Ok, here’s a nice tip… Pay off your credit card.

One way I would suggest doing that is getting a hobby that actually pays you a little pocket money. Again, related to the articles below, a nice way to do this is become an online publisher. For example:

1 – Create a web-page (or a blog) about something that you enjoy or are knowledgeable about (like spelling??? Could I possibly be lysdexic or dyslexic)

2 – Get a nice following. You will know you have one if you have a hit counter or traffic monitor counting the number of people visiting your pages… Like I mentioned earlier, I probably found this by using an ad on another web-page, but searching for one using google will be good enough.

3 – Add some Ads. If the ads are relevant, they will pay nicely for your website, and hopefully pay for your credit card addiction. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t send you any checks in the post (or “Cheques in the post”) until you’ve hit the $100 mark. So, work hard….

It can all be “EASY MONEY“…

Ok, how’s this for another reason to use the discovery credit card. You get Discovery Miles. Which, in turn, you can convert to Voyager Miles. Not sure how they work (the Voyager Miles), and I’m not sure if the Discovery Miles will be valid next year.

But if they are, good!

You can go on tropical cruises or holidays for up to 45% discount. Well, it looks like I can, anyway… I could go visit Atlantis in the Caribbean for 6 nights all food and drink paid for, for only R6000… ($1000 – Sounds cheaper).

Til next time…

Well, now that I have the credit card, and I’m making all these cool savings with it, I thought I could give you just ONE tip (at a time?) on how to make the same sort of saving. That is:

USE THE CREDIT CARD!

Why am I now promoting debt? I’m not really. I don’t believe in it at all. (Read my previous posts on how this has caused some issues). But, what I do is put money onto the credit card at the beginning of the month, and use what I have on there. If I need more, I’ll transfer some more onto the credit card. You’ll discover credit card uses that make life easier such as:

1 – Interest on Credit Balances on the credit card are actually more than my “savings account”.
2 – I pay for 1 transaction – transferring of the money. I don’t pay per credit card transaction
3 – I don’t have to keep drawing money. Related to #2, but also a matter of convenience.

Anyway, maybe more of these ideas will come later. Enjoy.

Well, now that everything seems to be finished regarding this rant and rave, I thought I’d like to mention a thing or 2 that have made this interesting.

1 – It’s been interesting to see what ads people are clicking from the AdSense ads on this page. Setting up AdSense was really simple, and personally, I thought Google would say no to my request to sign up. But, considering how popular blogging is, and how many people might stumble upon this site, it seems pretty worth it. I’m not quite making enough to pay off the house, but it’s fun to dream none the less…

2 – Somehow, this site has made it onto the 1st page on “http://search.msn.com/” when searching for “Discovery Credit Card” or just plain old “Discovery Card“… How it’s done that I’m not sure. If that’s how you’ve come to be here (and you’ve actually read more than 2 sentences), welcome. I hope there’s a nice link on this page for you to exit with…

Which brings me to:

3 – The Site Meter, or Site Statistics, Hit Counter, heck, I don’t know what you’d call it, but the little piece of code you put on the web page that counts how many people have come to your webpage… Anyway, I’d like to recommend “http://www.activemeter.com“. The reports that this website gives you are amazing. They also say where your visitors have “arrived from”. And this is how I came to point number 1… I originally searched for a “Web site visitor counter” using google, and on another hit counter website, it linked to Active Meter. (I can’t remember if it was through AdSense or not). I thought I’d give it a try, and this is SUCH a cool “product”. Just give it a bash (and tell them I sent you )…

It’s been real. I’m sure I’ll add a couple of comments over time. If I’m ever bored, and I don’t have any other toys like a PlayStation or XBox, I’ll be back here.

Til then, enjoy the read.

Well, I’ve had this card for about 3 months now. Yes, yes… Typical. Only write something when you have complaints. Well, considering it took so long to actually apply for a credit card, prove i have a good credit rating (or is that a debt rating???) and then get this card delivered free of charge and for free… (Is that “mahala” in Zulu?)

