Do you have credit card debt?

We have less then $300. I never let it go over the limit to have a minimum payment of $10. but I always pay more then the minimum. Thats my safety in case one month I can't pay my usual.

 

I have a debit card and a few credit cards. None of the cards are paid off, but we are getting there... slowly. Having two house we are having to make payments on is rough, but we are managing.

 

No. Never had one. I have had car hire-purchase debt in the past but nothing currently.

 

I have a Visa Platinum that gets me Northwest Airline miles for purchases. We use this card to buy everythig, and pay the balance, every month. I also have one more Visa for emergencies.

We pay no finance charges, and the miles we earn would cost way more than the yearly membership we pay. Not sure if Visa likes to do it that way.

We have no credit card debt......

 

The company gets a cut of every transaction you make from the merchant. Even if you never pay interest, they still make money.

 

So the merchant is taking the biggest hit ?

 

Essentially. For them, it's cheaper to receive cash. However, in our society, most people use credit or debit cards. The merchant therefore agrees to pay the service fees associated with the transactions in order make sure they don't lose business by not taking credit cards. It's why you sometimes see Cash prices of gas lower than credit prices.

My seminary, for instance, will take payment by credit or debit card, but they pass the fee to the student. I always pay by check because of this.

PIN-based transactions can be cheaper for the merchant if the bank's fee is lower or if the bank doesn't charge a fee. This is why some card readers default toward PIN-based transactions. If you run your card as credit, they don't make as much money.

Ever wonder why you get rewards on some debit cards but not when you use your PIN? The money for the rewards program comes from the transaction fees.

As a consumer, however, you benefit from running transactions as credit cards because of the fraud protection you receive.

 

Unfortunately today, the art of "manual underwriting" (looking at someone's overall credit....not just that FICO score) has been lost.

It has trickled down beyond just the loan industry.

Shame. Common sense would tell you that a fella who is debt-free and has paid bills on time for years is a good risk....but FICO scores don't always follow the "common sense" line of thought.

 

We were hard headed. Had credit card debt twice. Second time we figured out that no credit cards meant no temptation to use said credit.

Once you learn to live on cash, it is very easy to do.

Now the only debt we carry is the house mortgage (15 more years) and a car payment. that is more than enough!

 

I owe twice as much on medical bills as I do credit cards.

 

I get Visa card service through the Christian Community Credit Union (used to be called American Baptist Credit Union). Whenever I get one of those phone calls that tries to lure me to someone else's Visa by promising low interest rates, etc. (by the way, those are almost always for a few months and then wham! they go up), I tell them that the interest rate is of no concern to me because I do not carry a balance over, AND that my card has a feature that beats theirs -- the CCCU is "the card that gives to missions" (their slogan). A percentage of their user fees is given to American Baptist missions work.