Comments on: Improving your finances the European way

By: Luther Blissett

Luther Blissett — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 02:20:22 +0000

This is very stupid, has nothing to do with free software, nor open source. Please stop blogging!

lb
P.S. Maye “neoism” is the right thing for you.

By: Pia

Pia — Wed, 30 May 2007 22:04:54 +0000

Italy home finances used to be like in Spain (you buy what you can afford). However, now it is more similar to USA. Almost everybody have debts and “how to get rid of debts” articles and ads are popping up in newspapers and TV.

People get poorer, banks get richer. Somebody says this is progress and development…

By: Ralesk

Ralesk — Wed, 30 May 2007 08:59:44 +0000

Americans seem to be deathly afraid of direct debit — I do almost everything with it and have had no significant problems. I found it’s a great idea to set a limit in which 2 months worth of bills fit. That case if the company slips up (as it’s bound to happen), it can still pull the forgotten month and the then-current one next month. But no way can they charge something really nonsensical.

They seem to be obsessed with cheques, something I’ll never understand either

By: Jorge Bernal

Jorge Bernal — Wed, 30 May 2007 06:43:49 +0000

dave, that sure was a bad experience. I think in Spain you can tell your bank to cancel a payment during the first 30 days.

By: dave

dave — Wed, 30 May 2007 02:30:43 +0000

Yes, we have both automatic payments from our bank accounts as well as debit cards.

My wife and I have tried paying a couple bills automatically, but we didn’t stick with it. I have a mental block against handing over the combination to the vault. (I wonder if it’s a cultural thing….as mossholderm states, people don’t seem to use the option much.) We did have one bad experience; Verizon took $200 from our account with no warning, as an early termination fee. It was an error on their part, but it took over two moths and many phone calls to get our money back.

Debit cards though are the best thing since sliced bread. I hardly ever carry money.

It’s funny though, some people are confused when they see me hand it over to pay for common items. I’ve had older colleagues offer to buy my lunch because they thought I had no cash and was paying for my food with a credit card.

By: mossholderm

mossholderm — Wed, 30 May 2007 01:24:01 +0000

Domicilación bancaria is known by a few names in the U.S. (e-check, automatic withdrawl, etc.), but has never really caught on. Not too sure why…. probably because people feel like they are loosing control of their finances. Of course, in reality, the “flexibility” that people feel they “need” in playing their bills is exactly what you address in your first point

By: Albinodrew

Albinodrew — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:17:00 +0000

If by Debit Card you mean when you use it to pay for stuff, money is directly transfer from your bank account to the merchant bank account, yes we do have them in Canada (I’m Canadian) and the U.S.

They are great, you loose your wallet, or it get stolen, and it’s just a card to replace.

I no longer use paper money.