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Paying bills while cruising
In the past we have never taken a cruise longer than two weeks and
this was not a problem. But, we are planning a longer cruise for next year -- a back to back -- taking 27 days plus a few days pre-cruise and a day or two post-cruise. I'm thinking ahead and wondering how we will pay the bills that arrive while we're gone. Some of our bills are automatic payments and they are no problem. But, I'm concerned about credit cards where the amount payable is due each month and the credit card companies give only 2 or 2 1/2 weeks in which to make the payment. Reading this newsgroup I see quite a few of you have taken longer holidays and I'd like to know how to solve the problem of paying the bills while on a cruise. How do can we do this? Is the only solution to do on-line banking knowing how inefficient the Internet connections are while on the ship? I'd appreciate your tips. Thanks. Judy ================================================== ============= Judy Heuman |
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Paying bills while cruising
On Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:15:53 -0400, Judy Heuman
wrote: In the past we have never taken a cruise longer than two weeks and this was not a problem. But, we are planning a longer cruise for next year -- a back to back -- taking 27 days plus a few days pre-cruise and a day or two post-cruise. I'm thinking ahead and wondering how we will pay the bills that arrive while we're gone. Some of our bills are automatic payments and they are no problem. But, I'm concerned about credit cards where the amount payable is due each month and the credit card companies give only 2 or 2 1/2 weeks in which to make the payment. Reading this newsgroup I see quite a few of you have taken longer holidays and I'd like to know how to solve the problem of paying the bills while on a cruise. How do can we do this? Is the only solution to do on-line banking knowing how inefficient the Internet connections are while on the ship? I'd appreciate your tips. Thanks. Judy ================================================= ============== Judy Heuman Inefficeint maybe but they aren';t that bad. On the other hand you could arange to prepay your credit cards. But I would just take the 5 minutes to get the job sone with the ship's internet. Paying bills is not somehting that I would do at an internet cafe ashore as much as I like saving mone on internet costs. Joseph Coulter Joseph Coulter Cruises and Vacations www.josephcoulter.com |
#3
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Paying bills while cruising
Judy Heuman wrote:
In the past we have never taken a cruise longer than two weeks and this was not a problem. But, we are planning a longer cruise for next year -- a back to back -- taking 27 days plus a few days pre-cruise and a day or two post-cruise. I'm thinking ahead and wondering how we will pay the bills that arrive while we're gone. Some of our bills are automatic payments and they are no problem. But, I'm concerned about credit cards where the amount payable is due each month and the credit card companies give only 2 or 2 1/2 weeks in which to make the payment. Reading this newsgroup I see quite a few of you have taken longer holidays and I'd like to know how to solve the problem of paying the bills while on a cruise. How do can we do this? Is the only solution to do on-line banking knowing how inefficient the Internet connections are while on the ship? I'd appreciate your tips. Thanks. Judy ================================================== ============= Judy Heuman Dear Judy, While the internet connections on the ships are indeed often slow and frequently non-functional, I have managed to find "internet cafes" in virtually every port we have stopped at; even some of the really small ones. You can then do your thing, but you may want to talk to your bank regarding "one time passwords" or the like. For credit cards, I have contacted the card companies and told them I would be out of the country from day such and such to the end of the trip. I then arranged for a payment to be made from my checking account to arrive before the due date. I estimated how much would be on the card, and gave them a little more - I hate those high interest rates. I am sure you can work something out with your credit card company in the time remaining before your trip. One point - Debit Cards do not have the protection of credit cards. Cheers, John in LALALand (On the Left Coast) |
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Paying bills while cruising
Joseph Coulter wrote:
On Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:15:53 -0400, Judy Heuman wrote: SNIP ================================================ =============== Judy Heuman Inefficeint maybe but they aren';t that bad. On the other hand you could arange to prepay your credit cards. But I would just take the 5 minutes to get the job sone with the ship's internet. Paying bills is not somehting that I would do at an internet cafe ashore as much as I like saving mone on internet costs. Joseph Coulter Joseph Coulter Cruises and Vacations www.josephcoulter.com Dear Joseph, I believe the "threat" at internet cafes is really overstated, but you should always be alert. You are trusting the ship's and the satellite providers processes when you use the shipboard internet. Cheers, John in LALALand (Hacker's Heaven) |
#5
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Paying bills while cruising
Judy Heuman wrote:
In the past we have never taken a cruise longer than two weeks and this was not a problem. But, we are planning a longer cruise for next year -- a back to back -- taking 27 days plus a few days pre-cruise and a day or two post-cruise. I'm thinking ahead and wondering how we will pay the bills that arrive while we're gone. Some of our bills are automatic payments and they are no problem. But, I'm concerned about credit cards where the amount payable is due each month and the credit card companies give only 2 or 2 1/2 weeks in which to make the payment. Reading this newsgroup I see quite a few of you have taken longer holidays and I'd like to know how to solve the problem of paying the bills while on a cruise. How do can we do this? Is the only solution to do on-line banking knowing how inefficient the Internet connections are while on the ship? I'd appreciate your tips. Thanks. We have gone away for four to six months on our boat. In addition to having automatic payment for things like the phone bill, the satTV and level payment plans (aka thrift plans) for the electricity and oil bills, we handle the bills in several ways. a) Have the mail forwarded to a trusted person (in our case it would be a daughter, but there are mail forwarding services) who opens