As you can tell, I am somewhat anti-credit card. Is there a time that a credit card could be good? Perhaps. I may be just a bit one-sided in my view because I have been struggling for years with eliminating my credit card debt. To be sure, great progress has been made in that struggle, great strides have been made to streamline my spending as much as possible in order to free up money to further reduce the debt, but there is a long way to go.
I work (second job) on the weekends at a major home improvement store as a cashier. There is a guy who works there (we'll just call him Mr. T) who is a good worker. One of our objectives to ask people as they check out if they would like to save 10% on their purchase for opening up a store credit card. Mr. T does well at that. (Our company offers employees a financial incentive for getting people to take the card.) One customer did the smart thing.
She opened up the card, saved 10%, and immediately afterward made a payment to pay the balance off in full. That way, she saved the money, but she did not have any balance on her card (at over 22% interest). It might have lowered her credit score a bit, but I believe that she used her credit wisely and wasn't looking to make a major purchase like a home very soon.
It wouldn't work for me because the credit score is less than stellar. But it did give me something to think about. Perhaps you should think too!
Visit my website for ideas about making some money to eliminate your credit card debt. My newly-written eBook about credit card debt is now complete and will be available soon. Have a great day!
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Just my personal, "Bitch" story. I have a credit card with Bank of America, which I have had for twenty years. I owed them a couple of thousand dollars. I had the money to pay it off, but chose not too because the interest rate was very low and I wanted to have the cash in the bank (I know, not smart)
ReplyDeleteWhen my wife and I pay bills we don't even open most of the bills. We know which bill is due when each paycheck arrives and pay what is on the list for that pay period. Each pay period we would psy somewhere around $100 (more than the monthly minimum) on this card.
One day I happened to open the statement, just to see where our balance was. I realized that they had raised my interest rate to 24%. When I called to complain and find out why, I was told that I had been late twice in the last year. Come to find out, if you don't watch the billing cycle of the credit card you can still be late. I think the lady told me that I have four payments in November, four payments in January but only one in December and that came in two days after the due date.
Even with the explanation, and a lot of complaining they would do nothing. The interest was costing me $40 a month, and had been for several months.
Needless to say I sent them a check to pay off the card and will not be using it again.
Ah, Bank of America. They have been known to be less than reputable in their dealings. That is why I will NEVER use them for banking either. Glad to say that Bank of America will never get another new cent of my money.
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