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fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | reply to en102
Re: Didn't notice for a year? E-X-A-C-T-L-Y!
To be honest, it was my own accountant that taught me the 2 account method..
You have one account that you use to sign up with for these shady people who want auto payments... and then you have the account that has the money.
At the time to pay bills, you add up the total amount you need to pay.. transfer it from your main account to your second account. You give the debit card to people on THAT one... the most you lose is your payments. The main account can NEVER be abused by these auto payers.
A long time ago, my web hosting company got purchased by Earthlink.. to my surprise, I was hit with a $2,200 withdrawal from my account.. it drained that account .. I wasn't doing well financially at the time.. they took everything. I needed to rent a car to take my dog on a 300 mile drive to the vet back home for Chemo.. Because of them, I couldn't rent the car and missed a crucial treatment.
THANK GOD that SOMEONE at Earthlink, in management, actually cared.. arranged for a rental car for me and I was able to meet my goals. I agreed that when I got back, we'd square up and they' issue the full refund minus the car and gas. (Quite surprising) But.. at that time, I learned my lessen.
One thing I DO like about companies about Paypal (and I Say that very loosely) is that at least with Paypal, YOU control the money, same as online bill pay, and not the merchant. Merchants are sloppy, careless, and irresponsible. The past few years should heed a warning. It was almost every week we'd tune in to see that yet again, more credit card information had been "lost" or "stolen".. and to be honest about it, they did the right thing and told us/the news a week AFTER it happened as well.. that is after they had time to let the lawyers and PR people do their own internal damage control assessments.. meaning, they didn't care about the customer as much as they did their own asses.
You really, these days, have to take any steps necessary to protect yourself. | |
 en102Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | I had a similar experience... where Verizon sucked a little more than $1000 out of my checking account, and I didn't even have service with them.
I tend to split up my accounts:
1. Savings (where most of my money actually resides 90% of the time) - little access
2. Checking account - where checks be written form
3. Debit card checking account - the account that is used for Debit card / Checking card access.
Call it paranoia, but its a real pain when you have to go and get this all fixed up after having fraud against your account.
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | It's not paranoia.. it's smart banking. Most small business will do this very setup you have. One account holds the gold, one is the one that is "known" and linked.. and the other is, like you, a checking account. The big thing for many people is that they REALLY should have an account that is on the outside of the "firewall" and then an account that "no one knows about".. that way, they always have a little egg behind the firewall that isn't able to be attacked.  | |
en102Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | Yup - no need to have any outside access to my savings - so its not connected to checking/debit cards.
Sort of like running web hosting
Put your corp servers deep behind firewalls, and have limited access to servers that access the Internet.
Web / Email servers have access through a DMZ and only access thats needed.
Most companies that want your business want 'ease of access', and most commonly like dealing with automatic billing so that they don't have to process your payment (savings on their part), but it doesn't really benefit you in any way.
The _only_ scenario that I can think of that does any benefit is to use a card to rake up flyer miles by pushing bills through a credit card.
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
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