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The net-net is not paying bills on time is a profitable business.
For me the CC is a wonderful invention that enables me to purchase goods without exchanging dead trees and metal.
Uncle Dave or Dallas. Do you know if reverting the changes to the BK laws in on the table with the current Admin/congress?
Actually, US banknotes are made from paper but with a large amount of mainly cotton or other fabric in them. So you’re sacrificing shrubs as well as trees, you environmental Nazi.
Cut up your charge cards. Use debit cards and cash.
This is one area where we’re fortunate to have several consumer protection laws in place. The new rules enacted last month will help, but they forgot to add a huge one IMO: increase the 2% minimum payment to 5%.
That change alone will prevent people from racking up so much. But. The CC companies will fight it to the death because it’s singularly responsible for huge profits. It’s also singularly responsible for fools ending up with $30k of VISA and MC bills.
Anyone reading this that has more than a few thousand in CC debt, I recommend http://daveramsey.com. I have no affiliation with them. Simple, dirt cheap, and it works.
Lets add some comments..
1. IF the corps would PAY for decent medical, YOU WOULDNT be paying for it..
2. Wages in last 30 years have gone up?? 3-4 times..REALLY.. The BOSS’s wages have?? 10-100 times?? and HE GETS GOOD MEDICAL..
3. corps cut from the ottom up..first thing, MEDICAL..and then CUT HOURS so you dont get benefits..
4. min wage has gone up 3-4 times, TOP wage hasnt changed much in LOWER/MIDDLE income jobs..
5. MIN survival pay..40 hours per week and about $18 per hour. dont matter if you spread it over 1-2-3 people working in 1 house..
After you PAy TAX, 1/3
Pay rent, $600-1000 and HIGHER
BILLS $300-500
FOOD $200-300 per month for 3-4 people.
Car
Car insurance
Entertainment??
how much do you have to pay YOUR OWN MEDICAL, or to pay a CC company??
MOSt of the problem, comes with HOW MANY people you are paying for. How many companies get your medial PAYMENTS before the HOSPITAL gets it.
we end up using our CC cards to assist in paying BILLS and for food, mostly.
If you dont have enough to begin with, it only sets you BACK. Farther and farther…
If something important happens, you are SCREW’D. Medical, will STOMP all over your pay and the CC card comes LAST to pay.
WHO remembers when a small family could survive on 1 income..I do.
and if the other person worked you HAD EXTRA and could afford MORE and BETTER.
It is simple to avoid this. Don’t charge more than you can pay when the next bill comes in the mail. If you pay off your balance every month you have the freedom to cancel on these people if they pull this on you.
Credit Cards are made from (plastics) OIL?
#7…don’t charge at all. If you’re going to pay it off, just use a debit card.
While it sounds like a good strategy to use the credit card to collect points and then pay it off, hardly anybody does that, and the card companies know it.
#9: I do. I charge everything I can to a card I got from Amazon and pay off the balance every month. For every $2500 I charge, I get a $25 voucher from them. So far this year I’ve gotten four. That’s $100 of free money.
Great post! Yeah, these people are not your friends! I have closed 3/4ths of all my cards after paying them off.
I agree heartily with Uncle Dave. I’ve got an amex card I use for everything and pay it off constantly. With the same benefit.
#10 Dang. I use CapitalOne and get miles which are pretty goog. I need to look at Amazon. WOW.
My household (GAY DINK) charges like $30,000 per year!! There must be a limit on that .01% free cass.
The one card I still carry is from Cabela’s, and I get points towards merchandise. It’s about the same 1% as amazon, and when I used it for business travel a few years back Christmas at our house was a Cabela’s delight.
Airline miles are OK if you can use them. I accumulated a ton of miles by actually flying, which were then diluted by the folks earning miles by buying groceries.
Discover gives 2% cash I think, and my debit card gives points towards merchandise, but the amount of points needed seems to go way up as I accumulate points. The bastards.
Still, the vast majority of people end up paying through the nose for those points or credits.