Use your Credit Card - it's better for you... ;)

[XIR.Xanton]

In March 1992 a man living in Newtown near Boston
Massachusetts received a bill for his as yet unused credit
card stating that he owed $0.00. He ignored it and threw it
away.

In April he received another and threw that one away too.
The following month the credit card company sent him a very
nasty note stating they were going to cancel his card if he
didn't send them $0.00 by return of post. He called them,
talked to them, they said it was a computer error and told
him they'd take care of it.

The following month he decided that it was about time that
he tried out the troublesome credit card figuring that if
there were purchases on his account it would put an end to
his ridiculous predicament. However, in the first store that
he produced his credit card in payment for his purchases he
found that his card had been cancelled. He called the credit
card company who apologized for the computer error once
again and said that they would take care of it. The next day
he got a bill for $0.00 stating that payment was now
overdue. Assuming that having spoken to the credit card
company only the previous day the latest bill was yet
another mistake he ignored it, trusting that the company
would be as good as their word and sort the problem out.

The next month he got a bill for $0.00 stating that he had
10 days to pay his account or the company would have to take
steps to recover the debt.

Finally giving in he thought he would play the company at
their own game and mailed them a check for $0.00. The
computer duly processed his account and returned a statement
to the effect that he now owed the credit card company
nothing at all.

A week later, the man's bank called him asking him what he
was doing writing a check for $0.00. After a lengthy
explanation the bank replied that the $0.00 check had caused
their check processing software to fail. The bank could not
now process ANY checks from ANY of their customers that day
because the check for $0.00 was causing the computer to
crash.

The following month the man received a letter from the
credit card company claiming that his check had bounced and
that he now owed them $0.00 and unless he sent a check by
return of post they would be taking steps to recover the
debt.

The man, who had been considering buying his wife a computer
for her birthday, bought her a typewriter instead.

[XIR.croom]