I recently stopped paying my credit cards and negotiated with the credit card companies to settle each one. Went from owing $25,000 and some change to just a little over half. Sure, my credit took a huge hit and it took MONTHS of back and forth with both companies but I paid them both off in lump sums and now I’m credit card debt free. I’m not advising others do this because I don’t know your situation. Luckily I already own a home and a car so I don’t need my credit pulled for anything anytime soon. Divorce completely fucked up my finances(she incurred a lot of debt on a card that was in my name and used it for massive purchases and left me holding the bag). Some of the debt was mine, but the lion’s share had to do with her purchases or me using the credit lines to pay her so I could keep the house. Ugh. Fuck credit cards. I’ll never have one again. Absolute fucking nightmare.
I have never had a credit card. I have no plans to get one. I have no idea what my credit rating is either. And until I have to know, I don’t care. I am not in any debt though.
You should probably still find out your credit score/rating though, especially since it’s free. Identity theft is a real issue, like someone opening a line of credit in your name and fucking up your rating when you actually need it for something (buying a car or house, or anything that requires a credit check).
You can also put a freeze on your credit via the big three credit agencies. That would prevent someone from opening ip a credit card or taking out a loan in your name.
Another case for getting a credit card is the rewards and protection. I always pay on time and never have to pay interest, so I only gain from cashback rewards and don’t lose anything by using a credit card. Banks are also very strict with fraud (it’s their money you spend before paying it off after all), and they will side with you if your card gets used to pay for something you did not authorize. Lastly, it’s becoming a hassle to pay cash nowadays with most establishments going cashless.
As long as you always pay it off on time, there aren’t much downsides to maintaining a credit card, regardless if you care about your credit score/rating or not.
You’re right, but it’s a shame the system is designed to punish people who don’t have an interest in participating at this time. Fraud should be the responsibility of the credit card companies not the users.
Possibly, but it has not been a problem in my life so far, so either it’s good enough that no one cares when it’s come up or I’ll be in trouble one day, I guess.
Tricky part here is that an easy way of building credit is by use of a credit card. If you can’t buy a house in cash, then obtaining a good mortgage becomes difficult. I’d recommend the happy medium being one of those preloaded credit cards where you pay $1000 up front or what ever and just use that for day to days… being out of debt like you are, though, is one of the most liberating things one can ask for
I was like you and got screwed by it. That’s the unfortunate part of the system for us. Credit rating isn’t rating of trustworthiness, it’s a rating of likely-to-take-debt/trustworthiness. Never having credit is often “worse” than bad credit. If you ever do try and take out a loan for a car or a house, you will have fewer and more expensive borrowing options.
The play for people like us is to open exactly 2 sources of credit, use one as autopay for static bills, and automatically pay it every month. Use the other for dynamic expenses, but monitor and pay it off in full whenever it reaches 30% utilization, or 25 days, whichever comes sooner.
One can get the benefits of credit without actually accruing debt. The way you use your cash/debit, you already don’t spend money you don’t have. Just continue to not spend money you don’t have, but get the benefits of the system. Be a “deadbeat” as they call us. Us deadbeats actively cost the system money by never carrying balances that accrue interest.
I use my credit card for every purchase I make and get 1.5% cash back. I pay off my balance every month in full to avoid any interest. That 1.5% can add up pretty quickly and it’s basically free money.
If you treat them like a debit card, there aren’t any of these issues. I have a credit card that I use for all everyday expenses. Every month it’s paid off so it never acrues interest. My credit score is great and the card offers some other benefits too.
If I lose my job the risk I have would only ever amount to one month of spending, which is easily covered by my emergency fund.
Right wing killing America. Education needs to be affordable if the country is to survive. Everything changes when we can’t compete with other nations because we have to import all the talent. We’re already kind of there.
But of course, the right wing needs to kill education. They have to maintain their voter base.
Lol isn't returning to Shakespeare half the point of Florida's new SAT replacement test that is created by hard-core Catholics? The "classical tradition" is the shit, so I was led to believe.
Right but it’s relevant to how news is portrayed and what kind of content we think should be posted here. I think it’s a great post to spark that discussion
Guaranteed they feel this and lives are slightly better without the cops running down on them 247 like some tough guys. Having to move all your shit can be the last thread for some. It’s an extremely volatile lifestyle. I’m all for ease of suffering in anyway for this community. I really wish it was not like this. Lots of people with little shot. Lots of people with many but wrong circumstances. Lots of people. Lots of problems. I’d hate to ever have to be the cop to come and sweep the riff raff away, who probably has somewhat personal interactions with many of these people often. There’s obviously way too many issues on every level here and it’s overwhelming for my small brain.
Lauro: At the end, he asked Mr Pence to pause the voting for 10 days, allow the state legislatures to weigh in and then they could make a determination to audit or reaudit or recertify. But what he didn’t do is, you know, send in the tanks…
Think about that for a minute… Trump and his lawyers believe we should be thanking him because Trump didn’t turn American streets into blood-soaked war zones.
IMO if Trump had his way we would have had an American versions of Tienanmen Square all across the country instead of the insurrection he was able to incite.
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