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Savings, finances, credit card bills...

Usehername

On a mission
Joined
May 30, 2007
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Hmm, I believe you, but on the other hand the people I mentioned who were screwed over by their debit cards being overcharged were all americans (hence why they could use it to buy the game online in the first place). So they used it as a credit card basically, but it took away their actual money. Having a "credit" card tied directly to your real money is a scary thing to me, even if it is normal in the states. I have absolutely no idea what credit/debit is like in the UK, though.

Yeah.

As soon as I have enough American credit I'm getting an American CC. I can't even check what my credit rating is until this coming July when I'll have been here 2 years.
 

Lark

Active member
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Jun 21, 2009
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Wasn't sure where to put this thread but this seemed appropriate enough. If it's the wrong forum, feel free to move it, mods!

Which of the following two scenarios would you prefer?

-Paying off your credit card bill in full every month, but being able to put little or no money aside in savings

OR

-Carrying a balance on your credit card but being able to put savings aside


Obviously the ideal is to not carry a balance on your card, and also put money aside on your savings, but let's say you're not currently finding this possible... (not that this has anything to do with my own financial situation... :whistling: )

Anyone who wants to share about how you manage this sort of thing, and why, I'd be interested :)

The first is preferable to me, its what I do, savings are money left over when you've settled all other expenses otherwise you've got a false economy going on. Governments can and need to do this somethings but its not a good idea for individuals to.
 

Not_Me

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Jan 16, 2008
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and of course the banks want you to carry a 30% balance when it's so easy to get approved for thousands of dollars and many charge 20-30% interest - a good credit rating is seriously not worth paying THAT much in interest.
I think the same way. I use my card for everything and have never carried a balance. But they still increased my limit periodically. Right now it's at $20k, but Hell would freeze over before I would knowingly carry that much even for one month.

Something to remember is that vendors get charged several percent on every credit card transaction. They add this to the prices. So we are all paying the banks 2-5% without being aware of it.
 

SilkRoad

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I think the same way. I use my card for everything and have never carried a balance. But they still increased my limit periodically. Right now it's at $20k, but Hell would freeze over before I would knowingly carry that much even for one month.

Something to remember is that vendors get charged several percent on every credit card transaction. They add this to the prices. So we are all paying the banks 2-5% without being aware of it.

As far as shocking limits - my first CC (in Canada) was a student sort of one, so I could get it with no credit rating or whatever. I think the limit must have been pretty low to begin with. But I've now had it for almost fifteen years and on that one I have never ever not paid off in full every month (Although I don't use it much at all any more.) So...the limit has increased over the years and I wouldn't be surprised if it was something like $20k now. I should check. It's pretty shocking really, especially considering it was supposed to be a "student" card to begin with! It had already gone up to something like $8000 after just a few years.
 

Not_Me

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It's pretty shocking really, especially considering it was supposed to be a "student" card to begin with! It had already gone up to something like $8000 after just a few years.
I think the average person don't need to worry about maximizing their limits. The banks will force high limits on them whether they like it or not. =)
 

Not_Me

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It's pretty shocking really, especially considering it was supposed to be a "student" card to begin with! It had already gone up to something like $8000 after just a few years.
I think the average person don't need to worry about maximizing their limits. The banks will force high limits on them whether they like it or not. =)
 

FDG

pathwise dependent
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Usually, the more disciplined you are, the higher the limit. Everything in finance (another example would be insurance rates, especially for health insurance) works similarly: the less you need, the more you can have.
 

DiscoBiscuit

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Something to remember is that vendors get charged several percent on every credit card transaction. They add this to the prices. So we are all paying the banks 2-5% without being aware of it.

Point of order.

The Durbin Amendment of the Dodd-Frank financial bill shifted these costs from retailers to consumers.
 

Lark

Active member
Joined
Jun 21, 2009
Messages
29,569

Disco I could sort of tell you were out of ideas when you sent me that PM, which I've reported as I said I would, I'd have expected more from you to be honest I didnt take you for a thug and a bully but you've really got squat when it comes to economics.

I can see why Magic Porifen gave up on the politics threads and economics threads as long ago as he did.
 

SilkRoad

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Keep it nice, folks.
 
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