Conquer Club

Heres a poll that i would like only people old enough to hold a credit card to vote on.

I know that the dollar is worth less than the pound, but i had to use just numbers to gauge the debt level.

Just under £2000 for me. I always pay in full every month, but I just bought 1800 litres of Calor gas. And now I want to cry.

Just paid off the balance, as I try to do every month. My balance is now 0.

My wife pays it off every month. I don't believe on paying of interest unless it's a write off. Simply, if you can't afford it don't buy it.

Ours varies - especially as Mrs Curl sometimes uses the account for fairly heavy working expenses that she then claims back.
Also we US cards, and she has a corporate AmEx too. I used to have one for my own business when that was a real thing. Al paid off each month at the moment. At my personal financial low, I owed about two years' income on credit card.

It always amazes me to hear the statistics of how many people carry a balance on their credit cards.

The sum of our credit card bills is usually pretty high, because we try to put all of our purchases on credit cards to earn bonus points/rebates/etc.. But we always pay the balance in full just before the due date.

I'm 18 and in college, the time when credit card companies are hounding me incessantly, but I definitely do not plan on getting one. A debit card is working just fine for me, and frankly, I hope never to have to go into debt. I may have to work my life around that: ride a good bike instead of getting a car (need a trunk, I'll get a trailer), buy a small house, not lose my scholarships for education. But hell, imo, owing money to anyone but a friend is just about the most irresponsible thing you can do.

Ditocoaf wrote:I'm 18 and in college, the time when credit card companies are hounding me incessantly, but I definitely do not plan on getting one. A debit card is working just fine for me, and frankly, I hope never to have to go into debt. I may have to work my life around that: ride a good bike instead of getting a car (need a trunk, I'll get a trailer), buy a small house, not lose my scholarships for education. But hell, imo, owing money to anyone but a friend is just about the most irresponsible thing you can do.

Don't Ever Get One. Debit cards have the convenience of credit cards, and you can't spend what you don't have. Sack is right. Also, bikes are much better than cars in every way.
if it's anything over there like it is over here, you will get inundated with offers of free credit and cards when you're at college. They are all bastards.
I've had about £500 chasing me since university. It's a pain in the arse. God knows how much interest i've paid on it. Thousands probably. Credit is evil. Look around you. It sucks balls.

[smug bastard] i just bought a new camera that i had saved up for two years to buy, and it is so much sweeter to have bought it outright and not worry about paying it off before i a) lose it or b) drop it on the pavement. [/smug]

Got one when I started uni... never used it.

I'm too much of a miser to get into this 'buy now, pay later' malarky anyway; if I can't buy something with the groats I find on the pavement on my walk to the shop, then it's not worth having.

What's the current groat to guinea exchange rate?

jonesthecurl wrote:What's the current groat to guinea exchange rate?

a bit less than the Farthing to a Crown exchange rate from what my old hand driven comptometer tells me.

From 1979 to the present day i've never used a credit card, nor do i ever want to (hopefully).

There is a huge difference between your minimum monthly payment (a cash flow / interest expense issue) and your payoff balance. Like others here, I pay off my cards every month, so I am getting a free 30 day float on my money. The amounts might look high, but if I were paying monthly minimums, it would be much much less. Yet the OP needs to understand that to do so means paying much much more over the life of the payoff period (i.e., expect to die with a balance unless at some point you suck it up and pay down the whole thing.)

If you are wondering about the "debt crisis", the problem is so many people making the "minimum payment" on so many cards, they cannot make money fast enough to ever gain ground on their debt principal because the interest and fees eat up all their cash flow (i.e., the credit cards start working like negative amortization loans - very bad!)

Every bill I get or purchase I make goes on my credit card. Even a quick stop to pick up a loaf of bread. I have a Disney card, and last trip, we had about $700 to use for it. So, my card is anywhere from $1500 to $3000 per month (my wife's is similar but a bit higher since she's at home), but it's always paid in full!! So my poll answer depends on the day of the month.

heavycola wrote:

Ditocoaf wrote:I'm 18 and in college, the time when credit card companies are hounding me incessantly, but I definitely do not plan on getting one. A debit card is working just fine for me, and frankly, I hope never to have to go into debt. I may have to work my life around that: ride a good bike instead of getting a car (need a trunk, I'll get a trailer), buy a small house, not lose my scholarships for education. But hell, imo, owing money to anyone but a friend is just about the most irresponsible thing you can do.

