Wow just wow!

[Golf4food]

What is really scary is, I know a lot of people that carry very little to no credit card debt. So when they are figuring out the average, there must be a lot of people with a lot more than $9000 of debt, considering you have a percentage of people with $0.

We put every purchase on credit card , usually totals about $3000 a month, but we pay it off every month, it's just how we do the budget. We get hotel points. This could also skew the numbers. I guess they would take the $3000 from us in the average, but it really isn't debt, it's monthly expenses that get paid off every month.

That's a good point - wonder if they take that into account? We pay all of our gas, groceries, utilities, etc. on a rewards card and pay it off every month - better to get something back than get nothing back if we were paying cash anyway, right? We do carry a balance on one card, but it is currently a 0% interest for 12 months and we plan to have it paid off - they were all larger purchases, too - not small trivial things - new windows for the house (lower rate than the company or a HELOC), medical bill, major necessary car repair, replace the dead computer.

Wish we had a big screen TV and a lot of fancy dinners in there, too, haha.

 

[Handbag Lady]

It is indeed a vicious cycle.

SOMEONE needs to hold the credit card companies as accountable as the spenders.



If a credit card is issued at X%, it needs to stay at X% and not raised or lowered at the whim of the credit card company. We also need to revamp the way that compound interest works against those trying VERY hard to pay off debt. Meaning, there should be a limit as to how many time a credit card company can add interest onto interest already charged.

And please, don't say, oh, you can just go and get another credit card with better interest. Sometimes you can't.

 

[DISUNC]

Sounds like our scenario too. It doesn't make us bad people. It doesn't make us dumb. It's just so easy to just pull out the credit card when you see something you want/need.

Sometimes it is need. Like a problem with the car that you can't wait to get fixed because without the car you can't get to work, yet you don't have the cash on hand to pay for it. Bam! $1200 on the credit card. Then the new shoes you bought last week before you realized that you'd need to get the car fixed. The work boots hubby needed for work. The $1000 worth of dental work that the insurance just didn't cover. Etc. It just all adds up that fast.

It's easy to stand back and say "don't carry a balance and you won't have debt." But it has happened and while we're working to pay it off now and trying not to charge anything, sometimes you must - yes, you MUST. Until you walk a day in my shoes, don't try to tell me that I don't have any times when I must charge a purchase.

But we are paying it off. And more than the minimum payment. And we're not booking trips to Disney. We're not out buying stuff we don't need. We're addressing the problem now. Sure, hindsight is 20/20 and we probably could have avoided this, but we are the ones paying for it now. I'm certainly not asking anyone else to cover my debt.

I read somewhere along the way that the #1 reason people use CC's for is Medical reasons, Perscription drugs, Doctor visits...etc. Food is #2. CC's are not just for 'frivolous' things anymore.

Back "in the day' when CC's were started to be used to purchase gasoline, I thought....WOW I'd never charge for that!

It is indeed a vicious cycle.

SOMEONE needs to hold the credit card companies as accountable as the spenders.



If a credit card is issued at X%, it needs to stay at X% and not raised or lowered at the whim of the credit card company. We also need to revamp the way that compound interest works against those trying VERY hard to pay off debt. Meaning, there should be a limit as to how many time a credit card company can add interest onto interest already charged.

And please, don't say, oh, you can just go and get another credit card with better interest. Sometimes you can't.

Thanks to Joe Biden for that!

From the title, I thought this thread was gonna be about the sports illustrated models, oh well, carry on.

 

[maddiemom]

Thank goodness that is a majority we don't belong to! We pay any credit cards off monthly.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

I'm sure some are living high on the hog spending money they don't have on frivelous things. But unfortunately as Quicksilvr said, many are probably using them to pay for things like diapers and formula when they cannot afford to pay cash for them. I woudn't want to live that way, but I can certainly see how it could happen. Things are tough for a lot of people right now. And they're only going to get worse.

I agree. I suspect a lot of people, for whatever reason, are charging their groceries and other necessities. Charging consumables is an especially cold and vicious cycle if the CC bill is not paid off every month.

I also agree that things will get worse. On my more pessimistic days I suspect that when this bailout boondoggle pans out (and all the fat cats have dumped their shares), the stock market is going to flatten and then the misery will really start. I pray that I am short-sighted and wrong on this issue.

