Just saw a report that so many credit card holders are defaulting on their loans??!!

Frankly I have no sympathy for the banks.

The ENCOURAGING this because the unbelievable interest rates they are allowed to charge!

I have credits cards.

They are paid, automatically, every month.

A few years ago, looking at my statement, saw that an INTEREST has been charged because I haven’t paid my bill.

That was total bullshit, of course, because the bank has my instructions to pay it every month.

I called them to see what was going on.

“Sorry, it was a mistake. We won’t charge you next month!”

I asked for the interest hanged to be return to me.

“We cannot do that. But it will not happen again!”

Told them I am closing my account immediately!

Less than hour later, the manager calls.

He apologized for what had happened, and promised my account will be credited immediately back all interest charges they took!

Never happened again!

Now, I am almost sure if we didn’t have relatively large accounts with them, they would not have been so forthcoming!

All around us, most business are charging an extra 3% to use a card! Seems the banks are getting to them also. Most are again wanting cash or check! Image wanting a check now, at least some can run a check while you are standing there!

My credit card bill averages $6000/month, has been a high as $30,000. I always pay it in full, never accrue interest charges, and could care less what the interest rate is. Meanwhile I accrue frequent flier miles and elevated ff status. My wife and I charge literally everything that can be charged. I never carry more than $50. Anyone who doesn’t pay off a CC bill in full is an idiot. Apparently though, the world is full of such idiots….

My father (a smart man) would always use his credit cards and buy at the beginning of the month/billing period and always pay in full at the end of the month/billing period.
This way he used someone elses money for roughly 5 weeks for free.
(no credit card fees back then).

Hip

That’s exactly what I do. It’s an interest free loan/ float for 5-6 weeks. Only a financial idiot carries a month to month balance.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
That’s exactly what I do. It’s an interest free loan/ float for 5-6 weeks. Only a financial idiot carries a month to month balance.

I hope we can agree that in some cases it takes decades to acrue this wisdom.
I am with you now and carefully manage my credit, but in previous years and decades,.....

Report says the banks are writing off over 4 billion dollars in bad credit card debts!

Who pays that??

I can't remember the last time I paid cash for anything. Credit cards are very convenient. The down side is that the banks charge the merchants something like 3% on every transaction. The merchants raise their prices accordingly. 3% a month isn't a bad rate of return. And guess who gets to pay for all those bad debts?
C.G.B.

Diners Club really opened up a can of worms with that one.