Don't Ever Get One. Debit cards have the convenience of credit cards, and you can't spend what you don't have. Sack is right. Also, bikes are much better than cars in every way.
if it's anything over there like it is over here, you will get inundated with offers of free credit and cards when you're at college. They are all bastards.
I've had about £500 chasing me since university. It's a pain in the arse. God knows how much interest i've paid on it. Thousands probably. Credit is evil. Look around you. It sucks balls.

[smug bastard] i just bought a new camera that i had saved up for two years to buy, and it is so much sweeter to have bought it outright and not worry about paying it off before i a) lose it or b) drop it on the pavement. [/smug]

When they offered me a free t-shirt in exchange for signing up, I couldn't stop laughing for the rest of the day.

Despite numerous weekly attempts over the last 20 years, no credit card company has managed to get their claws into me. I have a debit card and have only used it for ebay and a strange world domination online gaming site. I only use cash in the outside world, you know where you are with a roll of notes.

For people with no self control, sure, stay away from credit cards.

But as someone else pointed out, you get an average of about 30 days of interest free money to use how you like.

As someone else pointed out, you can earn "points" or cash rebates on cards.

In my case, I use credit cards for almost every purchase I make. My entire debt is rolled into my mortgage which acts like a big line of credit (http://www2.manulifeone.ca/en/aboutmanulifeone/). And the interest is calculated on the daily balance. So if I can make a purchase on a credit card for say $1000. First, I get a 1% cash rebate on that purchase - so I just "earned" $10. Second, I won't pay that $1000 until it is due, so I save interest on my mortgage/line of credit by delaying the outlay of cash. I probably save about $200 annually in mortgage interest by paying our credit cards off just before the due date. I also pay every other bill just before it is due, to minimize the interest I pay on my mortgage.

My wife has a GM Points VISA card that earns 4% towards the purchase of a new GM car (up to a limit, depending on the model of the car). We saved something like $1200 on the last GM car we bought and she has a bunch more saved up so our next car will be a GM product with somewhere around $1500 savings.

I also collect other points, like Air Miles and Esso Extra points. And my membership at Costco is an "Executive" membership...so I get 1% coupon back on my annual purchases....we just got a Costco rebate coupon for $163 for last year's purchases at Costco.

I encourage people to get credit cards with some type of points or rebates. And with no annual fees. There are cards with good rebates or point systems with no annual fees. Just make sure you pay off your balance every month. Carrying credit card debt with interest is one of the worst financial situations you can put yourself in.

Also, anyone researching mortgages should look at the type of mortgage I have. I understand these line-of-credit mortgages are becoming more common in a lot of countries. But this is also something I would only suggest for someone with good self-control. I could write a cheque right now for over $300000 and it would clear. And I can't decide what I like better, the Dodge Viper or the Chevy Corvette. See what I mean? You need self-control once they start giving you credit. Because no matter what they say, I can't afford a Viper or a Corvette.

Bah. Borrowing any money, imo, shows a lack of self control in the first place. I don't care if its "interest free" for a certain amount of time, or if someone wants to call it "good debt." If you can't buy something with money that you already have, its not worth having yet -- that's right, I'm against car and house loans as well. Our culture has developed to where its considered the norm to buy things first and pay for them later, because having those things is so important. I'll rent a tiny apartment until I can afford to buy a tiny house.

TheProwler wrote:I also collect other points, like Air Miles and Esso Extra points.

I must commend you on your sound financial actions prowler, however I'm sad to see that you still buy fuel from Esso.
Ever since the Exxon Valdez Disaster and the slow response of Exxonmobil to clean up the massive oil slick, I never bought petrol from Esso ever again.

