Posted on 10/24/2007 8:00:28 AM PDT by BenLurkin
It's the stupid debtor.
There, fixed it.
I want a refund of everything I paid for her education.
I never buy anthing I cant afford.
I'd like to buy a "y" for this gentleman, please. ;->
Why? She was more prudent than most customers, by setting up automatic payments to protect herself.
As usual, the companies just capriciously rewrote all agreements to their benefit, as usual.
One must read every four-point "aboveforementioned notwithstanding, Company reserves the right to.." 8-1/2"X14 page they get AND check the account every week in full paranoia mode to prevent these things.
She did more to protect herself than most consumers do. Most just sit there in a coma, buy more and more, and do not even know what rate they are paying, or how they are going to end the death spiral.
Economy/Credit/Mortgage issues ping list
Let me know if you want on or off this list.
Like anything else in life, they’re a tool that can be used very effectively by responsible people, not so by less responsible people.
It's not good for the USA that the Depression is no longer in our national memory.
It is so easy to drift into debt. I didn’t get my first card till I was 29 and a grad student. I was paying it off every month and then I needed some major dental work. I put it on the card and that was the beginning of the end for me. I just gradually sank and didn’t put up much of a fight. I’d been poor for so many years it just felt so good to be able to buy things. Now, of course, I’m sorry I wasn’t more careful. But... you live and learn, I guess.
Bull.
While true for idiot who just have to have something that 1) they don't need and 2) can't afford, its not the credit cards fault.
Credit Cards are a powerful tool when used properly. Online purchases allow one to save great amounts of money on a wide variety of purchases. But 99 out of 100 of the sellers require payment by credit card.
Credit Cards also offer you additional purchase protection that Cash doesn't. And many cards will double the manufacturers warranty for some major purchases.
Credit Cards are not the problem. Financial idiots are the problem.
Hey, at least you went into debt for a much needed expense.
Now had you charged your credit cards to buy a plasma TV, then....
Well at least they can’t repo the smile! I have plenty of friends in Grad School with some very nice plasma Tv’s and while it is awesome to go over to their place to play games or watch movies I can’t help but wonder then the other shoe is gonna drop. “I’ll just get another card to pay off this one!”
LOL... no, no plasma TV. Nothing like that. But you know women, we won’t pay $2000 for any one thing, but we’ll buy 200 things that were “only” 10 bucks each, so... eventually we end up in the same stupid trap.
“Financial idiots are the problem.”
Many people are NOT idiots, they are ignorant!
We need to focus at least some high school education time on personal finances. There are a lot of kids graduating that simply don’t understand even simple financial things and really don’t understand credit and interest rates at all.
They are very likely to get in trouble when they get credit cards.
This is as fundamental a need as the three R’s in todays society.
I'd like to buy a "y" for this gentleman, please. ;->
If I may, I'd like to chip in and purchase him an apostrophe. ;->
Over-the-limit fees and late fees aren't the same thing. She's not telling the whole story.
Those “pre-approved offers” are simply Instant Ident-A-Theft Kits[tm] produced for use against you. That being the case, the companies that generate them should be on the hook for resulting identity thefts, for the same reason someone who breaks your front door (but doesn’t go in) should be on the hook for damages if a burglar later takes advantage of the opportunity.
I'll kick in for an apostrophe. I'm not a grammar Nazi, but I can't resist an easy shot.
Remember....
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn’t need but it’s on sale.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.