Credit card debt...

[pwd72s]

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/americans-deep-credit-card-debt-but-bidenomics-threatens-make-things-even-worse

From the article:

"Collectively, Americans are now carrying more than $1 trillion on their credit cards, and interest rates have soared since the Fed began aggressively increasing rates more than a year and a half ago. Many Americans are struggling and looking for relief."

Heed this song's warning guys...

[Norm K]

So far, save for a brief couple of years of not listening by one of them, none of my four adult children carry any debt beyond that of their respective mortgages.

I've long implored them to wait until they can pay for something before making a purchase and have preached to them that for the common man, debt is the enemy of wealth.

_

[Bill Douglas]

I use mine for just about every purchase.

And I pay it off before I pay any interest. I like the contactless "Paywave" on my CC, plus the credit card company give me something like 50 bucks as a cash back each month for using their card.

If I don't use the CC I need to insert a card into the machine, select account, put in the identification number, press enter... Too much work LOL

[MMARSH]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

I use mine for just about every purchase.

And I pay it off before I pay any interest. I like the contactless "Paywave" on my CC, plus the credit card company give me something like 50 bucks as a cash back each month for using their card.

If I don't use the CC I need to insert a card into the machine, select account, put in the identification number, press enter... Too much work LOL

Me too. I put every household expense on my card. Everything I spend is funneled thru it. Expenses are paid monthly.

[Evans, Marv]

Originally Posted by MMARSH

Me too. I put every household expense on my card. Everything I spend is funneled thru it. Expenses are paid monthly.

This. Other than monthly expenses, I haven't had any debt for decades & want to keep it that way.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Many Americans are struggling and looking for relief."

I don't think a week has gone by in my lifetime that that line couldn't be heard on the news at least once.
Nothing new to see here. If you listen to the news, Americans are always struggling over one thing or another.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Norm K

.... for the common man, debt is the enemy of wealth.

_

Very well put. And 100% true.

[craigster59]

Originally Posted by MMARSH

Me too. I put every household expense on my card. Everything I spend is funneled thru it. Expenses are paid monthly.

I have a Southwest card for personal and LLC. I make all purchases with it and pay it off every month. I like the breakdown and pie chart at the end of the year, helps when filing taxes.

I also collect a bunch of miles. I think right now I have 300k, good for about 20 roundtrips to Vegas or Phoenix.

[DonDavis]

Credit card companies continually tweak their ads and policies to schnooker the average user. Can we agree that their bottom line is massively gaining by folks carrying balances?

That simple fact is irrefutable.

And it’s crippling our neighbors, family members, friends and our county’s future….by 1 trillion dollars.

Compared to that, the payouts or silly benefits the tiny percentage of users get seem paltry.

That’s why a cc company will NEVER be in my pocket. I’ll pay for my own travel, gladly and with peace.

+ 1 to what Norm and Patrick said.

[Dixie]

PPOT is hardly the demographic suffering from revolving credit card balances. Who's affected is
30-somethings in middle class America.

In Florida the average salary of a 30-something college grad is $50,000. After taxes that barely covers their average $2,000 rent and $725 car payment. Somehow they've still got to cover food, utilities, insurance, and more. So they put it on a credit card and pray it'll all work out. Why? Because they don't want to live in squalor any more than you or I do.

[pwd72s]

Credit cards were a relatively new thing when that old Limelighters song came out.

https://money.usnews.com/credit-cards/articles/the-history-of-credit-cards

"How Credit Cards Went National
The national credit card market we're used to today – including payment processors such as Visa and Mastercard and bank cards that can be used just about anywhere – has its roots in the late 1950s.

Bank of America's 1958 launch of its BankAmericard credit card was legendary. The California bank decided that the best way to introduce its product was to send mass mailings of the card to anyone who did business with the bank in a variety of cities.

According to Nocera, the bank put about 2 million cards into circulation and 20,000 merchants signed up, but the launch cost Bank of America millions of dollars in fraud. Delinquencies, which occurred in about 22% of accounts, were also well above expectations.

"It was the Wild West in the early going," Calder says. "It was so bad that legislation was passed at a national level to prevent credit card companies from issuing credit cards for someone who hadn't asked for one."

More banks became interested in credit cards in the 1960s, including some that licensed the BankAmericard name. Mass mailings continued until the practice was outlawed in 1970.

