Ducati Monster Forum

So i have gone the past 8 years without using one. i wouldn't even use it to hold rental cars.
i finally paid it all off 3 years ago, which was apparently just in time to avoid a bunch of bullshit.

my g/f got a letter saying that they are raising her rate to 26% for no apparent reason other than they can.
i think she has made a late payment 2 times in 11 years of having the card. apparently this is completely legal as well. after a long discussion with them on sun and her being hung up on a couple of times they said they would put her rate "back to near where it was before" but she can't use it for ANYTHING or the rate goes back up to insanely high.

wtf is going on? has anyone else been hit with this douchebaggery?


so now I have to get another card. by friday morning. i'm not touching discover ever again.
i'm angry with the rental companies for not accepting anything other than a credit card when you rent.
i hate the card companies more now that they have forced me to get back on their system because they are greeedy asshats.

ok, i'm pretty much done...

The best way to avoid the fine print points of having a credit card is to not spend more than you can afford.

The same goes for debit card overdraft fees.

If you don't have the cash, don't swipe the card.


Just my $0.02.

thanks cyrus, that's why i don't have a card right now.


while i will agree that she prob spent a bit more on the card than she should have, she has been a good customer who has made on time payments for pretty much the past 11 years.

i also just learned there was a law that went into effect at the end of augustthat is meant to prevent this sort of thing. her rate was increased just before that.
i wonder if that's jsut a coincidence.

Shop around for a bank that will give Kathy a good rate, particularly on debt transferred to the new card.  Then cancel the old card.

I am sure it was a planned raising, as the law was about to change, so they snuck that in there.


I think the card companies keep raising rates because more are going into credit card debt, money is thin in the banking industry, so they are going to the end user to help mitigate the financial hit they are taking.

Hell, I sent a wire transfer for $50mm on friday out of xxxxxxx Bank.

They didn't have the funds to make the payment, so it took them 5 hours working with their portfolio department to free up some funds to make the payment for us. How make the beast with two backsed up is that?

In the banking world and international transfers, $50mm isn't shit.

I was just going to say that.

Last I looked at Chase, you can transfer a balance in for 0% for the first year.

not sure how much debt she has on it, but that is a great move if she can pay it off make a considerable dent in it before that 12mos expires.

yep, lots of new changes lately to pass the buck to good customers since the bad ones aren't paying or paying their share.

Get her balance to zero so she doesn't have to worry about rates.

If push comes to shove, you can read the fine fine print - you should be able to disagree with the change, cancel the account, and continue paying it off at the old rate. I just got a notice from discover too.

mitt

I've heard about this on the news. Credit card companies being douches because they now have to actually be responsible for who they extend credit to.

I've got one card from my bank and I never carry a balance. I don't know if it's better to have a card underwritten by the bank you do business with or not, but so far I've not seen anything bad.

Depending on the interest rate you could get her new card. If you do that though DO NOT CANCEL THE OLD CARD! Wait at least a year before you do that. It will screw up her credit report right after you cancel it for a while. If you have no credit cards it can really screw up your credit rating.

If she has issues with CC balances this might be a good time to get a second CC or Debit account. I got a second checking account & Debt card that is my "allowance" account. I put in my money in there at the begging of the month and that's it. No more. I didn't have an issue spending money, I had problems actually paying attention to how much money I had in my account. It made me pay closer attention to my account. If you get a second CC make her pay it off every month. It might take some getting used to either way you do it.

Read here for all the info on what the Credit card companies are doing to consumers:
http://consumerist.com/search/credit+card/bydate/?timerange=all (http://consumerist.com/search/credit+card/bydate/?timerange=all)

We got rid of credit card debt a while ago but we still use cards, we just pay them off.

I prefer using Amex because it's a charge card not a credit card, so you have to pay it off at the end of the month.  Amex's rewards are the best in the industry.

I don't think you can easily get around having a credit card.  There are just too many options are available.  Hotels, cars, flights.  I can't imagine flying as much as we do without using a card. 

