For the last three decades you didn’t need anything in your pocket to attract a preppy girl. You just needed to whip out one of your 10 credit cards and act like a Beverly Hills hotshot. Cash was for suckers. Credit cards are so easy to use. You just pull it out, buy whatever you desire at that moment and make a minimum payment every month until infinity. We’ve become a minimum payment nation. If you can handle the minimum payment, it’s yours. In 2006, the Census Bureau determined that there were nearly 1.5 billion credit cards in use in the U.S. A stack of all those credit cards would reach more than 70 miles into space -- and be almost as tall as 13 Mount Everests. Consumer credit debt has risen from $400 billion in 1980 to $2.5 trillion today. Consumers have an average of 5.4 credit cards with $973 billion outstanding. The average outstanding credit card debt for households that have a credit card was $10,679 at the end of 2008. The average American with a credit file is responsible for $16,635 in debt, excluding mortgages, according to Experian. The most fascinating fact is that the top 10 U.S. credit card issuers held an 87.55% market share of $973 billion in general purpose card outstanding in 2008. These 10 banks are coincidently the same banks that brought down the financial system (Bank of America, Citicorp, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Capital One, HSBC, American Express, Discover, US Bank, USAA).
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Credit Cards are the American Dream. We can buy what we want, whenever we want and pay them off at our leisure. If you max one out, all you have to do is apply for another one and you will get it! Some of my friends have 5 or 6 Credit Cards, they are rocking and rolling, eating out every night, shopping at Neimans and traveling the world!
ReplyDeleteKeep making those payments Americans! If you happen to loose your job, or say the economy implodes, Good Luck at Camp FEMA!
A few credit cards offer a lot of free service.
ReplyDeleteYou can use them instead of writing a check, and THE SAME DAY you get your end of month statement, just pay the entire amount. No costs involved. Some even give you a cash back for using them, small amount, yes, but it is something back. Now the problem is that one of these soon arriving days, the CC folks will simply either stop doing this, or start charging the dreaded "annual fee". No more free services. But in the meantime, I do really enjoy being able to buy whatever I need, and once a month sit down and write one check for all the month's worth of "free accounting" that has been done for me. HOWEVER: ( a big "however" here) if you can't write a check for the ENTIRE balance on your monthly statement you are screwed! Don't do it unless you know you can.
Never owe anything to anyone. Period.
ReplyDeleteNot actually. Many of us just use credit cards for convenience and then pay off the balance as soon as possible. Why the hysteria?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 46: I've been using CC's for,what, 27 years? I see the charges as money to be paid back. Always. Perhaps that's why I have an excellent credit score.
ReplyDeleteI read this blog all the time an find it very interesting, i have always been confused how people get away with so much debt, how come no one enforces these people to pay up, take from their paycheck,take the house, repo etc, etc. I still see people living it up so what gives?and are the responsible ones going to have to pay out for these people.thanks.
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