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Being one of the "older people" I can only give you my thoughts on the situation.
Yes, times are different. When I bought my first house, I put 20% down, as that was the norm. You don't see that today. Since then, we (my wife and I) have bought three other homes and also three incvome properties and always made a down payment.
What do people expect. You put a lot of people in homes with nothing down and the get foreclosed. Whose fault is that? They basically got into a house for "free" and something I have learned over the years, is what you get "free" is usually worth what you paid for it.
The banks never made my credit rating. I MADE IT, by paying my bills on time. The Banks never put me in debt, as anytime I borrowed money it was a conscious decision.
Credit is a valuable tool if you have the discipline and responsibility to use it wisely. Otherwise it can be a killer and I say this from experience.
Sadly in society we are inundated with the idea we can spend our way into happiness and those things we possess are the measure of what we have achieved. The truth is, a thief can have a fancy car or home he never worked a day for, so possessions prove nothing.
We want to live in an instant society, push the "love button" , get instant decisions, BUT only if they go our way. Perish forbid they don't as then it is always the fault of the credit grantor. TRUTH, it is just a model invented to satisfy this instant lust so if it doesn't work, then we have only ourselves to blame, as we wanted it.
If you feel that a CCC is not treating you right, then don't deal with them. This seems to be the thing I find most incredulous, as I see many posters who somehow think credit is their "right". Well, that is 100% wrong. Credit is a privilege, especially UNSECURED CREDIT via credit cards. No one forces you to have them or to use them.
Of course businesses will look at Credit reports as it is a picture of how you handle your obligations. We have three rental properties. How could I know if a person meets their obligations without getting that information? Should I not know that, since someone is moving into my property?
You speak about the "politicians" and yes, most of the time they are ineffective but that still does not rid us of the responsibilities we have. Insurance is not high because everyone drives safe and obeys the traffic laws. Interest rates are not high because everyone pays their bills. We all end up paying for the mistakes of others and that is something that we can not put off on anyone other then ourselves.
YES, there are some great posters on here and you can gain some fabulous information that will be helpful. Just learn to look at what you read and see what people say and their attitude. Another thing about being "old" is you learn in life that the true measure of a persons character can only be measured not by what people say about them, but by seeing what they say about other people.
Best of luck to you in your financial journey.
@Anonymous wrote:Being one of the "older people" I can only give you my thoughts on the situation.
Yes, times are different. When I bought my first house, I put 20% down, as that was the norm. You don't see that today. Since then, we (my wife and I) have bought three other homes and also three incvome properties and always made a down payment.
What do people expect. You put a lot of people in homes with nothing down and the get foreclosed. Whose fault is that? They basically got into a house for "free" and something I have learned over the years, is what you get "free" is usually worth what you paid for it.
The banks never made my credit rating. I MADE IT, by paying my bills on time. The Banks never put me in debt, as anytime I borrowed money it was a conscious decision.
Credit is a valuable tool if you have the discipline and responsibility to use it wisely. Otherwise it can be a killer and I say this from experience.
Sadly in society we are inundated with the idea we can spend our way into happiness and those things we possess are the measure of what we have achieved. The truth is, a thief can have a fancy car or home he never worked a day for, so possessions prove nothing.
We want to live in an instant society, push the "love button" , get instant decisions, BUT only if they go our way. Perish forbid they don't as then it is always the fault of the credit grantor. TRUTH, it is just a model invented to satisfy this instant lust so if it doesn't work, then we have only ourselves to blame, as we wanted it.
If you feel that a CCC is not treating you right, then don't deal with them. This seems to be the thing I find most incredulous, as I see many posters who somehow think credit is their "right". Well, that is 100% wrong. Credit is a privilege, especially UNSECURED CREDIT via credit cards. No one forces you to have them or to use them.
Of course businesses will look at Credit reports as it is a picture of how you handle your obligations. We have three rental properties. How could I know if a person meets their obligations without getting that information? Should I not know that, since someone is moving into my property?
You speak about the "politicians" and yes, most of the time they are ineffective but that still does not rid us of the responsibilities we have. Insurance is not high because everyone drives safe and obeys the traffic laws. Interest rates are not high because everyone pays their bills. We all end up paying for the mistakes of others and that is something that we can not put off on anyone other then ourselves.
YES, there are some great posters on here and you can gain some fabulous information that will be helpful. Just learn to look at what you read and see what people say and their attitude. Another thing about being "old" is you learn in life that the true measure of a persons character can only be measured not by what people say about them, but by seeing what they say about other people.
Best of luck to you in your financial journey.
Nothing like hitting the nail on the head. You hit the nail and drove it completely through.This response is one of the best I have read on these forums. I agree totally.
Yeah, DickC pretty much said it all, especially in the entitlement feeling many (most?) people have when it comes to credit. We demand that lenders give us copiious amounts of UNSECURED credit to use at cheaper than market rates, and then get mad at how unfair the system is when they take that credit away or increase the interest rates. I've been around the block a few years and have excellent credit, and I make a very good salary. I've also been given overall credit lines of about 2.5X my annual salary. In my opinion this is way too much unsecured credit available to me, but that is how the system works. If a creditor thinks I have too much credit I wouldn't blame them. In my simple mind we should have no more than 30% or so of our income available to us as unsecured credit to keep the chances of getting into trouble to a manageable level. I think people would howl if credit was limited to these kinds of levels.
You don't have to use credit. Save your money and pay cash for items. It can be done, and should be done for many, many people. We are not entitled to credit. Period.
Bravo folks for your comments, but let me set the record straight. Yes I myself have had bad times in my life times , I've had a critically ill child that caused me to file bk because no one would work with me,I lost my job to down sizing companies. I've pawned to buy my child baby milk,I've worked 3 jobs to take care of my family.
That said I own every thing in my house debt free including my car and truck,I have less than 9% on all my cc,I don't rely on cc to get me thru. But the point I was getting at (excuse my ignorance) is I have cc just because that helps me get lower interest, and better rates, Because ficos see the use. If you will notice most here have some other issue with cc but I could care-less. The cc are just a tool for me I wish I didn't have to use. Also older folks I meant no offense just praise for what you have done without cc.
@Anonymous wrote:No one forces you to have them or to use them.
DickC,
As an "older" man, ( 67 ), I agree with 99% of what you say, except for the above statement. I believe that we are forced to have them and use them. Its called control. I am sure you remember the day when a "handshake" was as good as a contract, because we wouldn't think of ruining our good name. I still live by, and believe, that a person with the least amount of debt owed is still the best risk on the open market, regardless of the number of cc's that person has, whether that number is "0", or "100". I don't think that paying cash for everything, if you can afford it, should penalize you, or make you a "high" risk to a lender. As you probably know, back in the day, a person only made payments on a home. Even new cars were paid for in cash, that is, until they became so expensive that it was necessary to pay for them over 2-4 yrs. I am sure there will be those who will disagree with me, but then again, as they say, you can't teach an old dog new tricks.