If you don't travel much, you might be able to get by without card.

i'm actually doing that now.
i've found a few 0% introductory rate, so if she can find a way to throw some more money at it then she would be able to make a dent over a year. might not be a big one, but i figure if she can swing $150/month then that would take out a good chunk. not enough to get it paid off, but it should at elast take care of the interest from making min payments.

she should also learn to stop buying shitloads of b-day presents for people.
a single $25-50 present would be acceptable instead of 4 or 5 $30 ones.


basically, she needs to be a dick about things like i am  ;D



that's what i did. i only have my debit card and if i don't have money in the account i don't buy unless i absolutely need to.
I've been trying to get her to do that, but her view of an emergency differs from mine.

Best Buy just hit me with lowering my limit to a THIRD of what it was.  Taking my credit limit to due from a little over a tenth to 4/5ths.  Credit score is going to take a big hit on that one.  I'm just going to pay it off this month. 

i have used my debit card for several years as my sole source of non cash payment. it has always worked for me for rentals/hotels/etc...

of course, this method requires that you only spend what you already have.....

I tried to use my debit card to pay for a rental....

and they said they would have to pull my credit report....

F*ck that   [bang]

* self imposed bank bailout rant edit

Credit cards are typically better for fraud protection and charge disputes than debit cards...

I need to look at AMEX, since we don't carry balances ever, my rewards suck, and they are getting worse.

mitt

amex is great.  i use a business platinum which i am happy to pay $300/year for because i get tons of benefits -- free companion tickets, full access to all airport lounges, reward points, automatic travel and rental insurance, etc etc.. lots of benefits.

i figure the ~$25/month is worth all that.  the gold and regular business cards are cheaper annually but fewer benefits.

I have never really understood how credit works. Like if you pay the full amount due every time on time you get no improvement in credit score but if you miss a payment by 1 day but pay the full amount they kick you in the ass and the only way to get your score back up is to make the minimum payment for a little while so that they can rape you on the interest. That's just stupid.

to pay for a rental car i can use the debit card.
to pick up the rental they demand a credit card.

i rented a car in germany with a US passport, drivers lic, and debit card without a problem. they didn't even put a massive hold on the card.

I don't see anything wrong with that.

It is just like some bars run a pre-authorization to see if you have available funds.

Never had a credit card and don't plan on ever getting one. Same for the wife. The only benefit I can see to having one is for emergencies. But that's what a savings account is for right? Or do people not know what that is anymore?

I have 1 Credit Card. I use it for airfare, car/hotel rentals. You can't pay cash to rent a car.  ;)

Those make the beast with two backsers did the same thing to me. But I had a zero account balance. The card has been paid of for 6+ months and they lowered the limit! WTF? It wasn't an old account so I closed it...

yup, you don't understand it.

Lots of benefits:

--Work expenses
--Rewards programs (wife and I always stay at Westins or Ws on vacation...always free due to her work expenses and the AMEX reward program [thumbsup])
--On-line purchases...putting your debit card # out there makes me nervous
--Travel out of the country (carrying large sums of cash sucks...and a debit card can be worthless sometimes, although not as much now that most are linked to Visa/MC)

The key to credit cards is don't buy anything you can't afford without them.

Don't flame me.........

Credit Cards are brilliant tools. They really are. If I am getting 3% cash back, rewards points for airfare, etc, etc.

Why not have one?

The reason people won't is because they can't control their personal spending.

My bill comes due on the 11th of each month; I pay it on the 11th of each month.

I spent the money I could afford to spend.



Best Buy are a bunch of idiots. If you spend over xxx.xx dollars they give you 36 months no interest.

Seriously?

I'll use your money to buy what I want and dump the cash I could have spent into a CD for x amount of months. That CD comes due, I pay the balance (after making my stupid 15$ mininum payment a month) and move on with my life.


Credit can be used to benefit your life. It just depends on how you use it.


