@longtimelurker wrote:
@barbaralee wrote:I work at a company that services financial institutions, mostly credit unions but banks as well. I see credit card statements all day, everyday, and to judge that someone using a credit card is in debt is (in my experience) not a far off assumption. The vast majority of the accounts that I pull up the people are not only in debt, they are barely making the minimums, and immediately charging it back up. We were looking at a statement the other day for training purposes and the cardholder's interest to date was close to $600.
A few years back when I worked in credit cards for USAA I would say it was an almost even ratio of people in debt vs those who pay off. One thing that was pretty consistent across the board:
If the member was older or retired they were usually a PIF'er.
If they were younger/middle aged they were in debt.
Of course there are always exceptions... I spoke with a judge once that I tried my darnest to get his credit line increased. He was grandfathered in from years ago and had 50k credit line, which was maxed. He was needing his credit extended to pay his taxes. I spoke with three underwriters on his behalf, it was a no go.
Another young man I talked to was so paranoid about how having a credit card affected his credit that he would use the card and pay it off as soon as it posted. But like I said... these guys were the exceptions to the general rule, imo.
And yes, I do believe a few of my friends think I am in debt, lol. I don't blame them! If I see people using credit cards I often wonder how much debt they are in as well.
And another thing, which some here say doesn't apply to them, but...! Some studies have shown that reward credit cards cause people to spend more. This is perhaps partly because it causes things to seem cheaper ("I only wanted to spend $80, and this is $100, but I will get points!") or spend towards a goal "If I get 4000 more points I will be able to get that UA ticket. How can I get those points?" or maxing out a quarter category to get the most benefit (Need to get that $1,500 spend on Freedom by the end of Sep!" So this is a potential debt-enabling feature of credit cards.
Now everyone can say "Not me, I only buy what I was going to any way" and I will silently disbelieve!
I honestly don't do it often but if I do it's at most only about 10-15% more then what I expected to pay. I usually have a Budget and I stick to it.
@longtimelurker wrote:
@Closingracer99 wrote:
@longtimelurker wrote:
@taxi818 wrote:
It's against federal law to charge more for use of credit card.Hardly. It's against 10 or so state laws, but allowed everywhere else. The 2013 settlement allowed (subject to certain provisions) merchants to charge more for cc use.
Now in the states that allow it, there still hasn't been a lot of it because of competition (if I charge, and my competitor doesn't, unless I have some unique value proposition, the cc side of the biz goes there)
The 10 states include big ones though!
Hmm Which ones?
From https://usa.visa.com/download/merchants/surcharging-faq-by-merchants.pdf
10 U.S. states have surcharging restrictions including California, Colorado, Connecticut,
Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.
Ah Thanks... Since living in NY and travel to Boston and CT at times good to now know to look out for it though never seen it other then like forcing a min charge to use them
Sounds like a few responders thought the post was actually made TO judge people for credit card usage. 
At work, they sometimes giggle about the # of cards I carry, but they get that I use CCs as debit cards, and no one says much else.
They also joke about me having a mattress of money, but most of them are young, single guys with single income households.
Most of my family uses CCs and PIFs, I am sorta the last one to come around to how this all works :-/ Late bloomer.
I myself, do have a few things on my cards that are a balance -mostly new furniture we bought, and plan to PIF before the 0% APR is up.
While if needed, I could pay the amount in full, I would rather keep that $$ in savings, and make a few pennies on it.
@taxi818 wrote:I think they defeat purpose if they are doing that. Goodness. But you are or we're looking at stat sheets. I hope the majority are not in that kind of gloom and doom debt you mention.
I read most Americans are getting good at this credit thing. Said 50 million have score over 700. Hmmm but did not mention their that. One stat I saw said average person in. MY zip code. Is 83k in the hole. I said no way and I owe less then 1 k. Which is around 6 percent util. Otherwise I would just pay off but 0 percent 14 months. I think it's helping my score I could be wrong.
I think the majority of people that are in debt are in cc debt it may be mortgages or student loans i don't know where they come up with the numbers though.