Who the hell are you to lecture anyone? If you're so smart then why is your life such a mess? Oh I forgot... you're a victim. It's everyone else's fault. Get your facts straight. It's NOT a fact that 90% of black people don't tip. It may be that 90% don't tip you but only God knows what the actual number is. While we're on tipping I said I wouldn't tip YOU. And maybe they complain because the food or the service sucks or because you have a lousy attitude. Your analogy shows a typical victim's mentality. Everytime I've gotten a mortgage not only did I only do so only on terms favorable to me, I made sure the contract I was signing reflected it. Victims sign contracts without reading or understanding them and then whine when the lender acts within the terms of the contract they agreed to. Or maybe they can't get favorable terms as a consequence of their own bad choices but because they can't acknowledge their shortcomings they blame the lender. The same with credit cards and oh BTW they don't always raise rates simply because they can (which is the victim's view); often it is done for actuarial reasons. I think you're massively naive and massively in denial about anything you're not naive about. Grow up and take responsibility for your life and don't blame your situation on everyone and everything else.
Sandybestdog, you have expierence in the restaurant. Go to a hotel, like Hyatt, Sheraton...or casino if you live near one. Work in the restaurant as waiter and watch and talk to the bartender and learn. Then ask to be a bartender when you turn 18 (where I live) maybe different for you. Very, very good money, hard work, but you work hard now. They will give you health benefits too. Then you have some money to save and start a business or go to school. Good luck to you!
Well there are a lot of perks that I am receiving from keeping this debt open. I prefer to have easy access to cheap cash in case I need it. I receive points on the monthly finance charges on a couple of the cards which means I can get a small credits to those accounts which is just more free money. I have a very long and good credit history because of this debt which gives me access to more perks. Plus this is all unsecured debt, have you looked at the interest rates on unsecured debt loans? For instance despite this credit crunch I am still receiving offers to do 2.99% fixed for life credit lines because I have built up a history. I am not talking about borrowing 30K on credit cards and running around on a shopping spree for coach bags and ipods, I'm talking about taking the money and putting it towards something that generates POSITIVE cash flow. Credit card debt is the easiest debt to obtain and if wielded correctly you can find a lot of useful things with it IF DONE RIGHT. Simple example: When I first met my wife, she had about 8K left on her car loan at 5.5% interest. She got an offer from american express to take cash out of her account up to 10K at 1.99% FIXED for life with a $75 max one time transaction fee (this was about 6 years ago so rates were more beneficial). She had been getting this offer for several months and had been tossing it in the trash. One day I happen to see it and asked her well do you have any debt thats at a higher interest rate? Sure enough her car loan was at 5.5%. I had her take the cash out and payoff the car loan, then she put the amex into a drawer and never made another charge on it until the car balance she transferred was paid off. She gets 2 benefits from this: 1) she is pocketing around 3% in interest savings having a 1.99% interest vs a 5.5% interest and her cost of doing this "refi" was $75 with no hassle of having to fill out paperwork. 2) She just turned a secured loan into an unsecured loan. So my point is not that everyday people should take out credit card debt and go invest in the stock market, my point is that if people spend sometime looking at their financial situations they can find some financial inefficiencies that credit card debt can be used to take some advantage of the situation. Whether you believe my financial situation or not is irrelevant because I'm just pointing out that borrowing at 3.5% and getting a return of 5% is a good thing.
Seems that there is some personal history between the procrastinators in this thread. I do not want to get involved in that, and I am not taking sides. But I would like to bring my unimportant opinion (for the only reason that it will make me feel better that I said it). 1. Do not buy what you can not afford. The only acceptable debt at any given time (inflation depression recession etc.) is a mortgage (one that you can easily afford).* *Disclaimer: Of course under any KNOWN environment this can change. Kind-of similar to optimal capital structure, but at this level you are getting beyond the average person. Of course there are also instances and exceptions. 2. 'YOU' are not entitled to ANYTHING. Be thankful that you have a toilet that flushes. If you think otherwise you need to travel the world and study some history.
The 5% has fees associated with it if accessed prior to the lock up periods. The 3.5% is not fixed and can be changed at any moment by the creditor, at whim. It's in the fine print, always is & always was. Happning to people right now even though they did not do anything wrong. There is no upside from the 5% but plenty of downside on the 3.5%. That's my general point. Does not make sense to do this unless you are kinda forced to. I see no real reason for anyone to carry credit card debt offset by CDs. It's another story to access credit cards to make a short term investment or use them as revolvers.
Great point. Hey Sandybestdog -- try to make your way in Africa, the Middle East, North Korea, Central America, etc. or study history and THEN tell us about how unfair life is.
Because you're stupid and don't have good enough credit to make this work for you. I've borrowed money twice already for a year at NO interest with NO fees and put it in CDs.
Well I can only base this on my experience which is the CC companies have jacked up my "purchase" rates up and down over the last 10 years but none have ever raised my fixed for life rate balances from the rate that was initially quoted. In my situation it doesn't matter because I can eliminate the debt in a day if any of these banks decide to play games and I don't personally know anybody that has had a bank change terms on them on a fixed for life or a 0% balance transfer promotion. I guess we have different experiences so we can agree to disagree. At least it was an entertaining morning going back and forth, lord knows this market is boring as hell to watch today.
Unfortunately CC companies can and do this there's nothing a consumer can do to fight it. I honestly don't know what the business thinking is behind this but then I don't work for a CC company. Have you considered going to Prosper.com or to a credit repair thing to see if you can get that rate lowered. Worst thing you can do is default and have your credit destroyed which will make life even more difficult.