Don't buy what you can't afford to pay for. What a novel concept. Unfortunately, Americans don't do that anymore and it is sad.

A lot of banks are lowering limits, especially people that are not using their cards much or not carrying balances so they can give higher limits to those that do carry high balances.

As many others have already said, use a card just for the fraud protection, and don't charge more than you can pay off right away.

I stepped on board my last cruise with a $500 on-board credit.  I just pay all my bills on it and write one check every month instead of several.  All nicely within budget.


Furnished two rooms like this.  Never paid a dime of interest ~

Jm

didn't read all but i know when my rate was about to go up i had the right to "opt out".. if so, when you opt out your rate stays the same and they cancel your card that month the rate will change...  i've still got almost 20k in cc's i gotta pay off.. ugh..

the reason i got into trouble with my CC was because i didn't make enough to live and couldn't find a job that paid enough for a while.

i was working 2 jobs at a time trying to make ends meet, and i couldn't. the card filled in where the job couldn't. i also paid off my student loans during the same time.

I just can't respond to this, as I have never been in that situation.

I just hope during that time you used the card for necessities only and not disposal expenses.

I have an acquaintance locally who has been unemployed for 16mons and I still see him dropping a CC at a bar 3 nights a week.

that is sad in my book.

Not saying you did this, but this has been my personal experience.
 

you can opt out and you get to pay off the card AT THE SAME TERMS you currently have.  you don't have to pay in full.

if you use the card at any time after opting out, they retroactively change the terms and you are billed for the difference in interest.

they don't cancel the card, per se, you just can't use it or it is deemed acceptance of the new terms.  but you can pay off any current balance at the same terms (% and monthly minimum)

not everyone is a complete asshole with their money.

though i'm sure he feels slightly happier for the moment.

That's a different situation.


I have friends that have 10k in credit card debt.

I asked them what they bought with it

- vacations
- bar bills
- more bar bills
- clothes
- gaming stations
- bar bills

That is where I find it retarded.

it's nto a good idea to buy toys with a credit card.
but i do know a few people who buy pretty much everything witht heir cards because of the air miles or cashback thing. (the cashback is just stupid if you ask me) they pay off their cards, and get to go on vacations for cheaper than they normally would because they use their cards.

it's not entirely a bad idea, it's just not the best idea and not everyone can pull it off.

a nice part of the g/f's debt was trying to keep her last car running. i could only help so much.

I have a 62yr old "bar acquaintance" friend who racked up some debt due to a car issue as well.

The only thing that REALLY bothers me about the APR increases is the fed is loaning the banks money at nearly zero percent interest. This is to keep the lending fluid and prevent a credit freeze. The banks are raising their rates and making huge profits, but at the expense of their customers (the taxpayers holding the bill for the bailout).

And the banks are having defaults on home loans like crazy

They made the loans...

no one held a gun to any of the greedy bastards heads and said they had to make stupid loans.

i like credit cards.
mine provide benefits: free hotel stays, free flights, cash back
different cards for different purposes: business vs. personal

credit cards are not bad,
but bad behaviors can get people in trouble.

i pay in full every month...
but when i was laid off, those 0% interest rates on purchases and balance transfers sure helped out a lot.

was told not to close unused or seldom used cards.
it helps with your total debt to available credit ratio (if you are concerned about your credit rating)

unlike our gov't, spend less than you make.  just be smart about how you spend your money
Ciao!

Having too many cards hurts too if the total amount of credit exceeds your ideal debt maximum.

Usually 50% of your annual gross.  If you have revolving credit more than that subtract 100 to 150 from your Fico

at also helps with the age of your accounts. i keep some cards around and rarely use them solely because they're really, really old.

yup, i still have a CC from the very first company to issue me one (1992)
almost never use it, prefer debit cards, but i still have it.

