As I recall when you start closing those credit card accounts your credit rating is going to take a hit. If you are going to be opening a car loan or mortgage, get it out of the way before dropping cards and hitting your credit rating. I'm dumping cards in anticipation of yearly fees being brought back, but have no loan needs in the near future. The wife and I each had a couple cards when we were married and just added each other to the cards, so I can say we should have dumped them long ago, but I was worried about credit ratings back then. Can't wait for the onslaught of micro print notices of all the new scams they are cooking up to make new revenue to replace any they are going to lose.
Do most Americans pay their bills by cc or do they pay online direct from their accounts. What about cheques. Do Americans still use a cheque book or has it been outmoded. jjf
Yes, unfortunately now I am going to have to read every notice a credit card company sends me instead of automatically throwing it in the recycling bin.
The advertising is a state law. As for cash/credit, it's like everything else, one set of rules for the little guy and different (none?) for big ones.
Indexer is right about the cash payer getting punished. They pay the same at the cashier, but don't get the benefits the card offers like cash back, extended warranty, convenience, etc. In all fairness, the store should add whatever fee your card imposes to YOUR total, rather than average it out over all the customers. (I am glad they don't) If the CC companies would just give the illusion they weren't trying to rip people off, the gov would back off. I admit it, I like my cash back at the expense of others. Ironic that doing the most financially prudent thing will decrease the rating that measures your financial prudence.
IMHO, that's completely backwards. Anyone who's not using a CC for the very benefits you've mentioned is either an idiot or so financially compromised they can't qualify to get a card. They should be punished. If you're responsible and shopped around for the right card you're not getting ripped off because you pay your account off monthly and only have cards that offered benefits with little or no annual fee because, up until now, that's the kind of playing field the CC companies had created due to competition. Prudence means waiting for the damned bill to get through Congress and signed into law by the resident idiot, then waiting about a year to see how all this sorts out. Anyway, my guess is that a year from now this is all going to be fairly small potatoes in the scheme of things...
I agree. I think the status quo is great. It works well for me. I would like to keep it the way it is. But Indexer's point was valid, cash users are getting ripped off. The problem is, the CC co's are getting more aggressive. I don't know this from experience, but news reports tell of people who miss a payment and their rates are immediately jacked up, credit limits cut, etc. I agree, they are idiots to get themselves into that situation in the first place, but because they are being treated so harshly, the gov is being pushed to intervene. Thus if CC co's would back off just a bit, we could continue to let the dummies subsidize our sweet deal.
Indeed they will. What pisses me off is for the banks and the fed to tell Americans we must be responsible. Look at the government were going broke. Look at the financials there going broke. But the American citizens must take responsibility.