first time I used my credit card :(

[jdonn]

At some point it makes sense to cut out the cc companies from this transaction, otherwise I guess people could buy a house and put it on Visa. One hell of a rebate at year's end. That cash has to come frmo somewhere.

From the fees stores pay, and from irresponsible users who don't pay off their balances. I don't see why that should concern me.

[Al_U_Card]

If they can't get the carbon trading bubble to inflate it may well be the credit card bubble that is next in line.....a likely start would be to charge interest from the time of purchase....maybe np for you but a lot of debt for many and a

'good" way to get people to go after the "cash" in the system that they will be using to inflate away the economy... :)

[helene_t]

In any case, I refuse to participate in such a game. Credit cards are unsafe and too expensive to use (even if it's someone else who pays the costs).

You are taking a strong moral stand which is financially illogical :) Everyone else paying for something that you can use to your benefit is a good reason to do it, not a good reason not to.

Nothing illogical about factoring in the costs to society/shops/othercustomers when making decisions. Maybe oldfashioned and/or crazy, though.

 

If I were to make a living of screwing the shops, I would prefer shoplifting to credit card usage. After all shoplifting has less overhead.

 

Oh no I didn't think of the costs of prosecuting me and keeping me in prison. Maybe more economically effective to abide to the law. Have to think about it.

[Apollo81]

Plus credit cards are almost never free--  first you have to have great credit to qualify to get one (most don't) and second the moment that you don't pay the full balance, you pay interest, sometimes very high interest.

In the U.S. credit card companies send offers to infants, dead people, and pets. Anyone can get a credit card.

[Apollo81]

My brother is one of those people who accumulates a lot of debt on his credit cards and, instead of paying off the balance, rolls it over onto some new 0% APR account and parlays the money into an investment account.

 

Of course he's got an awesome job so can assume the risk but he tells me he's in the black at this point, even considering everything that happened last year...

Isn't he paying 3% fees every time he rolls it? Which isn't smart?

[Apollo81]

College students are the one group that's specially targeted, because apparently card companies want to grab brand loyalty when in college, and they figure parents will always bail out the students(?)

College students are also more likely to run up a balance, incur interest/late fees, etc because they are generally less mature and knowledgeable than older adults. I guess they are also less likely to file for bankruptcy because parents will bail them out.

[mike777]

College students are the one group that's specially targeted, because apparently card companies want to grab brand loyalty when in college, and they figure parents will always bail out the students(?)

College students are also more likely to run up a balance, incur interest/late fees, etc because they are generally less mature and knowledgeable than older adults. I guess they are also less likely to file for bankruptcy because parents will bail them out.

I guess it is just me and I am old..but to keep hearing how parents bail out 18-22 year old students shocks me....are you parents that rich?

 

I mean I thought we are in a recession/depression....yet everyone has a cell phone/lexus/bluetooth that has pedal issues.

[kfay]

My brother is one of those people who accumulates a lot of debt on his credit cards and, instead of paying off the balance, rolls it over onto some new 0% APR account and parlays the money into an investment account.

 

Of course he's got an awesome job so can assume the risk but he tells me he's in the black at this point, even considering everything that happened last year...

Isn't he paying 3% fees every time he rolls it? Which isn't smart?

Not if you look out also for the 1-time 0% balance transfers.

[JoAnneM]

I fail to see how my paying off my credit cards (only 2) every month is screwing the shop owners. They get the sales and pay the fee, which is built into the sales price. The credit card companies love me because I just funnel purchase fees to them and never cause them any trouble with collections, etc. Everything is done automatically online. I get money back from them every year for spending a lot of their card and generating those vendor fees. And both my cards are "no fee" cards. I don't see the problem, ethical or otherwise.

[barmar]

Credit card companies make most of their money on interest, not the fees they charge the shop owners. So people who don't carry a balance are reducing their revenues, and they have to make it up somehow. If no one carried a balance, they would have to charge the shops a huge amount.

 

Luckily for us there are plenty of people who don't pay off their balances. They're subsidizing the vendors and those of us who do.

[blackshoe]

Heh. The first time I ever used a credit card, ca. 1973 or so, the clerk looked at my signature on the charge slip, looked at my signature on the back of the credit card, looked me right in the eye and said "that's not your signature".

 

I told him to call the cops. Then the manager came over and smacked him upside the head. :-)

[PassedOut]

Heh. The first time I ever used a credit card, ca. 1973 or so, the clerk looked at my signature on the charge slip, looked at my signature on the back of the credit card, looked me right in the eye and said "that's not your signature".

 

I told him to call the cops. Then the manager came over and smacked him upside the head. :-)

:)