credit cards: recreational user or addict?

[Chadtuba]

Would consider myself a recreational user. Use them to pay for travel stuff and internet/phone orders, and the occasional "deal" but I try very hard to pay it off every month. If I have to carry a balance it gets paid off as quickly as possible. I have a rewards card and the reward points do make it worth my while to use my CC. My wife cashed in her points a month or two ago and I was able to get new speakers put in my truck at no cost so all is good

[Chadtuba]

I dunno if you were aware of this, but we recreational users are referred to (by credit card companies) as "dead beats".

Shame on us for paying our debts in full and not giving the CC companies our extra money in intrest payments every month.

[bort]

I use mine because I don't like to carry around a lot of cash. What do I have now, like $7 on me?

Oh, and not many online stores take cash.

[Wyvern]

I am definitely a "recreational" user. Only a handful of times have I ever not paid off in full each month (and then through an oversight, or temporary financial blip).

Credit card are good to avoid carrying lots of money, provide a useful record of purchases via their statements and often provide side benefit such as protection on purchases, or inclusive travel insurance. American Express even gives me 1% money back each year as a nice present for Christmas

I could happily live without cash if cards could be used for small purchases. It is a pain gaining a pocket full of coins.

Jonathan "who does not believe in living beyond his means"

[SplatterTone]

Recreational. Carry no balance. But since there is only the one card, the issuer's monthly percentage comes to enough to make it worth their while.

[bort]

In my limited travel in Europe, I found it a pain as well to carry so many coins around -- particularly the 1 and 2 Euro coins I kept getting in my change. At the end of a 10-day trip, I had something like 30 Euros in coins. Good for me then that the US attempts to reinvent and popularize the $1 coin routinely fail...

[Tubainsauga]

Recreational. Credit cards do offer a number of advantages, like being able to pay tuition and collect air miles on them, enough to get home and back twice. Otherwise, they're useful for online purchases and make accounting easy (fewer receipts need be collected).

Also, as for the dollar coin thing, I've found the same thing with dollar bills. They just accumulate in my wallet because I don't realize just how many I'm collecting. Dollar coins I use soon after I get them. Helps keep local coffee merchants in business.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

I haven't had any credit cards at all for over 10 years now. I do use my bank DEBIT card quite often, and it carries a "Visa" logo on it so it can be used anywhere a Visa is accepted.

I don't understand anyone who says you "need" a credit card for "emergencies." What is it that you have to have a credit card for that a debit card with a credit card logo won't also work?

Unless, of course, the answer is "buying something you don't have the money for."

[tubashaman2]

.

[Biggs]

- are taking great advantage of "sucker" deals that credit cards use to rope in "addicts"

Ah yes, the deals - imo, an alluring reason to use credit cards and incentive enough to avoid becoming an addict.

However, if I did not train myself to experience a pang of conscience whenever I use my credit card (and had my parents not instilled in me a fear of credit card debt), I could become an addict.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Todd,

Not to chew you out or anything, but the emergencies thing has happened to me recently. On my move up here, my car battery exploded, and I had no extra money to buy a new one, and not enough money in my bank to cover a new battery (using the visa bank card I have would have caused me to overdraft). Luckily, I had my emergency credit card to cover the expense; and since I have gotten paid, I did not pay any interest.

Also, sometimes sickness happens in hard times. Though the debit card has a visa or mastercard logo, it still automatically debits from your bank. So if I had $200 for the rest of the month, and suddenly (if I was married with a kid) got sick towards the end of the month, and the medical bills ended up being $250, the credit card would cover it till I got paid at the beginning of the month.

So you are buying something you don't have money for, but in emergency situations such as mentioned, it is real helpful. In addition, if you can pay it off within a month, you should not collect any interest.

Hope this helps....

No problem, James, and I certainly don't feel "chewed out." Can we stop walking on eggshells in here?

You are a braver man than I driving from Texas to Ohio without even enough money to get a tow and purchase a battery on route. Wow. Sorry for the bad luck.