I look forward to the day when my FICO score reaches 0.  The whole credit industry has done a good markiting job of roping people into beliving they need a 'good score.'  Good score means you keep borrowing money at someone's dictated interest rate. i.e. you're a mark.

ding ding ding

only if you borrow it.

good score meant our brand new business could borrow money at 4.5% versus not at all.

we put more than quite a sum through one card each year because of the percentage back we get.  A grand worth of stuff free is nothing to sniff at when compared to if we made the same purchases in cash.

but except for real estate, we don't carry a balance on credit/loans ever.  (ok...boat...but that's second house for tax purposes)

using the system to your advantage beats butting your head against the system.

 [thumbsup]

yeah, i gotta run with Statler here.  I had a business a while back (20 years) that I started after college.  I had a great deal with my credit card company and got points.  I ran about 200 grand thru that card in the first year, and because I paid on time, it worked very well for me.  I ended up getting two trips out of that card (the ATT Universal Card, before it was run by Citibank.. I was a charter member.. woo hoo)

Anyhow, now I have the same deal with my Amex -- pay on time, don't spend more than you have to, and keep in touch with them.  It's not rocket science.

Yes, they make their money off the lazy folks who don't do their homework and keep their balances low (well, Amex expects you to pay it off at the end of the cycle or ELSE).  We just got back from Palm Beach off the points.  Amex has a great travel agency attached which gives you great benes as well.

It really comes down to watching your ps and qs and using it wisely. 

They also make money through transaction fees hence why they offer incentives to users to keep using them.  Merchants don't eat that charge; users do.  You also have to figure that on average a person spends a hell of a lot more using a card than if they used cash.  Personally looking back on my finances and comparing just food expenses from when I did have a card versus now I'm spending $800-$900 less.  No reward points or cash back gimmicks required.

I hate banks, so about 12 years ago, I closed my personal and business checking accounts. I have money market accounts with a large financial firm. I get a Mastercard for each account. They are used exactly as credit cards, but they are limited to the available balance in the account (making them debit cards, I assume). I travel on business with them, rent cars, pay hotels and so on. I earn points for their use and pay no bank fees. I actually earn a little money on the money market side.

History: A divorce in the mid-90's shot my credit rating to hell (took time to pay off balances while I was dealing with the IRS). My antipathy towards the banks began with little things, like a $35 fee for paying a check against uncollected funds (who knew?).

Oh, I can write checks on the money market accounts. If I need to transfer money, I just e-mail or fax an authorization. The customer service is much better than a bank: A few times in the past, they actually called my cell to let me know of an impending overdraft on a check written against uncollected funds. Ironic...

Credit rating? Shot to hell as it was, one of my clients in Ft Myers hooked me up with one of his clients who, for several thousand dollars over a 10 month period, somehow scrubbed all those late payments off my credit history and left me at the point that I have easily gotten a mortgage approval in the last year.

Not to mention the niftly chain saw and Bose Wave Radio I* got with the points.

I've been a bank hater since 1997 when my local branch deposited my paycheck in someone else's account. I was living paycheck to paycheck (22 yrs old, no college, shit wages) and it REALLY screwed me over. Insult to injury, they charged me $200 in overdraft fees for their mistake, then told me to try to sue them if I wanted, but the fee went up $5 every day it was unpaid.

I opened my account at the credit union the next day. My debit card is on my savings account. I've rented cars with it without a problem.

two best bank stories
1- as an 18 year old, i moved to the mountains of colorado, with nothing but the snowboard on my back and about 4k in the bank. my bank back on the east coast mixed my account up with a small business, and i ended up with a -12k balance. so...broke/ in debt halfway across the country....luckily, a family member floated me rent/food money until i got my first paltry paycheck, and the bank eventually realized that it was in error and made everything good (including removing all the overdraft fees, etc.... and sending me a letter which explained their error, with apology)

2- in 1998 i made a little mistake paying my taxes, and put both checks in the envelope for the state. rather than return my FED payment, the state cashed both checks (frickin bank should never have let them cash it). i was none the wiser until i got a notice from the IRS a year later about failing to file/back taxes, etc,..,.took a good tax guy and a lawyer, but i got the money back from the state, with interest. and my late payment penalty to uncle sam was less than the earned interest, so win/win.