Even though businesses might have balked at paying a fee of 2% or more per charge, Calder says they learned that customers will buy more on credit than they will with cash.

"Meanwhile, customers had to be convinced it was a good idea to buy with a credit card instead of cash," he says. "Attitudes toward debt had changed quite a bit since the early 20th century, but there was still lagging suspicion, especially about a universal credit card."

But progress continued, and in 1966 a group of banks started Master Charge, now Mastercard. Four years later, the banks that had licensed BankAmericard created what eventually became Visa.

"Most credit card lenders issued cards to consumers in relatively small geographies," Hunt says. "The march to a concentrated national market of credit card issuers occurred over a 30-year period beginning in the 1970s."

Federal laws such as the Fair Credit Billing Act and the Truth in Lending Act essentially set nearly uniform rules about credit cards, which made it easier to create a national product, Hunt says. Also, a 1978 Supreme Court decision allowed banks to charge interest rates based on the state where the bank was located, not the rate in the customer's home state.

"That's important because the curious thing about credit cards is that banks figured out consumers don't really care about interest rates," Calder says. "You could charge just about whatever you want, and the consumer wouldn't really notice."

[wildthing]

I think most folks here are in the minority. Some people I know put vacations on a credit card and pay it off in two years with interest. Talk about stupid.

[Reg]

Originally Posted by DonDavis

Credit card companies continually tweak their ads and policies to schnooker the average user. Can we agree that their bottom line is massively gaining by folks carrying balances?

That simple fact is irrefutable.

And it’s crippling our neighbors, family members, friends and our county’s future….by 1 trillion dollars.

Compared to that, the payouts or silly benefits the tiny percentage of users get seem paltry.

That’s why a cc company will NEVER be in my pocket. I’ll pay for my own travel, gladly and with peace.

+ 1 to what Norm and Patrick said.

…….and I’ll cut you a better deal as a business owner so none of us pay for a service we do not need in this case.

[Gogar]

Everything goes on the card and gets paid off days later. Save .8%. Easy. Best of luck to you if you choose otherwise.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by Gogar

Everything goes on the card and gets paid off days later. Save .8%. Easy. Best of luck to you if you choose otherwise.

I've often ranted about my disdain for the banking & CC business models .... I have my reasons.

I've just been lucky ... I reckon

[jcommin]

This is a consumable economy. That's what we do. And we use credit cards to do it and the system makes it easy.

I live within my means - I have no debt. Like many here, I pay on time.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by jcommin

This is a consumable economy. That's what we do. And we use credit cards to do it and the system makes it easy.

I live within my means - I have no debt. Like many here, I pay on time.

Not many folks on here are part of the "easy credit" problem imho... just different approaches and spending habits.

I know the "issues" .... and a debit card provides the same convenience .... "even more" .... for me.

The overhead of CC purchases bugs me

I don't clip coupons either ...

Green Stamps

[GH85Carrera]

Decades ago, I had only an American Express card because I knew I had to pay it off each month. Then one renewal time came up and I said to myself, screw paying them for the honor of carrying the card, and I opened up a Visa account, and paid the statement balance each month and no yearly fee.

Now I have one card for my personal purchases, and one for just company purchases. Both are paid automatically by a dank draft, for the full statement amount. Zero interest is paid.

There was a period a few years back that I was getting "pre-approved" offers for new credit cards at least one per week. My shredder was busy.

Now I still get them for my business. We registered one business name with the secretary of state as a possible name for the business. We went with a different name, and never renewed the name with the SOS. I get credit card offers from all the major cards about once per month. I just shred them.

Even more annoying is SPAM offers via email that we are approved a $250,000 business loans from banks I have never heard of. Where were they when we were setting up our business and needed an airplane loan.

[911 Rod]

I agree with the statements here that the majority of us Pelicans on OT are responsible with out credit cards. I feel sorry for the people whose CC debt circle their lives. Ever read the back of your statements that say how long it will take to pay off the card if you pay the minimum every month?

[DonDavis]

And our society is hammered every day, all day, relentlessly, spreading bs lies about how "important" credit cards are to exist.

It's simply not true.

What is true is they are hamstringing their customers. Gleefully so. I won't be a part of that, ever.

The evils of that industry should be a high school course required to graduate.