Another thread that morphed into a credit card discussion prompted me to offer the following comments. During our driving days and lengthy periods away from home and my mail box, we found it convenient to have many of our recurring bills paid by ‘autopay’ billing to our credit cards. Aside from our business credit card, we used two cards rather interchangeably for the autopay on 13 different accounts, including all of our household utilities. Most are monthly, some quarterly and one annual payments. This worked well for us and we were worry free as our accounts were never in arrears, and neither was our credit card bill which we could get the total due and pay from the road.
One morning, I received a call from Mastercard asking if a charge from a company in China was valid. It was not so they immediately cancelled that card and overnighted a replacement card to our hotel. It was a nightmare trying to determine, while on the road, on which card each autopayment was located because we had to make the appropriate notifications to avoid being in arrears. We have since minimized this problem by placing all autopayments on the new replacement card and not using it for anything else. Our other personal use card has been adequate for other purchases.
For Expediters, I think it’s wise to have a separate business card and personal use card. I also think automatic recurring bill payments on a separate card is a good idea for traveling folks.
One morning, I received a call from Mastercard asking if a charge from a company in China was valid. It was not so they immediately cancelled that card and overnighted a replacement card to our hotel. It was a nightmare trying to determine, while on the road, on which card each autopayment was located because we had to make the appropriate notifications to avoid being in arrears. We have since minimized this problem by placing all autopayments on the new replacement card and not using it for anything else. Our other personal use card has been adequate for other purchases.
For Expediters, I think it’s wise to have a separate business card and personal use card. I also think automatic recurring bill payments on a separate card is a good idea for traveling folks.
