I hate credit cards

Some years ago Christy and I paid off all of our debts. We each kept one credit card. The cards are from the same bank where we do all of our banking and we pay off the balance, if any, each month. And we have had the same cards for 20 years.

Last month they raised her interest rate from 9% to 15%. The reason was "restructuring." They left my rate as it was. We thought something was wrong and obtained a copy of her report and mine. There was nothing wrong and her credit score was 797.

Then I did a little research. Nearly one third of all credit cards issued have had their rates increased and many have lowered the credit amounts or even closed customer's accounts. What I found was that banks want you to use your cards but not carry a balance. They get a percentage of your purchase from the merchant and don't have to carry any debt.

Curse you Bank of America!

Phil

You and your wife are smart. We do the same thing.

I don't respect credit card company's business models. They target the young and the ignorant, especially college kids. They run up a huge bill and can find no way to pay it off. They push the cards on these kids saying it will help them build their credit scores. They even set up at college campuses. And you can't totally blame the kids for their youth, and spending habits. Of course they're going to use the cards!

I advised one of the neighbor kids (he's 19) to get a card with about a two hundred dollar limit. No more. And to either pay the balance off in full every month or to pay double the minimum payment. That will help him get started and curb excess spending.

Pay with cash, check, or money order if you can. If you get a credit card, pay off the balance every month and get a low limit so you don't accidently overspend. A certain credit card company was for a while sending me a new offer every couple of weeks. I read the fine print and it said they might raise the interest rate as high as 39% if a payment is late (even by a day). They anoyed me so much with their junk mail that I definately don't want their card.

Marie Pacha wrote:

My sons are both in college. They both use debit cards. That's all they need right now.

Marie, my older daughter is in college and she just has a debit card, also. I don't subscribe to the "Don't blame me for using a credit card, you offered!" philosophy. We appear to be in the minority, though. Don't blame homeowners for buying houses they couldn't afford -it's the bank's fault for lending them money. Don't blame people for not paying their car note, they're busy and it "gets away from them." (there was a whole newspaper article about this recently). Don't blame anyone for anything, it's always someone else's fault.

When you reach a critical mass of people who think this way, you see where it gets us.

There is good in all spending as long as it doesn't go to extremes.

Offering a college kid a thousand dollar limit card, and offering a young couple a hundred thousand dollar home is extreme. The lenders must take some blame in that. Many of them are predatory.

When those same marketers don't sell and lend to the ignorant, greedy and stupid, they're called "discriminatory." Some college kids will use credit judiciously and marketers can't suss out which ones, so they offer to all.

A marketer's job is to sell things. A consumer's job is to buy what he or she can afford. Both have responsibilities. Consumer responsibilities get forgotten though, because newspapers like to paint the ignorant, greedy and stupid as hapless victims. It fans populist rage, hence sells more papers.

Being responsible is what's it's all about.
Credit can be a lifesaver if used wisely.

My mother and father had a great deal of pride and little money. So, instead of asking for help, and after living frugally, and not speaking of finances so no one knew the real story, they lived on credit cards.

And finally my mother asked for help and I gave it. When she went into a nursing home, I discovered the credit card debt.

Being a responsible person, I wrote to all five credit cards offering to pay a portion from a savings account I had. They all refused the amounts I offered. We went to a lawyer to find out what to do and he said "nothing." I was not responsible, although I felt like I was.

Just before my father had died years before, he said, "I was a terrible father." When I disagreed with the gentlest kindest man I have ever known, he said, "I was not a good provider."

After I looked through my mother's paperwork I realized what he meant. These were about the best parents anyone ever had. They outlived their money.

I still get the bills. Now I put "deceased" on the envelope. I was threatened by people saying they were going to serve my mother papers. I said, "You mean you would go to a nursing home and serve an ill lady papers?"

I called the nursing home about screening her calls and her mail. "No problem" they said, making me think others had similar problems. If the credit card people had not given a credit card to someone who had no means to pay, she would have asked for help from me a lot sooner than she did and it would have been a lot cheaper than the many hundreds of dollars of interest she paid the credit card companies. One even accused her of stealing, but I knew she had paid back the original charge long before, since she had kept all the bills for years and years.

Carol