general April 16th

Posted April 16, 2007 • Comments Off on April 16th

I just paid my taxes. With my American Express card.

The way I figure it, I get 1% cash back, and I have another month (during which American Express won’t charge me interest on the charge) to keep the money (which I have most of) in the ING savings account earning interest, and this will almost offset the convenience fee. And I won’t pay a dime in interest or bank fees, as I would have had I gone with my second-choice plan of using a Visa card to cover the difference.

All in all it’s a mostly sensible thing I just did, but when I clicked that “submit” button? I. Was. Terrified.

I even called American Express first to make sure tax payments were eligible for the 1% reward (they are) and to ask if the charge would be approved. I feel this was a reasonable step, because I’ve only had this card for a few months and my tax bill exceeds my largest to-date charge on it by a factor of fifty—or, if you want to use this term, an order of magnitude—and I thought that might trigger an “unusual usage” alarm. The nice man on the phone, however, was all “no problem, no problem.” I think he kind of thought it was a silly question.

American Express seems much more forgiving these days than the last time I had an account with them, when I was 18 and very stupid.