like that anyway.
Some folks have the discipline to use Credit Cards responsibly. Most don't. That's why homeland security can flag and investigate those that decide enough is enough and just pay the suckers off.
Those type of folk are - after all - the EXCEPTION and not the RULE and it is the exception that gets noticed.
JerryM
Member
[Of course as soon as you try to buy any big ticket item like a car or a house than you're treated like a criminal and the money is seized by the authorities under Rico (and maybe even Patriot) because you're either a criminal or a terrorist if you use cash.]
Not many people carry or use the amount of cash to pay for a car. I write a check for the cars I buy, and don't worry about whether the govt knows it or not. It has never caused me any kind of problem, and won't.
You know anyone who uses cash to buy a new car?
Jerry
Not many people carry or use the amount of cash to pay for a car. I write a check for the cars I buy, and don't worry about whether the govt knows it or not. It has never caused me any kind of problem, and won't.
You know anyone who uses cash to buy a new car?
Jerry
JohnBT
Member
"So they sent in a large payment, a check for $6,522."
A large payment? That's not a large payment. C'mon, be serious.
Just today my father went to one bank and picked up a check for a CD that came due and took it to a credit union for a better rate of 4.9%. $49000.
Then he went to a bank and bought a CD with a personal check. $20000.
Compound interest is a wonderful thing when you're 84.
Then he sent a personal check to an out-of-state firm to add to an investment. $80000.
Then I got him to drive by the Chevy/Caddy dealer to look at the new Caddies - yuck. Now he's thinking about a new Impala SS V8. What a cheapskate.
Heck, my cousin handles her money, her mother's money and our elderly aunt's money, so I know she's on the list if there is one because she moves some money around.
It must be one heck of a list they've got.
I'm relatively poor, but haven't had a car payment since 1986 or a house payment since, I dunno, 1995 maybe. I believe in collecting interest, not paying it. If that makes me unAmerican I can live with it. Put me on the list, just don't sell it to the junk mailers.
John
P.S. - A few years ago I bought a new car with an equity line check on a Thursday. The following Monday I juggled a couple of things and paid it off at my local branch. On Wednesday the bank called me at work and asked if I'd bought a car the week before with a check. Well, duh, too late now don't you think. Maybe the dealer reported it to the government, but they sure as heck didn't clear it with the bank before they let me drive off.
A large payment? That's not a large payment. C'mon, be serious.
Just today my father went to one bank and picked up a check for a CD that came due and took it to a credit union for a better rate of 4.9%. $49000.
Then he went to a bank and bought a CD with a personal check. $20000.
Compound interest is a wonderful thing when you're 84.
Then he sent a personal check to an out-of-state firm to add to an investment. $80000.
Then I got him to drive by the Chevy/Caddy dealer to look at the new Caddies - yuck. Now he's thinking about a new Impala SS V8. What a cheapskate.
Heck, my cousin handles her money, her mother's money and our elderly aunt's money, so I know she's on the list if there is one because she moves some money around.
It must be one heck of a list they've got.
I'm relatively poor, but haven't had a car payment since 1986 or a house payment since, I dunno, 1995 maybe. I believe in collecting interest, not paying it. If that makes me unAmerican I can live with it. Put me on the list, just don't sell it to the junk mailers.
John
P.S. - A few years ago I bought a new car with an equity line check on a Thursday. The following Monday I juggled a couple of things and paid it off at my local branch. On Wednesday the bank called me at work and asked if I'd bought a car the week before with a check. Well, duh, too late now don't you think. Maybe the dealer reported it to the government, but they sure as heck didn't clear it with the bank before they let me drive off.
The Real Hawkeye
member
I understand that in Los Vages it happens fairly frequently.
shermacman
Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2002
- Messages
- 1,751
I am beginning to understand why the SHTF scenarios are so popular...
America is not "????ed". Not even close.
We have problems, we confront them, we fix them.
Umm... the fact that all these credit/check-card/Debit transactions ultimately clear through the Fed/ACH networks mean that they don't need to bother anybody, they've already got an audit report of anything they want.
Why an amount that small would trigger anything? That's a whole other question. Banks didn't even have qualms about cashing unsigned checks for amounts under $5K years ago; don't know if that's even changed. Things move slowly in that industry.
Private Label (PL) cards are processed -usually- through a specialized set of clearing houses just for the purpose of creating and managing PL programs. I'm not a PL expert, but have access to all the regs, specs, and edit-checks. I need to spend Monday asking who is handling the JCPenney card, and checking their edit logic. Could be any of a hundred processors, but probably somebody big like GECC. It's been a while since I was involved in developing anything for PL handling.
gc70
Member
Oh, my! Yes, people can be involved in a variety of financial transactions, involving cash or otherwise, that get reported to the government.
If you want to read the gory details, check the FinCEN website. FinCEN is part of the Treasury Department and it collects all sorts of interesting information about financial transactions. Also take a look at the links for FinCEN's involvement in the Bank Secrecy Act and Sections 314(a) and (b) of the PATRIOT Act. And, if you don't know the rules of the game, you too could have a CTR (Currency Transaction Report) or SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) sent to FinCEN with your name on it.
As to the story about the guy's credit card payment, it was probably BS. Whenever the folks at my bank screw up or don't know why they have been told to do something, they always launch into a rousing chorus of "it's required by federal law."
On the other hand, giving a terrorist (or some other criminal) a credit card is an excellent way to fund their expenses and their financial backers might be stupid enough to only pay down the balance infrequently in large lump-sum payments.
If you want to read the gory details, check the FinCEN website. FinCEN is part of the Treasury Department and it collects all sorts of interesting information about financial transactions. Also take a look at the links for FinCEN's involvement in the Bank Secrecy Act and Sections 314(a) and (b) of the PATRIOT Act. And, if you don't know the rules of the game, you too could have a CTR (Currency Transaction Report) or SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) sent to FinCEN with your name on it.
As to the story about the guy's credit card payment, it was probably BS. Whenever the folks at my bank screw up or don't know why they have been told to do something, they always launch into a rousing chorus of "it's required by federal law."
On the other hand, giving a terrorist (or some other criminal) a credit card is an excellent way to fund their expenses and their financial backers might be stupid enough to only pay down the balance infrequently in large lump-sum payments.
Burt Blade
Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2004
- Messages
- 477
Remember, it is all about "anti-terror" efforts.
A whole bunch of folks in all levels of government are terrified that Americans will wake up and remember that this is supposed to be a Free country.
A whole bunch of folks in all levels of government are terrified that Americans will wake up and remember that this is supposed to be a Free country.
alan
Member
Back aways, one poster mentioned something about "not being represented", I assume he meant by his "elected things". Obviously, this is a correct observation, assuming that the poster is one of The Great Unwashed, or one of the many Ordinary Citizens.
This situation is plainly due to the fact that our "elected things" are, to put it simply, ON THE TAKE. Please note that the foregoing is NOT to say that any particular congress critter has been caught stuffing his/her pockets with cash, though some have been, rather my intent was to call attention to the fact that our elected things are beholden to the big money contributors, which pretty much excludes us ordinary folk, who are therefore left pretty much UNREPRESENTED.
What was that old saying, Money Talks, While That Other Stuff Walks.
This situation is plainly due to the fact that our "elected things" are, to put it simply, ON THE TAKE. Please note that the foregoing is NOT to say that any particular congress critter has been caught stuffing his/her pockets with cash, though some have been, rather my intent was to call attention to the fact that our elected things are beholden to the big money contributors, which pretty much excludes us ordinary folk, who are therefore left pretty much UNREPRESENTED.
What was that old saying, Money Talks, While That Other Stuff Walks.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