As for me, I run as much I can thru my Disney Visa CC, and then pay it off every month. I put my $2 cup of coffee at Starbucks on there because I know that I'm 2 cents closer to seeing Mickey.

 

[natenapril]

I wish my balance was that low.

Where is your flame suit? Suit up honey, it's about to get hot!!
I find it funny that only on the disboards do we have a debt free community.

 

[Tricia819]

What always gets me is every single time I get my CC paid off something expensive breaks. It's happened to me twice now. I don't even get to enjoy a month of being debt free before the dumb thing gets run up again. We don't use them for frivolous stuff either, they are strictly emergency only and we always pay more than the minimum payment.

 

[jenny105]

I will admit it...I carry a balance on my CC's. But I always make more than the minimum payment, I keep my charging to a minimum and I am paying down the balances slowly but surely.

I'm the same way. I pay double the minimum payment and try not to use it unless absolutely neccessary. Luckily my balances and limits aren't very high so they shouldn't take me long to pay off.

You can reduce all of your debt if you stop charging on credit cards eventually.

You can freeze your card...literally! It's a good way to stop using it.

 

[C.Ann]

Where is your flame suit? Suit up honey, it's about to get hot!!
I find it funny that only on the disboards do we have a debt free community.

---------------------------

I have always found that a bit unusual as well.. I don't use credit cards myself - if I don't have the cash to buy something, I just don't buy it - but very, very few people I know in RL can honestly say they never carry a balance on any of their credit cards.. It runs the gamut from people who are living pay check to pay check - to professionals who earn very large salaries..

Whatever the case may be, as someone mentioned earlier, it's very easy to whip out a credit card for a "want" as opposed to handing over cash.. Somehow spending the money doesn't seem quite as "real" with that little plastic card..

 

[mumom95]

---------------------------

I have always found that a bit unusual as well.. ..

What, you don't believe DISers tell the truth 100% of the time. I'm shocked I tell you, shocked. Who knew.

 

[HelenePA]

When my grandmother died she left more than 41k$ in credit card debt.

 

[Minnesota!]

I will admit it...I carry a balance on my CC's. But I always make more than the minimum payment, I keep my charging to a minimum and I am paying down the balances slowly but surely.

Ditto.

We got in a ton of "trouble" with CC's a few years ago. We have used them only a handful of times since. This weekend was one instance - went grocery shopping, huge load. Went to pay - my debit was was no where to be found (must of left it at home or something). Stupid mistake, but I had $175 worth of groceries sitting there I had to pay for. Mastercard came out.

I do fault the credit companies, too. My best friend and DH were extended 3 different cards - all with $30K limits (or so). Maxed them all out when times got tough. When they applied for the cards...the companies knew they only made $70K a year or so. Insane.

 

[Nancy]

Sounds like our scenario too. It doesn't make us bad people. It doesn't make us dumb. It's just so easy to just pull out the credit card when you see something you want/need.

Sometimes it is need. Like a problem with the car that you can't wait to get fixed because without the car you can't get to work, yet you don't have the cash on hand to pay for it. Bam! $1200 on the credit card. Then the new shoes you bought last week before you realized that you'd need to get the car fixed. The work boots hubby needed for work. The $1000 worth of dental work that the insurance just didn't cover. Etc. It just all adds up that fast.

It's easy to stand back and say "don't carry a balance and you won't have debt." But it has happened and while we're working to pay it off now and trying not to charge anything, sometimes you must - yes, you MUST. Until you walk a day in my shoes, don't try to tell me that I don't have any times when I must charge a purchase.

But we are paying it off. And more than the minimum payment. And we're not booking trips to Disney. We're not out buying stuff we don't need. We're addressing the problem now. Sure, hindsight is 20/20 and we probably could have avoided this, but we are the ones paying for it now. I'm certainly not asking anyone else to cover my debt.

I am right there with you. Put 2 kids in braces that needed them, only 1000.00 in in insurance each and 7,000.00 in out of pocket costs, and there you have it. Then the car repairs, the pipe in the wall that breaks and costs a fortune to repair, then the upstairs bathroom that decides to leak and the dining room ceiling that comes down...and another bam on the cards. Add to that 2 kids in college (one of them who just got the braces off finally) and no grant money and it takes another ding. It seems like everytime we get 2 steps ahead we go 3 steps back.

We carry a balance occasionally (like right now) and it doesn't bother me at all. We pay more than our minimum payments to get them down as quick as we can. Plus I know both our jobs are secure and the money will be there to pay them off.