How did I manage to get the discovery credit card? I spoke to 2 different managers, who managed to personally organise the delivery of the card. What really bugged me previously is, no matter what I said, nobody would put me through to a manager who had any authority. These 2 managers were so good, I ALMOST got 2 GOLD Discovery Credit Cards.

Ok, enough complaining. Now I have the card, do I like it? Yes I do. And what do I like about the card:

1 – There are no fees for normal Credit Card Transactions
2 – When I used my card overseas, there were no issues or abnormal limits. But they did phone to confirm that it was me using the card. Just checking that there were no fraudulent transactions occuring
3 – The CashBack bonus. Because I am on gold status, I get up to 12% cashback from selected stores, like Woolworths
4 – The discovery miles that I have accumulated. I can also convert these discovery miles into Voyager Miles, and use them for standard Voyager Miles Transactions and discounts

Sometimes, I wonder if America had a card like the Discovery Credit Card… I’m sure it would be America’s #1 Credit Card by now. It would probably be a LOT easier to apply for the credit card over there, because I think it’s a standard in America to have a minimum of 3 credit cards……

Well, I phoned again today. I asked when my card would be ready and the HDJ sounded shocked to see that my cards/accounts were closed. I explained the whole thing about no Card unless the old card was cancelled, so she did some investigating. I found out a couple of things:

1 – They needed to make my accounts active again to get me a card. whatever….
2 – My card might be printed by the end of the week and sent to the courier company
3 – The average time for a brand new card to be delivered, (from application to delivery), is 1 month. So much for 5 days. Can’t even remeber WHERE I heard that, it was so long ago.

I said that MIGHT wasn’t good enough because I’d waited so long. She promised to phone the bank (FNB???) to find out where my card was, and then phone me back.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

I asked her to wait, I took out my phone and started recording the conversation. Asked her for the time (1:33PM), her name, how to spell it, and to promise me that she would phone me back. Thought I might get a better response once I’d told her I’d hold her to it. SO MUCH FOR THAT. Did she phone me back. NO! But she did give me the e-mail address for supervisors. Hope it’s correct. Something like discoverycard_service_team@discovery.co.za. Let’s see what they say…

……………

Well, after a wait of, what, half a second, are you ready for the punch line, the climax, the ultimate truth, the final twist in this macabre tale of shocking service and absolute cluelessness (is that a word?).

nobody knew they had to order an actual card for me.

There we go. I’ve said it. Shall I say it again, in case you missed it the first time.

NOBODY KNEW THEY HAD TO ORDER AN ACTUAL CREDIT CARD. A PIECE OF PLASTIC!

Do you think even I can understand this? It looks like, when I ordered an upgrade from a Debit “CARD” to a “GOLD CREDIT CARD”, somebody was under the impression that all I ever wanted was a limit increase. And that nobody informed Discovery that my card had been destroyed like it should have been.

Sorry, read this post if you missed that.

I’m lucky now though, because after a wait of only 6 months, somebody has ordered me a new credit card. How sweet.

Guess what. NO PHONE CALL!!! Are you really suprised? To tell you the truth, I am. He sounded like such a nice chap. So, let’s see where he was.

A lovely sounding lady answered the phone today. She was surprised that yesterday’s HDJ didn’t phone me back. Her words: “But he always does?!” So, she’ll find out what he says and one of them will DEFINITELY phone me back. ha ha ha ha… Am I REALLY starting to enjoy this torture? Could this possibly be a case of “Stockholm Syndrome” taking effect?

Well, yesterday’s HDJ phoned from his “lunch break, as this was the only time he had to call me”… I like it. He was mailing his manager and would CC me so that I knew who I was dealing with. (I still haven’t received the mail, by the way). Why would he be so keen to get a manager/supervisor in to keep me happy, after all this time?????…………………….

TO BE CONTINUED…