Ditocoaf wrote:Bah. Borrowing any money, imo, shows a lack of self control in the first place. I don't care if its "interest free" for a certain amount of time, or if someone wants to call it "good debt." If you can't buy something with money that you already have, its not worth having yet -- that's right, I'm against car and house loans as well. Our culture has developed to where its considered the norm to buy things first and pay for them later, because having those things is so important. I'll rent a tiny apartment until I can afford to buy a tiny house.

That's a little extreme, but it is certainly a better idea than than getting in over your head. And a huge percentage of people get in way over their heads.

It is a balance between the lifestyle you can afford with reasonable debt and the lifestyle you can afford with no debt.

But there are certainly other factors....

We've been in our current house for a little over 6 years....its value has appreciated more than we have spent in upkeep, monthly expenses, and mortgage interest. We got a little lucky and bought before a big upswing in the housing market...

I understand where you are coming from....you like the feeling of being totally debt-free. We were there with out last house and it was a good feeling...

But I don't understand being so extreme that you will say "No" to free money (ie. points and credit card rebates). Who knows though, in the big picture, guys like you may lower retail prices because you keep the credit card fees down for retail stores. But I'm selfish enough to say I'll take my 1% while we all pay in slightly higher prices.

Pedronicus wrote:

TheProwler wrote:I also collect other points, like Air Miles and Esso Extra points.

I must commend you on your sound financial actions prowler, however I'm sad to see that you still buy fuel from Esso.
Ever since the Exxon Valdez Disaster and the slow response of Exxonmobil to clean up the massive oil slick, I never bought petrol from Esso ever again.

Hmmm...I actually prefer Shell and Sunoco...Shell gets me Air Miles and Sunoco has higher octane for my gas guzzler (oh oh...now I'm in trouble for my carbon footprint).

Has Esso "cleaned up their act"? I am uninformed....

Well one thing that you should know about exxon, is that it was started by John D. Rockefeller in 1870 under teh name of Standard Oil
Rockefeller family Net worth $318.3 billion, according to Wealthy historical figures 2008, based on information from Forbes - February 2008.

So you are making an obscenely rich family even richer...

As far as their current green credentials - I'm sure their PR department will have all those bases covered now days.

heavycola wrote:

Ditocoaf wrote:I'm 18 and in college, the time when credit card companies are hounding me incessantly, but I definitely do not plan on getting one. A debit card is working just fine for me, and frankly, I hope never to have to go into debt. I may have to work my life around that: ride a good bike instead of getting a car (need a trunk, I'll get a trailer), buy a small house, not lose my scholarships for education. But hell, imo, owing money to anyone but a friend is just about the most irresponsible thing you can do.

Don't Ever Get One. Debit cards have the convenience of credit cards, and you can't spend what you don't have. Sack is right. Also, bikes are much better than cars in every way.
if it's anything over there like it is over here, you will get inundated with offers of free credit and cards when you're at college. They are all bastards.
I've had about £500 chasing me since university. It's a pain in the arse. God knows how much interest i've paid on it. Thousands probably. Credit is evil. Look around you. It sucks balls.

[smug bastard] i just bought a new camera that i had saved up for two years to buy, and it is so much sweeter to have bought it outright and not worry about paying it off before i a) lose it or b) drop it on the pavement. [/smug]

I think more americans need to take Dave Ramsey's advice about personal finance. Why they don't make home economics a requirement anymore I don't know.

Most of you here are young. A much better question is WHY do you have the debt you have! AND what interest are you paying, PLUS what is the maximum it could be (generally there IS no maximum in the US)

If you put a suit you need for your job interviews on your card ... that's reasonable. If you put books and such for school -- better to have other alternatives, but OK.

Right now, you SHOULD actually be using your card occasionally for smaller purchases (having the money to pay them in your bank), Pay more than the minimum for 2 months, THEN pay it off IN FULL. You will pay interest but will build your credit score more than if you paid if off every month (ironically). That way, when you want a real loan for a car, to get those new clothes for that new job, etc., you will have it.

BUT whatever you do, DO NOT pay late or less than the minimum... EVER.

A good point Player - the first time I wanted to borrow (for a clothes store credit card I think) I was told I had no credit history. "That's because I've never owed anyone any money!" I said. "Exactly." How can you argue with logic like that?