My point (that I obviously didn't make very well) is that I see lots of folks buying things on credit cards that they should have saved for and then purchased. When I was young(er), folks saved a bit (maybe $50-100 or whatever) a month and called it an "emergency fund." At least, I did, and still continue to do so. I don't feel comfortable whenever that fund gets under $1500 or so (coincidentally, the purchase price of a decent used car). Anything catastrophic above that (medical bills, particularly) can generally be paid on a payment plan that would simply take the place of the savings for a while.

Credit cards are evil. They give people a sense of entitlement. Proper planning and saving are much better substitutes.

[Jeffrey Hicks]

As someone who worked for one of the major credit card companies I will say this. Credit cards are the biggest legal scam in America. The recent credit card reforms don't help the real problems. Too many people have cards they have no business having. For instance there is no reason why anyone needs a Zales jewelry store credit card that has a balance of 6 grand on it. You cannot justify that to me. With my company all it took was two missed payments and your interest was a rock solid 29.99 percent. That means on that 6000 card you have payments now of 650 a month. No thanks. I have one credit card and it is being paid off rapidly.

[lgb&dtuba]

Don't have or use any credit cards. Used to. Learned the hard way not to.

I keep enough savings in an account tied to overdraft protection that I don't have to worry about overdrawing the checking/debit account. If I have to dip into that I pay myself back asap instead of paying usurious interest rates to any credit card companies.

[bearphonium]

Slightly more than a recreational user (balance not paid off every month, every time)
Never used for groceries, household items, etc.
Often used with mega purchases that are paid in full that month utilizing saved $$ (love those Amazon points)

Carry AmEx for use at CostCo only.
CU Visa card, 9.9%
Have, back in the good ol days done a balance x-fer on a 1.9% card for numerous financed items (motorcycle, car) and paid off in a timely manner. Don't seem to be getting those card offers any more....never bought stuff on those cards, or did their "cash transfers" either. Guess we were deadbeats, in that they didn't ever get to charge us the 20% "failure rate"

Partner has
USAA Visa Card
Chase bank, Amazon points card.

Ally"who doesn't gamble, either"House

[pwhitaker]

Totally recreational. I have 3 major credit cards primarily to inflate my available credit which helps to keep my credit ratings around 800 - useful for car loans etc. for lower interest rates. One does have to use these cards occasionally or they will cancel them on you without notification. However, I have never paid any interest or late fees on any of them. I use one of them for PayPal to buy neat things like tubas and mouthpieces.

[Wyvern]

An interesting thing reading this thread is that tuba players do not seem typical consumers - we seem a lot more cautious and controlled in our spending.

I wonder if that is indicative of the type of people who take up the tuba?

[Brucom]

I exploit the credit card companies.
I never pay an annual fee.
I pay the full balance every month.
I use one card at the gas pump because it offers a 4% rebate.
Elsewhere, I use my PayPal Debit Card as a Credit Card (no pin), and get a 1.5% cash rebate on every purchase.
I only use my Discover card when I go to the discount store that only takes Discover.

Rebate checks are not taxable income because they are a rebate.

[tbn.al]

I exploit the credit card companies.
I never pay an annual fee.
I pay the full balance every month.
I use one card at the gas pump because it offers a 4% rebate.
Elsewhere, I use my PayPal Debit Card as a Credit Card (no pin), and get a 1.5% cash rebate on every purchase.
I only use my Discover card when I go to the discount store that only takes Discover.

Rebate checks are not taxable income because they are a rebate.

You do realize of course that you are in danger of being cancelled by your card company.

[dmmorris]

Rec' User.

Dig-those-frequent-flier miles! Dig the high credit score >800! Dig those low tickler rates!

[TUBAD83]

Credit card debt is a worse habit than heroin and coke combined--it affects alot more people and is VERY destructive when people don't use sound judgment and exercise fiscal discipline. Im an "ex-addict" who had to learn the hard way--at one point I had 5 bank cards, 2 gas cards, and about a dozen different department store cards--about 15K of debt. It took some counseling, a big credit card cutting party with my mom (she and I shared the addiction-between us we had about 35 cards), and 8 years of using just cash and ONE bank debit card. Today I have one debit card and 2 bank cards that are paid off completely each month. The banks are VERY complicit in promoting this addiction (I can count on one hand the number of cards I actually applied for--the majority of them were sent to me "preapproved")--this means we must be more responsible and wary.