One of my subcontractors (Plasterer) got hit HARD by the bank mess last year. His business dropped by 60-75% (Like mine). He hadn't saved much of anything during the good times, and had run up a lot of credit card debt ($35k+). The lack of work made it impossible for him to pay even the minimums, and he fell behind and started accruing late fees, overlimit fees, etc. It finally got to the point where some of his balances had increased by half just from the monthly fees! He went to a debt management company, and found out that what they do is to let all of the debt accrue without payment until it get sold to a third party collection agency. The management company then contacts the collection agency, and basically buys the debt from them with the money they collected from you while they were waiting for the original lender to sell it. They collect a 15% fee for this.
My buddy Mike decided he could do that himself, and started putting money away in a seperate account. Last week he settled two accounts with Bank of America. He owed over $13k, and paid $2600 to settle both accounts.
The only downsides are that his credit rating is screwed (But it already was) and that BoA will send the IRS a form 1099, and he will have to declare the difference as income next year.
He said to me "Face it, my credit's already screwed with all the late payments, the worst they can do is get a court judgement against me. There ain't no debtors prison anymore, and in seven years, I'll be new again."

+3 but at a much larger scale.

I am a corporate card admin for around 700+ cards. We were with US Bank, but moving to AMEX right now.

Our Parent Company (5 divisions) all will be required to use AMEX globally. The rebate we get back is fantastic, but you have to hit certain spend quotas, pay turns, etc.

With US Bank, we got a nice rebate last year.

it paid for our divisional president's NBA tickets and my unit president's NFL and MLB tickets  [bang]

Forgiven debt is only reportable as income to the extent of the PRINCIPLE.  I bet they are screwing him and forgiving principle and keeping the interest as income.  Bastards.

I don't know about your deal, but our deal at Bear was to roll all the cards into a single account which had a single spend quota for the entire account.

I think it was something like 300 k / month.  We would easily blow that in 2 weeks with 2000 cards issued.

I knew about our previous deal, but probably shouldn't go into detail. But it was a yearly spend across all cards issued in North America (probably >2000).

Ours do roll into a single account for all divisions across North America and then the rebate is broken out based on what percentage of spend belonged to each unit.


I have to do this with UPS, Staples, and a few others.

It's a royal make the beast with two backs pain in my ass.

Jud,

Next time you have to deal with this at work just head over to the fridge and pick up some refreshing Breast Milk [evil]

I'm sure that will make you feel better

isn't ALL milk breast milk from some animal or another? If the thought of suckling from a cow seems weird but milk from a carton doesn't...

oh no, not this route again...........


That fridge is so disgusting.

sometimes I think some secret scientist is conducting a food study

so....about those credit cards......

mine just got paid in full  [thumbsup]

mine did, too.. hehehe.

my only debt at the moment is my truck, and i just refi'd it at a 2% lower rate.

i 
how does one go about this again?  never tried it so no idea how it works..

This.
I dislike credit cards mainly because basically what they're doing is skimming off the top and causing prices to be raised. Merchant fees are no joke, and AmEx and Discover are terrible.

Prices used to reflect cash vs. credit, especially gas stations. Now, it's all the same price. I have to think they raise the prices to compensate for their cc acceptance fee and just charge that price for everyone.

The reason that is no longer done is that it is against the merchant rules to charge two different prices for cash vs credit.  Moreover, in NY, a bunch of vendors were found to be keeping the cash off-register to avoid taxation.

Generally, the amount of credit customers versus cash is something like 5 to 1 or higher at gas stations.  People buy more and more often with credit.

i've seen gas stations charge 2 diff prices for cash vs debit/credit..

I see it all the time.

I think they justify it as a "discount" for cash rather than an extra charge for credit.