After reading all the discussion about the demise of the local hobby shop (LHS) on this board, I’ve taken some time to reflect on other things that are changing in the way we acquire model railroad equipment.
One thing I’ve really noticed over the last few years is that there are fewer places that handle mail orders and payment by cheque or money order. I’ve sent payment by mail for years, including buying things from Internet-based dealers and on eBay.
Now eBay only allows online payment, and many Internet dealers prefer credit card payment only (either online or over the telephone).
I don’t like credit cards and I don’t like making financial transactions of any kind over Internet or telephone, and I don’t care how secure their proponents claim them to be.
Call me conservative, but I when I order stuff I prefer to pay the old fashioned way.
I use to be like you and didn’t want to post my debit or charge card number so,I used USPS money orders-many on line shops still use this method…After the rechargable credit card was introduce I started using one.Shop around for the better deal.
I would like the old way. But a bank cheque will cost up to $20 here in Germany. So I have to buy with credit card or paypal. Sending money in a letter is not a safe way.
Yes, but with credit cards you get better protections, both against fraud, and against problems after the sale. Many credit cards even extend your warranty automatically for an extra year or two or even three. That ain’t a bad deal, IMO. And the dealer is nearly always going to be more interested in handling your service claim if he knows that the credit card company is behind you and willing to withhold future funds in the event of a claim or charge-back.
I do agree with JWhitten, however, like you I still prefer to pay by check. One little “unofficial” tidbid of info: a number of ebay sellers still accept payment by check, however, they’re not going to post that on their page. Before bidding on an item, I send the seller an email asking if he/she accepts checks or US Postal money orders. I politely point out that I have a 100% feedback rating, always send payment asap, and ask the seller to reply to me on my hotmail address. Surprisingly, the replies I’ve received in the past 2 years have always been yes! Including from sellers that list a “Paypal preferred” caption.
I know people who use paypal and have no problems. My reluctance stems from the “horror stories” I’ve read regarding paypal. I’ll continue the “old fashion way” until I have no choice.
OK - I know what I am about to say will upset a few people…
I pay everything I can on line through my bank account. It is completely secure and payments are guaranteed by the bank. There is also a record created that I can access for at least a year should there be any question about a payment. Now I do manage to change passwords on a regular basis and I verify balances at least once a week. For ‘on line shopping’ is use a card or Pay Pal and I have never had a problem. I just kills me to write a check because they cost money - granted it’s minimal - but it also means I need to use a stamp and involve the post office which is, IMO, just about the most inefficient organization we have,
Now that I have succeeded in irritating a few folks, for me the issue isn’t how we acquire model railroad equipment, the issue is that a person will use whatever system they are comfortable using. My guess is that generally if someone doesn’t use on line payment for model railroad equipment, they won’t use it for paying bills or buying anything from any other on line retailer. And that’s okay.
And, now brace yourselves, our comfort level may be related to our age. (dodging glaring looks right now). My dad is 91 and he would no more think of doing anything on line because he doesn’t trust it. He still uses envelopes, stamps and puts all his payments in the mail box by the curb - and that works for him. On the few occasions I have suggested to him that he pay things on line, I have pulled back a bloody stub - so whatever works is the best way.
At the risk of being branded a story topper, A couple of weeks ago I went to the customer service desk at a large mall near my home to buy a mall gift certificate to give as a gift. I left without buying it because I was told they do not accept cash, and I refused to put it on a credit card.
They were unimpressed with the statement printed on the bill that says: “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private”. Apparently government issued money is not good until it’s been passed through a bank.
When money orders come in, a live person has to open the envelope, record the transaction, and process the order. Then the money has to be taken to the bank. When you order online, this is all automatic. Labor is overhead.
It is not a matter of you being willing to pay more, the business simply cannot compete if their labor costs are higher than the next guys. It costs them a lot more to take your money order.
I agree and that was also my approach…until quite recently. I’m not sure what your latest experience might be, but in my recent cases I attempted to bid on two items and found that when I entered my bids they were automatically rejected by eBay, with an accompanying message that since I was not a listed PayPal participant, my bids were invalid!
At age 74, I am careful also, but I do use a credit card to pay for train orders, etc. And yes, I was once a victim of ID theft and learned a lot from that. The theft was by a known person, I had an ironclad alibi to prove I wasn’t in Orlando Fla on a certain weekend spending like crazy, and since I was in the pulpit on Sunday morning in front of a few hundred potential witnesses, I had no problems.
But, I do use a credit card as I said. It is a limited amount one (no 10,000 limits for me) issued by my bank, so if lost or stolen or “thefted”, they wouldn’t get much. I watch transactions on line, make payments, and when needed transfer funds from my checking to credit card very quickly at the same website. It works for me and have not had any more problems. Anyone stealing my card number wouldn’t be able to get much and I feel more secure.
About 1000 years ago – well, OK, probably late 1964 – I used to send actual CASH in the mail to America’s Hobby Center. Bills and coins! And they’d accept postage stamps if you were buying a fifty cent catalog. (sigh). An Athearn Hi-F F-7 was $3.98 …
I hate cash. I don’t like checks much, either. I use a credit card for almost everything. I pay the balance off every month, and I earn “points” for everything I buy.
There are only two places I regularly use cash. The cafeteria at work only takes cash, and I use it at my LHS. Cash does save the shop owner from paying transaction fees, which can be substantial. So, I try to do my part.
