What is your personal relationship with the credit card industry?

[Berry Cool]

Poll question: What is your personal relationship with the credit card industry?

A thread posted here a day or so ago amazed me because it opened my eyes to the fact that there are people out there, aside from me, who are not finding credit cards essential to their lives, and have not for some time.

Equally eye-opening were the responses from people who repeatedly insisted that you "need" a credit card in order to do certain things--get a bank loan, get a car loan, rent a car, buy airline tickets, reserve hotel rooms, make purchases online, travel overseas--despite repeated, insistent postings to the contrary from those of us who have no credit cards, yet are able to do all those things with a debit card alone.

So, I thought I'd post a poll and ask: What is your relationship to the credit card industry?

Also, if you don't have a card now, please post: Have you ever had any problems with things like getting loans, renting cars, buying tickets, reserving hotels, shopping online, etc., with a debit card (assuming the money to pay for those things was in the account the card was linked to)? Have you found it to be any more dangerous than using a credit card, assuming you would take the same precautions if you lost your debit card that you would if you lost your credit card, and that you track your account to make sure that a) no one's using it without your knowledge and b) you have enough money in it to cover your debit purchases?

[Buzz Clik]

1. Other.

I find that credit cards are absolutely essential in all forms of travel -- getting tickets online, holding hotel rooms, renting cars. I resisted until I was nearly 30 years old, but I've had one ever since.

[MADem]

4. Not really. You can do all those things with a debit card that says VISA on it--with no

"line of credit" attached.

It helps to have a lot of cash in the bank.

[Buzz Clik]

5. Well, debit cards didn't exist when I got my credit card...

... and my debit card isn't real snappy for a lot of charges. Certain hotels crap their pants and charge your card excessive amounts that are then released some weeks later.

Yes, you can probably pull it off if you are willing to put up with the inconvenience. Personally, I just pay off the bill entirely every month.

[MADem]

6. They didn't exist when I got mine, either. I had to have an AMEX for work, and

I had a MASTERCARD for "my stuff." Had a huge line of credit, too, that I also never needed.

Once I got on the VISA debit bandwagon, though, I said "Screw the MASTERCARD." I don't miss it, don't need it, and haven't been inconvenienced by not having a "credit" card, in any way/shape/form. I travel a lot, too.

I'm also a frugal cuss and I don't spend money willy-nilly. I save for things I want to buy, from plane tickets to vacations to household appliances, even cars, rather than go into debt for them. I find I enjoy them more if they're "paid for."

[The River]

2. Credit Cards Are Not

an "industry". If anything they are more a "cartel" or "racket".
They manufacture nothing. They add no value to existing products.
All they do is make it easier to spend the money you have
and go into debt by spending money you don't have.

[Berry Cool]

3. OK, I'm going to add to this myself, because something amuses me.

I just Googled "debit card dangers" to find out what so-called financial "experts" are claiming to be the great "dangers" of using debit cards instead of credit cards. Here's the best they can come up with:

1. If you don't have the money in your account to pay for the purchase, you're in trouble. (Duh.)

2. If your card is stolen, you may not have the same protections, so you need to report a stolen card right away. (Like I wouldn't do that? I NEED that card to get money out of my friggin' bank! Damn straight I'm gonna call right away!)

3. You don't have as much protection when you dispute a purchase with merchants, because they already have your money. (OK, true...one point for them. But that's also true if you pay cash.)

4. No interest-earning float time for your money between the time the payment is due and the time you buy something. (Oh, big deal! The credit-card companies have all negated that with the interest they charge for people being a day late on paying their bills, have they not?)

5. You don't build a credit history with a debit card. (Well, if you don't want one, who cares?)

6. Banks may trick you into thinking you have more in your account than you do and then ding you with overdraft fees. (Not if you keep track.)

7. Rental car agencies and hotels sometimes freeze portions of the card money as a "deposit" until you pay your bill, and may not un-freeze it for up to a week. (Again, not a problem if you have enough money in there to cover you. If so, problem--but I'd check and then prepay if I could.)

In short, I can't understand why people are so insistent that credit cards are the only way to pay for things other than cash. If you don't have the money, well, yes, obviously they are the only way you can get what you want, and I understand that. But otherwise, if you have the money, debit cards are as good and in some ways better than credit cards, and you can do things with them that you cannot do with cash.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. I have one VISA credit card

issued by my credit union that I use for plane tickets, etc.. I also have a debit card, but I never use it for anything -- I don't even know what my PIN is. Mostly if I want to buy anything I use cash.

[CoffeeCat]

8. There's a lot of disinformation out there...

People think you need a credit card to make hotel and airline reservations--or to buy tickets, travel, rent cars etc.

I've done ALL of those things with a debit card.

In all fairness to people who erroneously believe that you need a credit-card to do those things---I once thought those
things too. I think the credit-card companies have put out a lot of propaganda--through their ads and through other
disinformation campaigns. So, people just assume that unless you have a credit card--you can't buy Coldplay tickets
or book a hotel. It's just not true.

These are big, greedy corporations. They exist to profit off of you. This is the cabal that paid off our politicians
in order to get the horrible, anti-We-The-People bankruptcy law written.

They're charging 30 percent interest now, on some cards. They're loan sharks.

I just read an article about GE Capital. Apparently, 20 percent of their cardholders pay off their balances monthly. So,
GE Capital has decided to start charging fees to those people. Surprise, surprise. They'll get your money one way or another.

And the remaining 80 percent who carry balances...all you have to do is turn on Dave Ramsey's radio program and hear the horror
stories. Call after call...people with $20k, $50k in credit-card balances. The interest they on these purchases is horrendous
and it's nearly impossible to pay off the cards once you get in that deep. People are literally paying for Applebee's cheeseburgers
ten years later at twice the cost of the initial meal.

Why in the hell would anyone advocate for any financial device that enslaves people like this? And again, I'm not speaking to
the people who pay off their cards. The majority does NOT.

So many families and futures have been destroyed by credit cards--and the vast majority of cardholders are NOT paying off
balances and using only in emergencies. The majority are borrowing their futures away--to pay for dinners, more Pottery
Barn and other non-essentials.

I like keeping our paycheck every month--and using the money to invest or donate or do something fun. I don't understand
why people go to such great lengths to justify giving these corporations hundreds of dollars every month. I'd rather
keep those hard-earned dollars or invest them and make more money. Not pay these loan sharks.

[rurallib]

9. other

I have one card from my credit union to make purchases online when no other alternative can be worked out. Purchases are usually less than $200/year.

[TankLV]

10. Sex a few tims a year...just like many long term relationships...

...sigh...