Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The problem with credit cards for most people is the temptation is there to spend more then they intend to. No one, well almost no one gets a credit card with the intention of carrying a 20k+ balance. When you pay cash, when you see something you really want or "need" if you don't have the cash in your wallet, then you go without. When you have a credit card, it's never having to go without, and that's where most people get into trouble.
Yes I know lots of people who say they pay off the credit card balance every month, and yes they may get "free" hotel / airline points, cash back, etc. but statistically 65% of these I pay the balance off every month types carry a balance at least some of the time, which pretty much wipes out anything free they thought they were getting.
Statistics are irrelevant to individuals. I haven't carried a credit card balance in many years.
My wife and I visited our son in New York earlier this month. I paid for our flight ($1100 for the two tickets - minus $22 in tax that I had to pay) with part of a welcome bonus on a Chase Sapphire. I paid for our hotel room (three nights in Manhattan, again $1100 - minus $90 in tax) with the welcome bonus from an IGH card. Toss in a three annual fees total for the cards and that's ~$395 for $2200 in value. I've just cancelled the IGH card. Never carried a balance. I'll keep the Chase card for now, but I'll burn the remaining points before the next annual fee comes due in the spring and then cancel.
Someone else's inability not to carry a balance has no bearing whatsoever on that $1805 (and counting) in essentially free money in the form of welcome bonuses I've received.
Yes, *I* know that and so do others, but apparently many Americans have not read that memo. Why do you keep harping on about this? Between 40% to near or over 50% of Americans historically carry credit card balances. That number by the way is increasing as people use credit to paper over income shortfalls.
Im not sure you understand what harping is. It’s the first comment I’ve made on it in the thread
Quote:
You have a beef with people paying interest on CCs go on PBS, write a book, team up with Suze Orman or something.
I don’t have beef with anyone who pays interest unless it’s my wife
I use my credit card like cash but I pay it off at the end of each month. I never pay a penny in interest and I get many perks that make it well worth it. They have even paid for our family of four to fly to Hawaii and stay in a resort for a week. With all of the perks these days, I dont understand why anyone would use cash. Its kind of like keeping your savings in an account that doesnt earn any interest when you could move it to a high yield savings and let your money work for you.
More sneaky tricks from credit card companies. They get it all back when you carry balances month to month. Avoid credit card debt.
How is giving you $1.50 back a sneaky trick? You either pay the balance in full, or you carry a balance, and that $1.50 isn't going to figure into the decision
those with cards that offer the best deals tend not to carry balances ..especially the premium cards that charge but offer huge rewards back
we get thousands in benefits from our chase sapphire card a year and never paid a penny in interest .
i recently bought a new lexus and got the lexus credit card right before buying it .
we put as much down on the card as we could and got 5% back equaling hundreds of found dollars with no interest paid.
many of the financially unaware try to find menial ways of saving money like reusing tea bags , yet they let bigger dollars slide ride right thru their fingers because of misinformation about using credit and debt they have
they are simply like the 1.00 or 2.00 dollars off we used to get clipping a coupon for a particular product or store .
they are not the gist of a credit cards cash back program.
the op obviously doesn’t understand that
No, it's not like a coupon. A coupon gives you the discount at the time of purchase. With these promotions, you get it as a statement credit, which may be a month later.
No, it's not like a coupon. A coupon gives you the discount at the time of purchase. With these promotions, you get it as a statement credit, which may be a month later.
well the bill isn’t due until then either.
but in any case i get the money back next day .
they had a coupon deal with cvs where you get back up to a few bucks when you use the card .
the day the cvs charge posted the COUPON amount posted to my balance .
same with panera bread . these little coupon credits are immediate
I have a couple of cash-back cards. My main one I have set to 3% for groceries. I am always going to buy food. It is worth it.
Then I have a smaller card that was sent to me when I took a mortgage from wells fargo. It's 1% on everything, but it has only a $4k limit, so I use that one for things I feel ok doing autopay with. Car insurance, streaming subscriptions. The transit app has that card stored for train tickets.
Every time I accumulate $25, it comes off my mortgage principal. Lol, but hey.
That one also has a purchase rewards program. I got $2.00 back from Panera last month.
I have another rewards card I use when I am out of the country because there is no foreign transaction fee.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
