"These happy golden years are passing by, these happy golden years." Laura Ingalls Wilder

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Are You A Dead Beat


... credit card holder??? According to the recent news reports, due to a lack of personal self control, issuing credit to not so credit worthy people, banks charging highway robbery late fees, jacking up interest rates with little notice, and the general public (me included) not wanting to spend three hours reading the gobbledygook disclosures issued with said credit cards, the president is enacting new laws to give a break to people that can't or don't pay their bills on time. Also, according to said reports, if you pay your credit card balances off in full each month, you are considered a dead beat card holder. Go figure?? Now the card companies will have to re-coop some of their 'loss' in revenue from the late payers by charging the payers-in-full annual fees for the privilege of using said credit card. Don't know about you, but I fall into the dead beat card holders group. Guess what credit card companies? I have a nice pair of scissors and will cut up your stinkin' card and start using cash. Makes no difference to me.

11 comments:

Diane said...

During the course of Terry's illness, we made some really bad financial decisions and put some medical bills on credit cards. We felt trapped and was so afraid our outstanding balances would prevent him from getting the care he really needed. So, out of fear instead of trust, we made bad decisions.

Now that Terry has gone home with Jesus, it has left me with some huge credit card debt. I struggle every day wondering how I will ever repay all this debt. Many well meaning friends have advised me to just write it off, but that doesn't feel right to me.

Momma and Daddy always taught us to 1)work hard for our employer because we needed him, not visa versa, and because it was pleasing to the Lord and 2)pay your debts. Yes, our circumstances were extreme, but we were still the ones to make the decisions to use the cards.

So, I struggle on, trusting the Lord to provide for I know not the answers. However, I know He is the God of abundant supply and has promised to provide my needs. I do not face this mountain alone, He is at my side and alredy knows what His plans are.

I have already cut up all my cards. I only use my debit card now. If I don't have the money in my bank account, I don't buy it. Period. Nothing feels a lot better than when you pay those balances off every month! Well, maybe when you pay off one
of those old balances you've been working on for a while!!!! :)

Great post Mrs. Mac!

Many hugs......

Diane

Terry said...

dear mrs.mac...that is what bernie and i did with all of our credit cards except for visa.
we owed nothing on any of these cards but oh what a fight we had phoning up the different ones and canceling them!
the only reason we kept our visa is sometimes when bernie wants to buy a download from the internet, you have to use visa and some of the magazines i get like southern gospel singing news, my beloved manitoba rivers news paper, our canada magazine, my photo smug bug site and classmates school site all require to be paid by a card...can't send them guys a check!
other then that, i agree with diane, if you can't afford to pay by cash then it probably means that you can do without it!

another thing that we learned about credit cards is that even though you owe nothing on them, when we went for our mortgage renewal they take into consideration what you are allowed to spend on each card and count it just as if you owed that much.
now for our visa, we put the maximum amount to only one thousand!

mrs. mac, you do have a lot of spring in your step...you are almost making a post a day!!!!...........love terry

Pat said...

Pass the scissors. I've been doing that with my home depot card while working on the other house. Charge everything, pay it off when the bill comes. It was for the purpose of keeping a better record of what we spent.
Nothing like being punished for not being a deadbeat.

Constance said...

Another dead beat here too! Dave would rather "take a beatin'" than pay interest on a credit card! It's always this way, the responsible pay for the irresponsible!

Right now in our own family we have a situation that really gets under my skin. Dave has a brother who declared bankruptcy 3 years ago. He's a Dentist but they obviously couldn't live within their means. However if you ask THEM, it's the fault of (fill in the blank). Certainly nothing THEY did! They walked away from ALL of their debts except for his school loans.

Now they have relocated, everything is in my SIL's name and once gain they're "living large"! There's nothing more irksome than knowing that they owe my FIL and others money and yet, they have traveled to numerous places on vacation!

As you can guess, this is a touchy subject with me and I have no respect for irresponsible people, family or not!

Now excuse me while I try and bring my BP back under control!
Connie

Maggie Ann said...

This sounds so out of wack! I'm glad you brought it to our attention. We stopped using credit cards for various stores a long time ago. My husband keeps our Visa and uses it as you did...paying it off every month. We keep a smaller one....not to exceed $ for online purchases. I'll show my hubby your post. I like your get-up-and-go....and that Irish greeting. So nice to be that welcome...grin. I mean it, really!

Maggie Ann said...

Happy Memorial Day weekend to you also Mrs.Mac. We are planning to put our garden in Monday hopefully and then play horseshoes and just relax. I hope it works out that way! Tomorrow we may drive a couple of hours to the Homer Laughlin outlet and then to a large flea market where the produce is wonderful. It was nice of you to comment on my spinning and knitted scarf. I've been having such a great time...carding and spinning the wool. I'm loving it! =) Now to buy a sheep =)....just kidding. Our acre wouldn't begin to be enough pasture and my husband's cousin said that sheep use any excuse they can to up and die on you. He paid lots of money last summer for a ram...which disappeared one night soon after and was found tangled in some weeds and was ahem...not intelligent enough to amble back to home territory. He was happy to find it of course!

Jada's Gigi said...

Don't you love how our new president is helping us thus far?

Trish said...

Another dead beat here...the credit card debt in this country is unbelievable!!! If Tomer and i don't have cash...we go without OR save for it.

Felisol said...

You've got an important point there, Mrs. Mac,
the banks have been throwing money after people and now they are crying.
Only last year I got three ready to use credit cards in the mail, unasked for.
Imagine if the wrong persons had picked up my mail those days.

About time we all learn to not be the big spenders we have been invited to be once more,- to help the economy.

I don't get that. More spending will not help ordinary people's economy.
On the contrary.
We have kept a card for online purchases though.
We don't buy much, but data age has made it almost necessary to have a card.
We have to pay a fee very time we use it though.
Pluss the annual rent,- even if we have no debt on the card.

It's a greedy and sad world.
Good the sisters are reacting!
From Felisol

Crown of Beauty said...

One Finance Seminar we offer actually give a chance to anyone participating in the seminar to cut up their credit cards if they feel it has been the cause of being in a debt stranglehold.

This is a very good and timely post, Mrs. Mac.

Yes, we need to be wiser than the enemy.

LynnS said...

We are debt-free and each year, doing our Federal 1040 reminds me of that. This is one of the reasons I no longer work: I refuse to go to the lengths of gainful employment only to pay a large chunk back to the government to waste. (Aside from the fact that I just love being home, not "working" elsewhere.)

We have 1 credit card and use it for everything, then pay it off when the bill is due. For us, this is not only convenient but we get a cash rebate from our CC company. If or when they remove the cash rebate incentive, or if they decide to charge us for transactions, we'll cut up the card and carry cash or write checks.

One thing that Obama and his propagandists forget to mention is that the credit card companies actually make money when the card holders use the card. The money made is from the merchants you buy from. They can make up to 8%-9% on a transactions! I think Obama forgot to mention that little part....