Credit cards

[Guest Babar]

okay.

People using credit cards are pretty rare here (traditionally, they are considered to be financial sink-holes).

Also, the guy who invented the chips embedded in bank cards is french. As a result there is some patent about them : last time i went in spain i bought something in a store : i had to show an ID card, my bank card, and sign the bill. In france, you just need to type your code on some device. period.

[eugene]

I refuse to buy anything that I don't already have funds for. That's just my money philosophy. I'd rather save up and know the funds I have. I'll never in my life have a credit card, buy a car on credit, or buy a house on credit, or take out any other kind of loan.

i'm pretty much like that too, i do use a credit card but just for convenience, i never buy things that are above my current balance, never go into overdraft. i don't feel that i really own a particular something if im not done paying for it fully.

[elusive4]

no thanks

id prefer not to have any form of direct connection between a purchase (or thiev) and my checking account.

with a credit card - it gets stolen and 10k in charges racked up.

ok, big deal. it's not my money. credit card company can take an addition week to sort it out. no problem.

 

debit card gets stolen, drains your checking account.

oh, it's sunday - bank isn't open until monday.

and let's see how long it takes them to sign off on the fraudulent charges at re-depoist the money back into your checking accnt.

 

one more layer of protection via credit cards

i hope to hell none of you work in ntework security

[Bubba69]

I refuse to buy anything that I don't already have funds for. That's just my money philosophy. I'd rather save up and know the funds I have. I'll never in my life have a credit card, buy a car on credit, or buy a house on credit, or take out any other kind of loan.

 

just beacuse you buy something with a credit card doesn't mean you dont haev the funds to pay for it.

it's convenience, security, warranty, rewards, etc.

 

and just personal opinion,

the only people that bitch about how 'evil' credit cards are - are people who couldn't control their spending and got burned in the first place.

 

 

paying cash for a home is certainly a notable statement. the only thing i haven't paid cash for is my higher education and my home.

but debt is not all bad; debt is a tool. it's how you use it.

 

for example,

i have some remaining student loan debt. i can pay it off now many times over.

but it's at 2.2%. why on earth would i use money that could be earning me much more than that via investments, to pay off a 2.2% loan?

 

true, I guess that right now, this is just what I want to do. Debt scares me, I'm the kind of guy that likes to drop everything I'm doing and do something else every once in a while. I just don't like the idea of being obliged to have resources for a certain period of time to pay something off. I'd rather have it taken care of. The house thing is a good point though. I guess it would make a lot more sense to get a loan for a house than to pay rent while saving for a house if I know I'm going to buy a house anyways, but right now I'm not thinking about it. I know I said I would never ever buy anything I didn't already have funds for but that was mostly a heat of the moment thing. If I had a secure job and knew I wanted a house, I would take out a loan for sure.

[elusive4]

I refuse to buy anything that I don't already have funds for. That's just my money philosophy. I'd rather save up and know the funds I have. I'll never in my life have a credit card, buy a car on credit, or buy a house on credit, or take out any other kind of loan.

 

just beacuse you buy something with a credit card doesn't mean you dont haev the funds to pay for it.

it's convenience, security, warranty, rewards, etc.

 

and just personal opinion,

the only people that bitch about how 'evil' credit cards are - are people who couldn't control their spending and got burned in the first place.

 

 

paying cash for a home is certainly a notable statement. the only thing i haven't paid cash for is my higher education and my home.

but debt is not all bad; debt is a tool. it's how you use it.

 

for example,

i have some remaining student loan debt. i can pay it off now many times over.

but it's at 2.2%. why on earth would i use money that could be earning me much more than that via investments, to pay off a 2.2% loan?

 

true, I guess that right now, this is just what I want to do. Debt scares me, I'm the kind of guy that likes to drop everything I'm doing and do something else every once in a while. I just don't like the idea of being obliged to have resources for a certain period of time to pay something off. I'd rather have it taken care of. The house thing is a good point though. I guess it would make a lot more sense to get a loan for a house than to pay rent while saving for a house if I know I'm going to buy a house anyways, but right now I'm not thinking about it. I know I said I would never ever buy anything I didn't already have funds for but that was mostly a heat of the moment thing. If I had a secure job and knew I wanted a house, I would take out a loan for sure.

 

you live in a world of risk vs reward.

there is nothing wrong with being risk-averse!

however, on that logic, don't expect massive gains!

there is nothing wrong with being in debt for an asset if your money can be used elsewhere to earn a higher return than what interest you are paying on the debt!

that is not the debate, by any means! one chooses their own risk aversion.

however, with the money spout wide open, how on earth am i to grow my savings with a 0.2% interest rate, when inflation is much much higher annually?

hence, i need to put my money in places to earn more % per year just in order to keep up with standard inflation!

 

 

 

[i just don't like the idea of being obliged to have resources for a certain period of time to pay something off.

 

oh, so you like using someone else's money to pay for a product, and even though they are giving you an essentially 30-day interest-free loan --- you say that you dont like "being obliged" to pay it back off within a time-frame?

yikes!