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Americans have dug themselves into a credit card hole
business insider via msn ^ | 1/18/25 | jsor@businessinsider.com (Jennifer Sor)

Posted on 01/18/2025 6:08:51 PM PST by RomanSoldier19

click here to read article


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To: BipolarBob

Shhhhhhh keep quiet please. You want to demolish my high lifestyle? /S


41 posted on 01/18/2025 8:05:55 PM PST by Bobbyvotes (Congrats to Trump/Vance tea.m. America has been saved. For a while at least. )
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To: Jonty30

You wouldn’t?


42 posted on 01/18/2025 8:13:31 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: Red6

Credit cards make great low interest loans, if you have the discipline to pay them off before borrowing again. They only kill you if you keep borrowing from it and never paying it off.


43 posted on 01/18/2025 8:27:40 PM PST by Jonty30 (If you ate your twin in the womb, your pronouns should be we/us.)
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To: Jeff Chandler

No, I’m that type of guy.
If I was a super rational kind of person, I might do that. But I”m not that way.


44 posted on 01/18/2025 8:35:18 PM PST by Jonty30 (If you ate your twin in the womb, your pronouns should be we/us.)
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To: Jonty30

‘ But I”m not that way.’

Not hat there’s anything wrong with that.


45 posted on 01/18/2025 8:39:04 PM PST by Fuzz
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To: Snowybear

Debt free since 2Q 2020.

Card paid off every month.

I was raised by parents who “saved up” for major purchases other than vehicles and mortgage.


46 posted on 01/18/2025 8:47:09 PM PST by lightman (Beat the Philly fraud machine the Amish did onest, ja? Nein, zweimal they did already!)
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To: Snowybear

If I use a credit card, I pay the balance within 3 days of the charge posting to my account. I have come to realize that in spite of CC rewards, the banks are not our friends. As an individual that once had a ton of CC debt, I never carry a balance, and I make sure that I have a zero balance a few days before the auto-pay is set to transfer funds. The banks are not our friends.


47 posted on 01/18/2025 9:20:01 PM PST by fatboy (')
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To: freepertoo

“...Debt free for a year. Nice feeling.”
__________________

Welcome to the City of Debtfreeville. It’s a great place to be!


48 posted on 01/18/2025 9:23:52 PM PST by fatboy (')
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To: RomanSoldier19

We use CC’s for just about all purchases, then pay them off at the end of the week.


49 posted on 01/18/2025 9:33:02 PM PST by Some Fat Guy in L.A. (Still bitterly clinging to rational thought despite its unfashionability)
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To: RomanSoldier19
Gilligan's Island Polonius' Advice to Laertes sung to the Toreador Song
50 posted on 01/18/2025 9:36:23 PM PST by P.O.E. (Pray for America.)
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To: Tired of Taxes

Watched an episode of the TV show “1923” with the family tonight. The ranch folks were in town and some guy was hawking all of the new electrical appliances.

Salesman: “Why - it will save time so you can do other chores.”

Rancher: “And what do we do when you figure out a machine to do those chores for us?”

S: “Have a picnic!”

R: “Seems to me we’ll be paying you so much money for this stuff, we’re no longer working for us - we’re working for you!”

*******************************

I seem to recall my old man telling me this sort of idea. I think it was about credit card debt - but it might have been the whole idea of consumerism. He and my mom grew up during the Depression.

While we pay off our CC every month, I still think about my old man and how foolish he would think I was with my money.

“What - you PAY to watch TV!?” Just an example. Internet, cell phones, dinner out every week, etc. Although my mom said he would have LOVED having a cell phone as he was always on a project or in the car away from a phone. They would use the CB radio.

“Can you hear me? Call John about the new windows - his phone number is ....”

And there was often some trucker that would pipe up “Hey lady - you can’t give out numbers like that!”


51 posted on 01/18/2025 9:58:11 PM PST by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant - Never Fearful)
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To: bobbo666
How about bringing back debters’ (sp?) prison?

The word is spelled "debtor," with an "o."

Thus, you feel that we should bring back debtors' prison.

Regards,

52 posted on 01/18/2025 10:27:43 PM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: bertmerc1

That professor sounds like a member of Congress. Anybody we know?


53 posted on 01/19/2025 1:22:04 AM PST by Bernard (Issue an annual budget. And Issue a federal government balance sheet. Let's see what we got.)
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To: CatOwner

correct me if Im wrong but isn’t joe heavily invested in the credit card industry


54 posted on 01/19/2025 2:40:32 AM PST by ronnie raygun
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To: Jonty30

I got the highest rate cash back/no annual fee credit cards I could find. Then I set them to automatically pay in full every month. Then I switched as much of my spending as I possibly could onto those cards. I now generally get 2% cash back on a big chunk of everything I buy. It saves me hundreds of dollars every year, costs me nothing and makes my credit rating look great since I always pay on time and in full.


55 posted on 01/19/2025 3:04:05 AM PST by FLT-bird
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To: P.O.E.

Those lyrics have been stuck in my head since I was 9.


56 posted on 01/19/2025 3:47:59 AM PST by A_perfect_lady (The greatest wealth is to live content with little. -Plato)
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To: RomanSoldier19

I’ve got the Amex Platinum card. 2nd time I’ve had it. The first was when I was traveling worldwide for DoD... It was good then. They got me back with a 140000 point offer. I figured that in itself paid for the year. I’ll go back to gold when it expires this spring.

Never carry over a balance because that’s a death sentence.


57 posted on 01/19/2025 4:53:47 AM PST by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: RomanSoldier19

(Brandon takes over)
- Cut energy supply
- Unprecedented fires and destruction in key food/energy hubs
- Government spending galore
- Massive inflation
- Families can’t make their budget, rely increasingly on credit to live
- Keep this up for four years
(Day before Trump takes office)
- Yellen “notices” we are about to hit a debt ceiling
- MSM runs articles about wild spending Americans
- ALL OUR FAULT, ORANGE MAN BAD


58 posted on 01/19/2025 5:18:07 AM PST by No.6
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To: RomanSoldier19

What the Congress could do is to cap interest rates on debt:
1. first $2,000, 18%,
[this would allow low-income people to finance car repairs on a credit card]
2. second $2,000, Treasury rate+5%, rounded up to an integer percentage, as last officially reported by the Treasury as of the start of calculation period,
[this would keep the credit card industry attractive]
3. any additional amount, Treasury rate+4%, rounded up to an integer percentage, as last officially reported by the Treasury as of the start of calculation period.

Any attempt to dodge any cap by additional instrument or by dividing the debt held shall be considered nefarious.

Any attempt to dodge any cap by nefarious means shall be void and all related interest shall be disallowed and refunded.


59 posted on 01/19/2025 5:25:39 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: Snowybear

Yep - we use our card (we only have one account) for most things, but not for anything we can’t afford to buy outright and have it set for auto pay from my bank account each month...I don’t remember the last time we paid interest on our card - but I do remember it was a different card, years ago, and the interest was a BS thing - I sent the payment in and included a letter saying we shouldn’t have been charged that interest and if it ever happened again, we’d go someplace lese and make money for them...our credit is good even though, at out age, we don’t need it to be 800+ - and I turn down offers for a higher limit...


60 posted on 01/19/2025 5:32:24 AM PST by trebb (So many fools - so little time...)
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