If you use Quicken for your personal finances and you're tired of typing your credit card charges into your computer at the end of every month, the folks at Intuit (Quicken's publisher) have a new product that they would like to sell you: a Visa card with an electronic monthly statement.
It works like this: At the end of each month, Primerica Bank, the card's backer, sends each Intellicharge customer a traditional monthly statement. A few days later, you'll get a floppy disk in the mail containing the electronic version of your statement. Pop it into the disk drive, then tell Quicken you want to reconcile your statement. Quicken will read the charges off the floppy (automatically matching up the ones you've already typed), mark the charges as "cleared," then give you the option of paying the minimum payment, the full statement balance, or a value of your choice.
Intuit says that the Primerica Visa has "no annual fee," but after the first six months you'll be charged US$4.50 a month for "electronic statement delivery." If you choose, you can avoid the floppy disk and get the statement by modem for only $3.
My advice? Take Intuit's six-month free ride, then decide whether the monthly fee is worth the time you'll save entering the charges manually. Quicken: US$69.95. Intuit: (800) 624 9060, +1 (415) 322 0573.
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