Text 14362, 85 rader
Skriven 2008-04-22 11:26:40 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
  Kommentar till text 14327 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: Property prices
=======================
22 Apr 08 06:29, Ward Dossche wrote to Roy Witt:


 RW>> RB> No, at least in Germany you get a written notice once a year
 RW>> about a
 RW>> RB> month in advance of the due date, and then pay the fee by direct
 RW>> RB> account transfer. I can do that at home, via the Internet.

 RW>> I could too, but it'd cost me an extra dollar. If I write a check
 RW>> and deliver it to the tax office, I save the dollar. If I visit the
 RW>> tax office and pay by credit or debit card, it costs two dollars.

 WD> That is quite odd about the susyem in the US (and Caada?) because
 WD> processing a paper cheque is the costliest of all these forms of
 WD> payments and electronic banking is the cheapest (for the bank).

The best part about checks is the service costs me nothing accept for the
paper I print them on. I don't buy printed checks, I buy blank checks and
print them with software that keeps track of that account.

 WD> All my electronic transfers cost me 6 Euro or so, I forget if it's
 WD> for 3 months or a full year. I make over a thousand of them per year.

Shoulda stuck with the checks.

 RW>> We also have that service, not just for vehicle registrations, but
 RW>> for bill paying as well. I don't like giving banking information to
 RW>> anyone to draw from my accounts. Too much online fraud going on
 RW>> today.

 WD> I don't mind about that that system if it's for fixed amounts like
 WD> for utilities such as electricity for example. The way it works here
 WD> is that each month you pay a fixed sum and after a year when the
 WD> meter is read you either paid enough, too much or too little. In the
 WD> latter case an extra bill will arive. No variable amounts will be
 WD> deducted from my account.

I could opt to do that fixed amount, but I don't like it. I'd rather see a
monthly billing and know what utilities are costing. In July of 2005, I
discovered that the Air Conditioning was costing a lot more than it
should, just by looking at the bill. I remedied the situation and the next
bill was substantially lower.

 WD> The system is quite secure here and 3rd parties would be unable to
 WD> use that procedure to draw funds from my accounts.

Read the item I told Robert about, where someone tried to scam my bank
account.

 RW>> I'd prefer to use my credit cards or paper checks if they don't like
 RW>> the plastic. I definately wouldn't be interested in electronic bank
 RW>> transfers.

 WD> In the ebd you will need to go with the flow ... cheques are an
 WD> anachronism and very expensive to process, plastic (if you mean
 WD> credit cards) then that is also an expensive mode of payment ... too
 WD> much human interaction needed.

Plastic is known here as Debit or Credit cards. Debit is an immediate
account withdrawal or transfer and Credit is billed later.

Plastic transactions are paid for by the consumer at the point of sale.
Banks charge the business' to process them, but the business' usually pass
that cost on to the consumer (if you have a Wal-Mart customer card, you
can get it back in the form of a 3% discount). We have terminals here
where you pass your card through a card reder and the human factor is
pretty much eliminated, except for the answer to some questions, like 'Do
you want cash back?' - No, that's why I have plastic. 'Is the amount
correct?' Yes or no...etc.

 RW>> I'm as advanced as the next guy with the latest technology, but I
 RW>> prefer to do the bill paying in person.

 WD> So do I ... from my living room ... works perfect quite secure and
 WD> been doing that for over 17-18 years now that I can remember.

Same here...I do it in the computer room and then drop them at the Post
Office on my way to my next call.

                R\%/itt



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