I spoke too soon

I don't think that's going to happen for "people with good scores" because the banks want the merchant's fee as much as they want the interest. They want the merchant fee so much that they're willing to split it with me. ;-)

They can jack mine up to 100% and I wouldn't care. I don't even know what the interest rate is. Never looked.

Yep. Hasn't happened to me yet, but "Consumer Reports" is reporting cases of card cancellations of people who pay off every month.

I've been playing devil's advocate. GE Money and HSBC have been acquiring department store accounts. I've had my wife write each of these department stores and tell them (making me the bad guy) that "My husband forbids me to shop in any store that uses either of those fronts" ;-) Produced many multi-dollar-off coupons ;-) And I no longer shop Sam's Club (except for the $4 prescriptions).

...Jim Thompson

I "hear" of that, but it makes no sense and I sure haven't seen it. Like I said earlier, they like that merchant fee. So much so that they're willing to share it.

I don't care when SWMBO "makes me the bad guy". Somone has to do it. ;-) I use the "free interest" deals all the time and these are two of the heavy hitters in this arena. I'll use their money.

Don't all credit cards now have an automatic pay feature. I don't use it but it's there on the two I take care of (SWMBO does the other, for historic reasons).

Not really. It comes out of profit because I'm not paying more for the privilege. If I were paying for it, I'd buy from someone who didn't take credit cards and gave me the break.

I didn't pay it then. The merchant did.

Debt: Living the American Dream!

On the plus side, if the economy really mega tanks, my student loans will pretty well pay themselves. Because the dollars they are made of will be worthless.

Tim

Get a card with NO annual fee and ignore the interest rate which one can make meaningless by paying the balance due (or more) each and every month.

I didn't know either for many years until I had to put some medical expenses on it.

No. All 'credit cards' are ONLY credit cards.

All 'Debit Cards' extract immediately from your bank account. A debit card that has a credit card as a base carrier (all do) allows the owner to *use* his debit card as a credit card, where such purchases would not show up until the credit card agency actually gets the transaction from the company the purchase was made from, and then they tap against the bank account the debit card is held against, which can be several days later, but is usually only a day or two. Such cards are typically limited to only one or two thousand dollars on a 'credit' purchase, and that will cause an overdraft charge if the amount exceeds your balance, and it will be expected to be paid immediately, and all subsequent transactions will cause an overdraft and overdraft charges. It (a debit card with credit 'features')is virtually worthless as an actual credit card.

interest

steak

Not true, but besides the point.

Duh!

A simple Visa debit card. They aren't rare. So what?

The point was that you can set up "auto-pay" on credit cards, so if you're stuck in Outer Zambia because your DC-3 busted a head gasket, the bill gets paid.

As long as you're going to use this strategy, get one that gives you a kick-back, as well. No reason to let the bank keep all of the merchant's fee.

Negotiated

interest

steak

You can set up auto-pay with most folks you have a debt with individually and not even involve your credit card.

Negotiated

credit

scores

date

interest

steak

You *really* are stupid, DimBulb!

a=20

=20

Yep. This time it will be all plastic, and won't go away.

socked=20

Negotiated a=20

with=20

returning.

credit=20

=20

scores=20

question=20

=20

One of my cards just eliminated the "grace period". They now charge interest from date of purchase until payment clears.

Dump it. Let them get away with it and all will.

...and if there is enough "kick-back" and one does NOT disclose that as income, then one is asking for an IRS audit...

and

said

payment

of

The usual case has people like my son 'forced into the wild' so to speak and having to struggle without even the basic skills needed to survive on their own. The bulk of the developmental disabilities curve works like that -- it is how the system is set up. To some terrible and very sad results, many times.

Let me tell you just one short story about one such person (feel free to ask for more, or more details about this individual.) I was being shown around by the Associate Director of a disabilities program in my state and he took me to the apartment of one lady. She lives alone but does (supposedly) get looked in on, on occasion. When we walked in, that late afternoon, she immediately asked us to help her. She didn't know how to replace the vacuum bag in her vacuum cleaner, which was full, and there were several other 'issues' she truly needed help with. One of them was the fact that she didn't have any heat and she felt very cold. Now it turns out that his selection to show me her place was entirely random. It fell out of a discussion we were having which had triggered him to suggest the idea. I immediately set about helping with what I could do and he immediately made some cell phone calls to get the heat dealt with.

But what would have happened to her had we not visited? Well, chances are that within a day or two she'd get another visit and in the meantime she'd be cold, unable to use her vacuum cleaner, and would have had to live with a few other things I helped with when I was there. Probably, the heating issue was the most serious and urgent. But she needed help and, as it turns out, she doesn't get enough even just to stay warm at night, sometimes.

She is one of many people with modest mental capabilities, who do get some support, and who are otherwise emancipated and assumed able to deal with many issues that, to be honest, they really cannot handle at all. But our society really also cannot afford to take care of them, there isn't a sense of community in US society that would otherwise handle things, and are left to drift from time to time on their own. They are able to secure credit and often do, misunderstanding most of what it means and completely lacking the skills to deal with issues should they arise. Chances are, they won't even know to ask for help UNTIL they have already gotten so deeply into trouble that the solutions are far between and very difficult to manage well.

(For cripes sake, I'm still dealing with a minor case of credit fraud in my name that took place back in 2003! And I am supposed to be capable, I like to imagine at times. [T-Mobile are bastards, but that's another story for another time.])

Our society does NOT fund nor does it have people providing the kinds of services you are talking about. They fund the basics, mostly. And that is about it. If that. And far too many of these people are ignored by family (only about 15% get regular visits -- and by this, I mean once a year or more often), ignored by social services, and many pretty much left to live on the street. The lucky ones get by. But that's about all I can say.

Well, I'm not thinking about people that capable, I suppose. I deal regularly with people somewhat less able.

Perhaps both a funny and yet sad example, I remember one man in Eugene, Oregon, who gets social security checks each month -- it's not much to live on, by the way -- and who likes to sometimes visit a bar. He has a care-giver who goes with him, as he is eligible for some services like that (he operates at about a low intellectual level.) When he goes into the bar, the girls come over to him right away and sit on his lap and 'make him happy.' He likes that, has no understanding of money at all, and they pretty much take all of the monthly stipend of cash he gets in a single evening. The care giver cannot do anything about it, as the man is of age and no one has guardianship over him. All the care giver can do is try and discourage him. But it doesn't really sink in. So he lives very poor and is completely ill-equipped to cope with others' greed, avarice, and ill-intent. It's literally like taking candy from a baby.

Mostly, all this is my attempt to point out that there are some folks out there who really do want to live nothing more than a very modest life and would never consider the idea of not paying their bills. Your earlier comment, "Anyone who accepts whatever phantasy rate they charge might have no real intention to pay their debt in the first place" caused me to bristle a little. But I know because of what else you've said months and years back, that this was more out of ignorance about those who I work with far more regularly than you do, I suspect.

Jon