In response to bankruptcy bill, take the Credit Temperance Pledge...

[HereSince1628]

A pledge we make,
no more credit cards to take
from lending corp. or merchant store.
We’ll buy on interest with fees no more.
To make our purchases we'll bring
checks or cash for needed things.
Here we pledge to become free
no more enslaved by usury.

[Ellen Forradalom]

1. Generally an excellent practice

The real problem is the headrush one gets from buying. If you can master that, then you can safely carry credit cards. I have a couple in my wallet and I pretty much forget they're there--I've tamed my urge to acquire by exercising it only on very small, cheap things.

[HereSince1628]

2. Credit cards don't run up bills people do, I agree...

And buying with cash limits just how far that can go.

Interest rates and fees now may legally be reaching levels used not long ago by loan sharks.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Good Advice, Indeed

We have 3. One Discover, one Visa Gold, one Platinum MC. We use them as convenience cash. When the bill comes in, pay it! No exceptions. The only money the CC companies make then, is the interchange fee paid by the vendor.

I've got an AmEx i use strictly and ONLY for biz travel. Since that one is no choice, pay in full each month, we use the same discipline for all cards and have for many years.

The bigger concern for the BKO people, however, is the impact of illness, job loss, divorce, or family emergency, and how THAT impacts their ability to pay their fixed bills.

The problem with this bill is that it makes insufficient allowances for people who are BKO for reasons other than their own carelessness. Since the numbers of BKO's due to the latter are such a small percentage of the whole, this bill is a solution in search of a true problem.
The Professor

[Ellen Forradalom]

11. The only problem with it is..

I've got a houseful of small, cheap things.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Us Too!

LOL! Well, my guitars are not all cheap, but we live beneath our means too. Comfortable knowing we have more money than committments. Doesn't make us rich. Just relaxed.
The Professor

[Ellen Forradalom]

20. We're not quite there yet

Mortgage and child's tuition keeps us on edge. But those are investments.

[RoyGBiv]

3. Done ...

I actually stopped using credit cards shortly after 2000, sort of my new century pledge. I have one that I keep in a safety deposit box, and I do not have the number memorized. I take it with me on trips for emergency situations.

[Tracer]

4. I am a DEADBEAT!

Yup. That's what the credit card companies call me and other cardholders who pay off the card every month.

Damn! Can't make any money off'n them DEADBEATS!

[ProfessorGAC]

9. They Make Money Off Us

Don't let them lie to you. Credit card companies get an interchange fee from the vendor at point of purchase for every transaction made on that card. It's not much, but the CC company makes SOMETHING every time we use a card. Not paying interest doesn't mean they aren't making more money than it takes to administer that account.

I'm on the BoD of a small bank that issues it's own Visa. Trust me, we make money, even off the folks like you and i.
The Professor

[DiverDave]

5. I HAD to use them

it was either that, or the kids go hungry.

I am back to working full time now, and it'll take a LOOONG time to get them paid off.

But, it put food on the table, at 14% interest...

[HereSince1628]

10. And in that post you have exposed a problem with our society

The best (only?) alternative to starvation for the families of unemployed in America is indebtedness at usurious rates?

People shouldn't be put in THAT circumstance. Unemployment compensation, food pantries, etc. should be available and people shouldn't be too ashamed to seek help through them (not implying that you were).

[IrateCitizen]

6. Sorry, gotta build up those air miles....

My wife and I have an AmEx Delta Miles Card we use to purchase EVERYTHING. Of course, we pay it off in full at the end of each and every month. The main purpose is for accumulating airline miles for an eventual trip to Hawaii.

That being said, we live rather frugally, and are more interested in building up savings than going crazy on extravagant purchases. The biggest expenses on our AmEx pretty much every month are groceries, gasoline, monthly trainpass, and prescription drugs.

[HereSince1628]

7. First law of promotions is like the first law of thermodynamics

there are no free lunches.

Someone is going to pay for your trip. Maybe its not you, maybe its just the credit card junkies that the credit companies hope will take the trip to some destination and put the vacation/trip expenses on credit.

But someone, somewhere, is going to pay for those air miles.

[IrateCitizen]

13. Problem is, I have no control over those people...

Granted, I'm totally against the current bankruptcy bill. It's a giveaway to the credit card companies and financial institutions, and stands to negatively affect many of those in our society who can least afford it. However, I also refuse to deny the reality that there is still a significant number of people in this country who get into bankruptcy because they spend a lot of money they don't have buying a bunch of useless shit they don't need.

Forgive me for sounding harsh, but I have little sympathy for those in the latter group. And I used to be one of them.

I chose to take a card that racks up airline miles (I DO pay an annual fee for this) because I know how to manage my finances, and see no reason why I shouldn't take advantage of an offer to get a few plane tickets in the bargain.

I'll certainly advocate against egregious credit excesses, like the marketing of cards on college campuses to people who have no real income, or the marketing of cards to the working poor along the same lines. However, even though I go to increasing lengths to simplify my life and live more frugally (and fully, IMHO) -- I'm not about to become a monk in the process.

[Bluebear]

12. Medical issues, divorce, job loss are the 3 common bankruptcy causes

It's not as easy as reciting a poem, unfortunately.

Frivolous buying is one thing, and it is that image that people have when blaming people for "getting themselves into credit trouble". It's not usually that sweater at Macy's you just HAD to have.... it's your spouse leaving you, it's having to buy medicine because you don't have/can't get health insurance, it's your louse spouse leaving you with bills for things you never approved of buying but are oibligated anyhow.

[HereSince1628]

16. I know & I know the credit companies provided the lobby $ for this bill

Consequently, my interest in letting them rethink whether they want to spend their resources on projects that might bite them in the ass.

[Padraig18]

14. We already live that way. n/t

[dryan]

17. More than half....

of the people who declared bankrupcy within the last five years in the USA said it was because of overwhelming medical bills.

[HereSince1628]

19. Yes, and that needs to be addressed, but the CC Industry lobbied this bill

heavily the spent MANY millions of dollars on it possibly as much as $15 million.

[ernstbass]

18. Haven't charged anything in 3 years

I learned that lesson the hard way(several times)

[Vinca]

21. You're exactly right.

The only thing these people understand is money, so we have to not give it to them . . . the bastards. (This is making me so mad, menopause seems like the "good ole days.")