Did they happen to mention that, the minute before you used that card, you had no debt - but the minute after you used it, you were in debt?

If you're going to get technical, then everyone is always in debt. You use your electricity before you pay for it. You make a telephone call and are in debt to the telephone company until you pay the next bill. It is the same with credit cards. In reality, nobody considers it a debt until after the bill has been issued.

I understand what you are saying, but it is still a credit card, not a debt card.

Hi greg,

On the hour after the power meter is read, I become additional debtor to the power company when I turn on the light switch, above the amount that they'll bill me for in a few days. And expect to be paid for, without delay.

An extended delay

finding cash to pay

is mostly

costly.

My point above did not relate to the people who pay off their accounts monthly, but to the amount of extra cost contracted for by the people who chose not to do so and that often without their having given much thought to its ramifications.

My point was to indicate how they might be able to reduce such a cost substantially.

ole joyful

I totally understood your point, and agreed with almost everything you said. My only problem with your message was calling a credit card a 'debt' card. It makes them sound evil, whereas they are merely a tool. Used properly, they can be a great asset. But of course they can also be used improperly.
I don't like it when people blame credit cards for their financial problems. The credit card didn't make them spend money that they don't have. They did that themselves.
I know somebody whose 'child' (ie. college-aged) recieved one of those starter credit cards where the limit is only $500. The parent was okay with that, because how much trouble can you get into with such a low limit. But then the card company upped the limit and the 'child' maxed out the credit card. The parent was furious at the credit card company and she ranted and raved about how they were preying on her child. No blame was pointed toward to 'child' who actually spent the money. I couldn't believe it.

I use credit cards properly. I put everything I can onto them and use very little cash. This way, I have an extremely accurate record of everything I spend which makes budgeting easy. And I recieve 'reward' points for every dollar I spend that I can use to get free stuff. I pay off my cards every month, so this benefit costs me nothing.
Recently, when I bought a house, I needed to buy all new appliances. I used one of those store credit cards that would allow me to put off paying for a year. Yes, I was charged a $50 financing fee, but having that money sitting in my savings account for a year earned me more than $50 in interest, so I came out ahead. I then paid off the full balance at the end of the year.

Credit cards are merely tools that can be used for good or evil depending on the wielder.

Greg H,

Your message tells me how you are managing ... debt.

Wisely, yes.

To your advantage, yes.

It's still ... debt.

D-E-B-T - a four-letter word! Cut it whatever way you like, it's still debt. Which can be become a *serious* problem when it's misused.

That you are obligated to pay - even if you get a temporary lay-off, or with certain specific skills no longer in demand, a pretty well permanent one, or suffer permanent disability, or have a kid who subsequently develops a need for $50,000. worth of uninsured medical care - or even die.

There's only one way you can avoid it - go bankrupt.

Which steals from other folks who gave you services in good faith, from which you walked away. Some do that several times - walk away ... smiling.

The message was, as I said earlier, not directed to the likes of you or people anywhere near as smart as you when it comes to managing money.

Like, maybe, your friend's kid who, though s/he was in college, wasn't too smart when it came to money management. A local Canadian financial consultant complains that they don't teach much about it in school. If the corporations, including the financial ones, get their feet more heavily into the schools, there'll probably be even less. In his book, he offers advice on how to make a rate of return of 40% or better on your money - guaranteed.

Proviso - you can only make that (before-tax) rate on store-issued credit cards whose balance you pay off.

Maybe, had your friend's offspring not been willing to pay attention to his/her parent, as being out of the dark ages when it came to instructions as to wise ways to live, s/he'd have listened to you had you offered some advice.

The reason for making the point about it actually being a debt that was being incurred when you use the card was to try to get some people who know much less than you about money management to begin to think about it somehat differently.

The point of the message was to show them how they might reduce their cost somewhat if they followed a different pattern than some may have started through following the easy path of signing up for a store-issued card.

I approached it with some trepidation, for I was advising ... taking out an additional card. Which could (too?) easily have a major debt run up on it, as well - leaving the holder in a deeper hole than previously.

Should I become aware of that result springing from advice which I had given, it would trouble me greatly.

Much more concerned than I was about complaints such as yours - which I hear about half of the time that I make this point.

By the way - you didn't say that I was wrong - you just said that everybody does it, right?

By the way, elsewhere in the message, when I was not dealing with the specific issue of the debt aspect of the card, I referred to them without using the quotation marks.

Your country - government and people - is drowning in debt. And digging the hole deeper, daily.

The "value" of your dollar is dropping - had you noticed?

Good wishes to you for wise management of your money - and assets, Greg.

ole joyful

Actually, my country is the same as yours.
I'm a fellow Canuck.

Have a good day,
Greg

Greg,

Sometimes we do jump to unwarranted - and erroneous - conclusions, don't we, Greg?

At least our crowd are running balanced budgets - well, theyy have been.

Doesn't it seem ironic that, when Chretien, for whom I have little love, took over - there was that huge debt and large deficit.

And - guess who - Paul Martin, finance minister, was given the thankless job of putting our financial house in order.

Which he did, including a lot of belt-tightening (and belly-aching), as you may recall).

For two generatins that family had wanted a P.M.

Finally, after recruiting his pals for years to fill majkor party positions ...

he got it.

Pulled a goof of major proportions.

Poor Paul - now he's gone.

Now - with surpluses - the "Con" guys are back in.

Think they'll run up large deficits again?

Who knows ... probably - given a minority govt.

Life just ain't fair, is it?

Have yourself a great week, fellow Canuck.

ole joyful