the bills and pays them from an account we establish. Or in one case just logs on to our bank account and pays them from there. Or emails us with the amount and we do it on-line. This also takes care of stuff that we didn't remember or expect like the safe deposit box payment. b) Have one credit card automatically paid. We belong to a credit union and we have a credit card from that credit union. Our bills are calculated on the 5th so on about the 8th of the month the amount of the bill is taken out of our checking account. When we do this we stop using all our other cards at least three months prior to the trip because sometimes the charges are not made in a timely manner. This also assumes that you pay off your cards every month. I absolutely do not use a public access computer for on-line banking. I do not advise trying to find internet cafes as our on-line banking cannot be done over a connection that is not secure and the internet cafes I've used don't have secure browsers. I do not usually try to do banking on the ship internet either, even using my laptop which I find is marginally quicker than the ship computers. There is also another possibility which I use rarely - mostly to get cash from ATM machines, and that it is to use a debit card instead of a credit card, both on the trip and before you go so as to clear out the credit cards. |
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Paying bills while cruising
On 7/17/2009 8:23 PM, Rosalie B. wrote:
b) Have one credit card automatically paid. We belong to a credit union and we have a credit card from that credit union. Our bills are calculated on the 5th so on about the 8th of the month the amount of the bill is taken out of our checking account. When we do this we stop using all our other cards at least three months prior to the trip because sometimes the charges are not made in a timely manner. This also assumes that you pay off your cards every month. Most credit cards allow you to set this up. Citibank, Chase, American Express all let you set up Autopay on their website. You can tell them to pay your bill in full (or something less if you are foolish enough to do that) from a defined checking/savings account on the due date each month. No need to worry about mailing the bill or stuff like that. It's well worth doing even if you're NOT going to be away for a while. Bill |
#7
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Paying bills while cruising
On Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:09:49 GMT, JCarnaghie
wrote: Joseph Coulter wrote: On Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:15:53 -0400, Judy Heuman wrote: SNIP =============================================== ================ Judy Heuman Inefficeint maybe but they aren';t that bad. On the other hand you could arange to prepay your credit cards. But I would just take the 5 minutes to get the job sone with the ship's internet. Paying bills is not somehting that I would do at an internet cafe ashore as much as I like saving mone on internet costs. Joseph Coulter Joseph Coulter Cruises and Vacations www.josephcoulter.com Dear Joseph, I believe the "threat" at internet cafes is really overstated, but you should always be alert. You are trusting the ship's and the satellite providers processes when you use the shipboard internet. Cheers, John in LALALand (Hacker's Heaven) It is indeed a matter of trust. I prefer to think that if my transaction is comprosmised via say Celebrity's agent that I would be in better shape than if the trust were to be breached by Sal's pizza and internet. |
#8
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Paying bills while cruising
In article ,
Judy Heuman wrote: I'm thinking ahead and wondering how we will pay the bills that arrive while we're gone. Some of our bills are automatic payments and they are no problem. But, I'm concerned about credit cards where the amount payable is due each month and the credit card companies give only 2 or 2 1/2 weeks in which to make the payment. Between personal and business, I have 5 credit cards and all of them allow for automatic payments. Both Visa and the two company-specific cardss with no problems. -- Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party. Jimmy Buffett |
#9
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Paying bills while cruising
On Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:42:01 GMT, Bill wrote:
Most credit cards allow you to set this up. Citibank, Chase, American Express all let you set up Autopay on their website. You can tell them to pay your bill in full (or something less if you are foolish enough to do that) from a defined checking/savings account on the due date each month. No need to worry about mailing the bill or stuff like that. It's well worth doing even if you're NOT going to be away for a while. First, let me thank all of you who have replied -- you have given me much food for thought. But, I'm asking about this autopay thing. I seem to remember that one time our Mastercard offered such a set up to me and I turned it down. After all, what happens if they make an error on your bill? Somehow, I don't like to lose control of the oversight I can achieve if the paper bill comes to me before I pay it. OTOH, it's becoming more inconvenient since in our retirement, we are traveling so much more often and for longer periods of time. Do you know if it is possible to set up an autopay just for this trip and then cancel it when I get home? Have you had any difficulties with this autopay? Judy ================================================== ============= Judy Heuman |
#10
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Paying bills while cruising
On Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:15:53 -0400, Judy Heuman
wrote: Reading this newsgroup I see quite a few of you have taken longer holidays and I'd like to know how to solve the pr Hi Judy, I use a bill paying service (paytrust.com). I have all of my bills, paper and ebills, go directly to them. They scan the paper bills and offer them up electronically. I can see them anywhere I have internet access. You then see the actual bill and can pay it or schedule a payment as you wish. They pay those invoices either electronically or by a paper check. They have been doing this for me for many years and I have never had any problems with them. They do charge a small monthly fee ($9.95) but I have a record and digital copy of all of my bills going back for many years. They even make a CD available if you would like every year that has up to 3-years of your bills and payment history. Best regards, Ray LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL 800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905 http://www.lighthousetravel.com -- |
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