Frustrated with people who think credit cards are evil

[Anonymous]

I only buy what I afford to pay off right away. I see CC the same as cash meaning if I don't have it in cash, I can't buy it. It's just easier form of payment and that's why I use cards. Some people see cards as buy now, worry later. That's a dangerous mindset.

[JediNeo]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Sadly I was one of these people throughout my 20s. Id use a card like free money until it hit 90% then put it on min payments and go back to my debit. After a bit the lender would close the acct and I was too naive to know why , so I'd get mad and quit paying them. They'd offer me a settlement after a few years blah blah blah.

I finally got tired of being treated like a deadbeat when my credit was run despite a 6 figure income, and thankfully ran into an older gentleman who took the time to explain credit to me in detail. That conversation led me to this forum. Now my utilization is nearly zero, I PIF every month, and I kick myself thinking about all the travel rewards I left on the table by playing the game poorly. I can't wait till the day when I use my future freedom, FU, and CSP for all of my purchases and can pay for that first round trip with URs.

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This is my issue. My partner has great credit and very few cards. Even after explaing all the cash back and rewards I earn with my cards she still insist on using her debit card. She loaths paying bills and would rather use debit then gain rewards.  I even suggest to at least prevent fraud.....nothing.

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I only buy what I afford to pay off right away. I see CC the same as cash meaning if I don't have it in cash, I can't buy it. It's just easier form of payment and that's why I use cards. Some people see cards as buy now, worry later. That's a dangerous mindset.

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Ditto 12velectronics....Too many people get into trouble by not doing this. I do not know how many people got credit cards and state that they will only carry a balance for emergencies, which is OK except soon thereafter every thing is an emergency. For many credit cards seem to create emergencies. My philosophy is "If I can not drive it or live in it then I am not going to pay interest on a loan for it...period! If credit card balances are even slowly creeping upward, then you are spending more than you are making and headed for trouble. Used properly, credit cards are a great tool, extends warranties, purchace protection, rewards, free insurance on car rentals...etc. They are great, if you can control the idiot who is using them. That is the key to everything!

[Anonymous]

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@medicgrrl wrote:

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@simplynoir wrote:

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@medicgrrl wrote:

I added my 18 yo son as an AU on my Amex.  It's great because with Amex, you can give them their own CL.  He has his own app to access the card, it only shows his balance and his personal credit limit and doesn't show him any of my info so he has no idea what's really available on the account.

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Sorry to hijack this thread for a moment but do you know of other cc companies that do this? I always knew about AMEX but don't know if there are others.

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I do not.  He's also on my Cap 1 account, but I haven't found anywhere to set limits etc on that one.

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AMEX is the only one that does this.

[Anonymous]

People that think credit cards are evil are morons...plain and simple. These are also people who don't pay their bills and get pissed when the CC come for blood.

[Anonymous]

What I loath the most is when people rack up debt and then declare bankruptcy. THEN they're back on credit cards after a few years. People need to pay off their debts and stop declaring bankruptcy.

[Anonymous]

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@JediNeo wrote:

This is my issue. My partner has great credit and very few cards. Even after explaing all the cash back and rewards I earn with my cards she still insist on using her debit card. She loaths paying bills and would rather use debit then gain rewards.  I even suggest to at least prevent fraud.....nothing.

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 If you can convince her to change banks, she can get a rewards checking account. That way, she'd get rewards for using her debit card. My rewards checking account earns more per month from using my debit card than the cashback I get from using my credit cards.

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I only buy what I afford to pay off right away. I see CC the same as cash meaning if I don't have it in cash, I can't buy it. It's just easier form of payment and that's why I use cards. Some people see cards as buy now, worry later. That's a dangerous mindset.

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Trouble is, "what I can afford to pay off" isn't quite black and white.  As mentioned earlier by someone, there is some research (with som detractors to be sure) that strongly suggest that credit cards, and particularly reward cards, tend to increase spending  (partly because the reward is a discount, so I'll get two instead of 1 as it's cheap, or to get closer to threshold goals, like 150K UR for that trip)

So while someone may PIF each month like cash or a debit card, the spending level might be higher than otherwise, i.e. they are saving a little less.   Now I'm sure we'll see some posts saying that their spending is EXACTLY the same as when they used cash.   Maybe, or maybe not!

But at least for some, using credit cards like cash isn't totally harmless.

[sarge12]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
I only buy what I afford to pay off right away. I see CC the same as cash meaning if I don't have it in cash, I can't buy it. It's just easier form of payment and that's why I use cards. Some people see cards as buy now, worry later. That's a dangerous mindset.

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Trouble is, "what I can afford to pay off" isn't quite black and white.  As mentioned earlier by someone, there is some research (with som detractors to be sure) that strongly suggest that credit cards, and particularly reward cards, tend to increase spending  (partly because the reward is a discount, so I'll get two instead of 1 as it's cheap, or to get closer to threshold goals, like 150K UR for that trip)

So while someone may PIF each month like cash or a debit card, the spending level might be higher than otherwise, i.e. they are saving a little less.   Now I'm sure we'll see some posts saying that their spending is EXACTLY the same as when they used cash.   Maybe, or maybe not!

But at least for some, using credit cards like cash isn't totally harmless.

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That may be the case for some people, but at least for me, I always know exactly to the penny where I stand. Using Quicken, with it being properly set up makes this easy enough to do. If at any time I ever get to where the outstanding balances on credit cards are even within 500 dollars of the balance in checking, I make no further charges. It is all a lot easier to keep up with when you pay bills the day the bills print, rather than waiting till the due date. If I pay any bill even close to the due date, it is because I slipped up because to me the due date is late. I know it is easier for me than many, because my income is not just a little over my expenses, my income is way over expenses. In fact, my actual necessities are less than a third of my income. So I can in fact say, I never ever pay for anything on a credit card that I do not have the funds sitting in my checking account to pay for...period! I have paid no interest on credit cards since 1996 at least, not 1 penny. I'll say again, if I can't drive it or live in it, I will not pay interest on a loan for it.

[grillandwinemaster]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@jason0618 wrote:
Sad thing about it is that my wife does this same thing. She swipes until it's maxed out and then makes minimum payments. Then she wonders why I won't add her as an AU on mine.

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It's a difficult tightrope to walk. I've been toying with the idea of adding her as an AU on one of my cards, but I haven't yet. 

She has an insane amount of debt, and granted, a lot of it is medical debt, but there are a fair number of card chargeoffs too. 

I manage the family finances, and I do so like a hawk, but it would still be very easy for her to swipe, swipe, swipe ... But I also don't like her being without an emergency card or something. Maybe our bank debit card was compromised or something, and she had no means to pay for anything. It's an inner struggle for me right now. 

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I feel sorry for you. The worst part is, once she passes away, her debt is also yours. Sorry to be morbid but that's the truth...

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Not necessarily... Depends on what state you live in...