Posted on 03/16/2019 11:53:11 AM PDT by Libloather
A new study details how Americans manage credit cards and how stressful credit debt can be.
**SNIP**
“The most shocking find to me was how many Americans carry credit card balances month to month,” Tommy O'Shaughnessy, an analyst at Clever Real Estate Analyst and the author of the report, told Yahoo Finance.
Nearly half of the respondents (47%) carried some amount of credit card debt month to month, according to the survey, with 72% of borrowers carrying more than $1,000.
“With the average 17.64% APR, that debt compounds quickly and can become unmanageable for lower income families,” O'Shaughnessy noted.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Credit card companies can be nasty and refuse to contract with the business to accept their card if they offer a cash discount.
Yawn.
Cash on the barrel.
I processed card charges for a company that offered a cash discount. The credit card banks never bothered us over it.
Not any more. Big lawsuit a few years ago settled that. However, many merchants don't know that they can offer discounts for non-card payments.
One of the benefits of using a credit card is the ability to dispute charges. If a merchant will not cooperate, the bank will, in most cases, go to bat or you by giving you a refund and charging back to the merchant.
Thanks for updating me!
We use an Amex and pay it off every month. But I’m starting a new business and applied for and received a Discover card to make it easy to track original expenses. It has a 14 month no interest if paid off by then. It will be. I think the paperwork said 24% after that. OMG! We haven’t carried any CC interest in about 20 years.
if you do that, your credit rating stays in the tank. Make your credit cards work for you. 1) Every once in a while, carry an item for 6 months' worth of payments. or 2) take the 'we'll give you this much cash advance!' and put it right into a savings account which you will use to 3) Pay on time. Watch your credit rating go up. And when your credit rating goes up, your credit limit goes up. When your credit rating and limit goes up, other lenders are made more comfortable loaning on really big ticket items, like cars and equity lines, at more favorable interest rates.
Now, was a better credit rating and a higher credit limit worth 6 months of interest? youbetcha
We just keep one card - I got tired of getting the sign-up bonuses and then canceling the cards because I don’t like having a lot of ‘loose strings’ to keep track of. Can’t remember any time in last 30+ years having to pay the usurious interest because of an incomplete/late payment...finally just told them to take the balance from my checking account each month so I don’t have to write the checks...
I have 15 credits cards, zero balance on all of them, and no other debts. My credit rating is 812 (just checked).
Credit card hacking takes some time and effort, no question. But then, I’m retired and have the time. :-)
What bozo told you that? I’ll put my excellent rating against that hooey any day.
Ask your local banker.
I do that and my score has remained in the neighborhood of 830. Haven't had any mortgages or other loans either for at least 7 years.
Yeah - and they’re getting better at noticing anomalies and notifying you if anything looks suspicious...won’t stop all those with lots of free time on their hands....I’m retired too - maybe you can give me some tips on making a few easy bucks on the side......
A bought a new car back in the early eighties, and didn’t have enough local credit so I had to put it on a credit card. The interest rate was 18%. Heh. So I opened up an account at a credit union and paid off the card immediately. Strange days.
I guess it depends. I stopped buying things on time years ago and don’t anticipate ever doing it again. My CC bill gets paid in full every month. My credit rating isn’t worth paying to bump it. I don’t even know what it is.
That’s what I do. It comes right out of checking with no risk of late fees. I’ve had a Discover card for thirty years and never a problem.
May be anecdotal but I picked up an Amazon Prime Rewards Chase credit card a few months ago. It is very convenient and I get cash back. The first month I ran it up to 80% of its limit and my credit took a 5 pt. hit for “using too much credit”. I pay it off every month so didn’t understand the logic in that. To avoid that the next time I ran it up that high I made in-cycle payments to bring it to $0 before the end of the cycle. Two months of that and my limit went up $1000 and my credit score jumped 20 points.
“I preferred eating beans and rice, with occasional hamburger, to going into debt.”
Amen to that. I lived on baked potatoes in hard times. Owing money literally makes me sick to my stomach.
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