 

[disney junky]

There are so many things right now that are just backwards.
1. My DD was told in one of her college classes to get a cc to establish credit so she did. Within two months, someone had stolen her number.
2. My DS graduated from college debt free and money to the good, pretty much of it in fact, but he couldn't get a car loan because he didn't have good credit. He in fact had no credit. Therefore, I had to cosign for a 23 year old college graduate making $35K a year with no expenses, still living at home. The finance guy at the car dealer said he'd have had credit if he has school loans.
3. People buy things not on what those things cost, but how much they will have to pay per month. And those offering financing feed that. If you are my age, you remember when the maximum car loan was four years. Twenty year mortgages were the max, and thirty were just being introduced. The mortgage broker tried to tell us what we could afford, based on some formula, but we knew DW would stay home to raise the kids and we said no. We didn't want our house to own us, we wanted to own it.

I look at those times with fond reflection. My kids are in their early 20's and vaguely remember when vacations were special and rare, when day trips to Crystal Cave, the Reading Phillies and Roadside America were vacations some years, and when Friday night was pizza night, often home-made. I want them to experience that a bit themselves if and when they ever get married.

Now I'm feeling philosophical.

 

[C.Ann]

What, you don't believe DISers tell the truth 100% of the time. I'm shocked I tell you, shocked. Who knew.

--------------------------

Well - considering those people would get chided beyond belief if they actually admitted they have credit card balances (especially on the BB) - and heaven forbid they had a Disney ticker in their signature...... Hmmm..

 

[sahd2one]

I pay in cash for everything now and could care less about my credit score.

 

[momrek06]

I will admit it...I carry a balance on my CC's. But I always make more than the minimum payment, I keep my charging to a minimum and I am paying down the balances slowly but surely.

I do too!! But I also only have cc's with 0% apr. If the 0% apr is for only a 6 month or 9 month or 12 month period....I then apply for another card with 0%apr and 0% transfer fees and transfer the amounts over to the new card before the 0% "grace" period was over.

I also will apply for instant credit for a cc if they have something awesome to offer me. Recently, we were in IKEA and we wanted new furniture for our digs here in NB. DH, me and DS all applied for an IKEA cc....we received $250.00 in gift cards from IKEA. Following month I paid all three cards off. IKEA was giving you 90 days to pay it off OR it went to 29% apr.

I saw a Sony digital camera I wanted in Target...I did not have a Target cc. Clerk said apply for the card and receive 25% off. I only was buying the $300.00 camera. Got 25% and paid that off the next month in full and "sock drawered" that cc.

I like to make these cc's work for me in some fashion, either rewards, gift cards or a % off a purchase.

 

[dvcgirl]

I love Elizabeth Warren's take on CC debt. "Paying off your past at the expense of your future".

The sad thing is not just the consumer debt that Americans are carrying, but also the fact that Americans aren't saving nearly enough to support themselves in retirement. Most have been living way above their means and not saving very much at all (if anything).

The average 401K balance for workers with 30 years of saving under their belt (and so close to retirement age) is a little over $190,000. At the suggested withdrawal rate of 4% a year, that provides you with $7,500 a year in income.

That plus Social Security buys you a nice Alpo dinner. Well, perhaps that's exaggerating a bit, but a lot of Baby Boomers will simply have to work until they can't do so any longer.

It's not a big surprise. People who work in personal finance have seen this coming for years.......and those of us who read a lot on the topic are saving as much as we can to avoid ending up in the same boat.

 

[SundancePass]

I, too, am not surprised. But then I am one who couldn't get a credit card in the mid-70's without my husband's signature. Good thing the Preisdent of the company I worked for went to the President of Barnnet Bank in Winter Park (Disney's bank at the time) and told him to give me a credit card. My one and only credit card lasted 10 years until I got an American Express card of my own. Now I have two, my DH has two, and we have 2 joint cards. It used to be very hard to get one. Now not so much.

We don't carry a balance on any card. If we can't pay it off, we don't buy it.

 

[chasbos]

I charge absolutely everything I can to my credit card and pay it off every month - have never once carried a balance. I would think that my average balance would be considered $0, but maybe I am wrong.

Why would we blame the credit card companies for all of these people's problems??? They did not make them go out and buy things they bought.

When are people going to become responsible for themselves?