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Do you realllllly want me to give you the nitty-gritty Dave Ramsey response???
I have too many examples in my life that these seemingly "problems" are nothing to deal with as long as you set yourself up right to handle them. Sure, there'll be a period of vulnerability while you come down off the addiction to plastic crack...but just like kicking any bad habit, the other side is so much greener (literally). You set up emergency funds, you cut off other expenditures...maybe you :gasp: go without a cell phone for a while! Maybe Time Warner loses a customer and maybe the liabrary gets to know you a little better because you have to use their computers to get on the internet and post on City-Data!
Do I currently do these extreme measures? No...I don't need to (as in, we're not in any sort of financial hardship right now). We do live without a credit card...have been for nearly a year now and have a fairly healthy emergency fund that's taken it's place. And I do have an emergency plan in my back pocket for when the poop does hit the fan. I know which bills can be cut off immediately and which need to be paid no matter what...and it's all without plastic.
I don't mean to preach...but there are few things in my quarter-centry plus life that I can 100% assure folks that it will work and make your life better. This is one of them.
Alright...I'm done with this soap box. Someone else can use it now...
NEXT!
Steve, you are very wise for handling your finances this way. And I think we all should live within our means. The problem comes in when people are out of work for a year or so and have to use lines of credit to keep from losing their home. Or when there are medical emergencies that people simply cannot handle.
In my case, I need a line of credit w/ my business. There are months my expenses are over $5000 and I am waiting on checks from clients. So lines of credit or credit cards can be very helpful depending on one's circumstance. Using them responsibly can mean the difference in being able to have one's own business or going bankrupt.
AS much as cash as king....try and use it. (large amounts)
I asked an American Express operator if I could pay my Amex bill in cash last week. Cash? Yeah baby, the stuff you replace with plastico. Hold on a minute.
Five min. later. Yes you can go into an American Express office. (The last time I saw one of those it was right next to the Pan American Airline office.)
Where else? Hold on. Well you can pay at Western Union. Why do you want to pay in cash?? Ok, I can have some fun with this. You see I am a big time drug lord in the toughest part of NYC and I don't know what to do with that mound of 100's.Any other question?
No, is there anything eles we can help you with today Mr. E.?
Yes, but I can't print it here as this is a family channel.
AS much as cash as king....try and use it. (large amounts)
I asked an American Express operator if I could pay my Amex bill in cash last week. Cash? Yeah baby, the stuff you replace with plastico. Hold on a minute.
Five min. later. Yes you can go into an American Express office. (The last time I saw one of those it was right next to the Pan American Airline office.)
Where else? Hold on. Well you can pay at Western Union. Why do you want to pay in cash?? Ok, I can have some fun with this. You see I am a big time drug lord in the toughest part of NYC and I don't know what to do with that mound of 100's.Any other question?
No, is there anything eles we can help you with today Mr. E.?
Yes, but I can't print it here as this is a family channel.
je
LOL! Cash can attract a lot of attention at a bank! Even depositing a lot of cash in one month can draw attention. I had no idea how many regs there are in place about moving cash around - but there are!
But you know . . . all the good advice about how to handle finance responsibly does not address the issue, tho - which is . . . WE BAILED OUT THESE BANKS . . . and now they are BITING THE HANDS THAT FED THEM. And that ain't right.
Steve, you are very wise for handling your finances this way. And I think we all should live within our means. The problem comes in when people are out of work for a year or so and have to use lines of credit to keep from losing their home. Or when there are medical emergencies that people simply cannot handle.
In my case, I need a line of credit w/ my business. There are months my expenses are over $5000 and I am waiting on checks from clients. So lines of credit or credit cards can be very helpful depending on one's circumstance. Using them responsibly can mean the difference in being able to have one's own business or going bankrupt.
You got me there...I don't know what to do. Make sure there's enough cash in the coffers for this sort of thing? I don't know. I'm sure there's a way...but I won't deny it's probably a royal pain in the butt cheeks!
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Delaware has been the banking industry's dirty little secret for many years. Those of us who were in the Delaware Valley have known about it all along.
Why did I come down here with an account with Wachovia? Why that's because First Union had gobbled up CoreStates Bank to blend their cards with CoreStates Visa facility in..........Delaware.
Think of the wild west & that is what Delaware is for credit cards. Go ahead & look at the back of your credit cards. If they don't say Delaware, they say South Dakota.
Delaware has been the banking industry's dirty little secret for many years. Those of us who were in the Delaware Valley have known about it all along.
Why did I come down here with an account with Wachovia? Why that's because First Union had gobbled up CoreStates Bank to blend their cards with CoreStates Visa facility in..........Delaware.
Think of the wild west & that is what Delaware is for credit cards. Go ahead & look at the back of your credit cards. If they don't say Delaware, they say South Dakota.
You know - I didn't look at the back of a credit card when I read what you wrote, cause I have noticed many times in years past that South Dakota has been there! LOL! And I remember thinking . . . what the heck??? South Dakota??? Delaware - no surprise. But I always did find South Dakota curious.
If you cancel these cards out of spite you are just shooting yourself in the foot. BoA is just doing what they can to survive.
I'm sure you hashed it out but if you put 5k on a card with 20% interest you are paying $83 in interest that month as opposed to $40 @ the 10% you were at before. Is that really breaking your back? Newsflash: unsecured credit is no longer cheap.
Keep turning up the volume! I am watching a call in show on CNBC where the callers are enraged, complaining about the exact same stuff: Banks bailed out by us, cutting credit limits and raising rates. Politicians pay attention when enough people start screaming. They are getting the message. They love nothing more than getting in front of a TV camera to lambaste greedy bank presidents.
Cutting limits I can see my beef was they are cutting limits below current balances and then charging overdraft fees. How they get away with it??? I have no idea, I'd be pissed.
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