A word of warning for your dad, and for anyone else who, “Puts all his (her) payments in the mail box by the curb.” Unless it’s one of those big steel mailboxes maintained by USPS, it’s an open invitation to identity thieves.
A friend of my wife’s, 80+ years old, followed that practice - until the day she got a notice from her bank that her utility bill payment checks had bounced. Seems someone simply took her electric bill payment out of the mailbox, got the data they needed off the paper check and cleaned out her bank account - several thousand dollars. She now pays by automatic deduction and doesn’t even get a paper bill.
I’m old enough to have been drawing Social Security for a while now, and still pay by paper check - BUT, I get my bills at a Post Office lock box and mail my payments at a slot inside the Post Office - a slot just a few meters from the lock box. I don’t get mail more significant than pizza coupons at the ‘16 mailboxes on a stalk’ down the street from my house, and I certainly don’t put outgoing mail there. I also maintain a low-limit credit card specifically for use on the internet and for phone-in orders.
This morning’s eye-opener news had a bit on a new ATM scam. If there’s a clear ‘protector’ over the keypad, it was probably put there by professional identity thieves. It works in tandem with a gadget in the card slot to get your account and pin number data - and you won’t know you’ve
It costs money to have someone open and process a check order. THat can result in higher prices for prices, or for “handling” part of shipping and handling, which many already complain about the high price of.
I still like to pay most of my bills by check, but I do do my ordering online with my credit card, and I pay off at teh end of the month. NOt hard to do. FOr those with bad credit, prepaid, reloadable credit cards are available. I like to pay by check as I know the bill is paid, and am not paying any financing on bills. I don’t like the idea of paying by any method online for bills which is surprising since i do do CCs over the net. See why below:
I have only one card that I use for online purchases that if it gets comprimised I can fairly easy figure out WHERE or rather WHO it got comprimised with {hasn’t happened yet- knock on wood}. Most every one I personally know had their cards comprimised last Xmas, except me. CC’s have protections you don’t have giving out your checking account number, which you do by writing a check {it’s right there at the botom of the check people} and TWICE I have had to completely close down checking accounts Due to someone repeat “automatically billing” several times on my checking account by scaming off my check. AND I had to have the bank restore my “overdraft fees” cause some checks I wrote had bounced -which I NEVER do- before I caught the fact taht my account was being multiple billed when it shouldn’t have been.That is why I don’t like to use my checking account online. You can always dispute a charge on a charge card,but once the money is taken from your checking account, very hard to get it back. I also do pay for a credit monitoring service on one of my CCs so I get notified when new credit {if any} is taken out in my name using my info. SO far I have had no problems. {knocken on the wooden}.
Ok - Maybe I am also guilty of ‘here is a story to top that one’ but -
I wrote a check for $184 on May 15th to pay a bill that didn’t have on line capability and it was mailed to an address in Chicago. Two weeks later it hadn’t hit my account so I called them only to find that checks don’t get processed at that address. Instead it was sent to another address here in Flint, actually about 3 miles from my house, to a person who handled that particular account. I was given that number and I called to find out they did have the check and I was told it would be processed within ten days. It’s now July 7th and it still isn’t in my account so do I call them again or consider it a donation back to me???
Yes - this is totally off topic for the forum, but it’s just another reason why I want control over my finances by issuing payments myself.
Not to worry. This is just the world evolving. Change is inevitable, struggle is an option. You have to change with the times.
I am nearly seventy and I know from experience.
Learn to use a debit card, do online banking, watch your on line bank account daily, get a Pay Pal account and oh yes, pay attention to what you are doing. Make sure you have a good password for accounts. Don’t be lazy when it comes to user name and passwords. Make sure your PC has good anti virus. Don’t click on emails that you don’t know the sender.
You can do it if you want to. Sorry, no Rant from me.
I pay all of my bills by writing a check. The money stays in my account a little longer, especially if the vendor is inefficient in processing his payment. I don’t like the idea of having the money automatically withdrawn from my account, primarily because I want only one person to be able to access that account…me.
No way, no how, would I use a debit card instead of a credit card. With a credit card the money again stays in my account until I get my monthly bill, plus there is some protection from fradulent card use. With a debit card you generally have little or no protection from fradulent use, unless you have one of those that requires a signature (or is it a password?) at the time of purchase. And I don’t see any way of signing for something with a phone or internet order. Plus you again give someone direct access to your account. I frankly see no advantage to using a debit card, and a lot of negatives. But that’s just my opinion.
HaroldA,
In defense of the US Post Office, it is obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality. Each day, the United States Postal Service delivers some 660 million pieces of mail to as many as 142 million delivery points. The USPS operates 32,741 post offices and locations in the US. It’s employees deliver mail 6 days a week to every American residence at an average yearly cost of $235 per residence as of 2009. (factoids from Wiki)
So, for 64 cents a day, you can have someone come to your home, drop off your mail and pick up your outgoing letters 3.5 ounces or less, and take them anywhere in the 3.8 million square miles of the USA from Machias, Maine to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, from Key West, Florida, to Maui, Hawaii for 44 cents each. For a post card, it’s 28 cents. And it’ll get there, on average, in 2 or 3 days.
Inefficient? I don’t think so.
Paul A. Cutler III
P.S. My father retired after 30 years as a USPS Letter Carrier, both before and after the 1970 Strike.
