Have You Sworn Off Credit Cards?

[beaconterra1]

I like cash.

[sbatman]

I have four sons and if there is wedding, grandbaby or emergency with any of them, I need to be able to fly to get to them as they live in four different states (Pacific coast to Atlantic coast) and driving is out of the question. I have to be able to buy an airline ticket at fully price if immediate. As a woman who can't stay in cheap dives (handicapped and quite vulnerable), and needing a car rental or multiple taxi rides for wherever I'm staying. I might also have to buy the mother of the groom wedding/dinner dresses, shoes, handbags, etc (you women out there understand) I don't like to carry a lot of cash around. So, I NEED a credit cards. I've had a very bad and potentially very costly problem with a debit card and refuse to use them.

So, I have $3000 in available credit, which would pay for any/all of the above. In any case, I can pay them off completely within two months. But, I've not paid a cent of interest and pay off my credit cards in full every month, since my first card, a CapOne card I received a month after my Chapter 7 discharge, two years ago.

[AdamGarcia]

After bankruptcy it can be useful to use credit cards for day-to-day purchases to rebuild credit. Only carry a balance that you can pay off every month.

[LadybugsRUs]

I now have one card. The interest rate is decent. It came from my credit union. The limit is relatively small and I am fine with it. The trouble came before when I felt that because I had a high score, the more credit the merrier! I felt validated by having multiple accounts with high limits. I became obsessed with checking my credit score daily. It was crazy. Now, I am happy to have just the one. I have a couple store cards that have zero balances from before the bankruptcy and I charge small amounts that I pay off. Life is good. I'm in control.

[andy158]

Yes we have sworn off credit cards! We use debit cards and can only spend what is in the account at that given time. Have used it everywhere and not been refused anywhere. Maybe because it has a "Visa" logo on it with a 16 digit number and "Debit" is in small print in the corner. We will not be at the mercy of big banks ever again that can toy with your interest rate, monthly payments and credit limits at there will just "because". This is part of what got us here in the first place. At one point we were juggling 9 credit cards. How foolish!

[dgtxpride]

I use a credit card to build up my credit, but I never spend more than I have so that I never end up in debt.

[One Half Full]

When I was going into debt it was not common for companies to take a debit card to buy things on line-- now I can use a debit card for anything I used to use a credit card for.

[sbatman]

I have a CapOne/19$ year with a 750$ limit. I also have a Navy Fed with limit of $1000. My income dropped $1100 a month Jan 1st and I found myself almost in trouble. I had to scrape to get the money to pay in full this month. That was scary! We are now officially in the poverty level area. So, the CapOne card is put away and I carry the NFCU one for REAL EMERGENCIES!. What I have done is to get two prepaid Amex cards. Both of them are fee-free. The first I got through AMEX, but they wouldn't let me put hubby on it. Walmart has their "Blubird" AMEX. It's 5$ activation fee at Walmart, but 0$ if you apply online.I got that one so I can put hubby on it. There are some fees on it, but I don't need to or wouldn't use them those ways. I load them by taking a picture of the check, just like the TV commercials. I don't use debit cards because of a very bad, months-long experience with someone stealing an unauthorized and unsigned debit card out of my mail box (Now I get all my mail at PO Box). So, I generally transfer money to the AMEX cards where there is absolutely no way to go over our serf-imposed limit.

Our real problem is that I take about more than 14 prescriptions a month. I'm really good at cutting pills. I've told my docs that I do that and most of them give me a double prescription for the same price. Even then, I cut my pills in half, so I get 4 months of prescriptions for one copay. Good for my health? No, but I have Medicare and a supplement. I still have to pay the rx copays. But I pay not a penny if I have to go the the ER, Urgent care, specialists or my pcp because I can't afford my medications. Now that's cost efficient, no? I think it's insanity, but we wonder why there is such a "sick" system here. Medicare and insurance willl spend thousands of dollars both avoidable and unnecessary on me because I can't pay my $260 monthly copays for all my prescriptions. And that doesn't count my non-prescription meds/supplements: probiotics, zyrtec, fish oil, multivitamin, vitamin d, biotin, calcium and 5 other OTC meds I take daily. And I can't get any help from any of Big Pharma companies because I have prescription coverage, no matter how much I have to pay in copays.

[TheBajan]

For many folks never using a credit card again, is easier than using a credit card responsibility and not carrying a balance.

Exactly. I agree 100% with this statement.

[HRx]

For many folks never using a credit card again, is easier than using a credit card responsibility and not carrying a balance.

[TheBajan]

I've sworn off ALL debt!! I'm quite extreme in my views on debt these days. After a looooong hard look at my situation and our debt based society in general, I've concluded it to be a form of modern day indentured servitude.

Thanks to credit, everything is overpriced. Look no further than the student loan and housing crisis for evidence of this! Medical care is another prime example. Medical tourism is on the rise as health care costs sky rocket! Most of us can no longer afford basic health care costs.

America was founded on the concept of Freedom, yet somehow we've decided to trade it to the banks for crap advertisers and others convince us we want or need. They convince us that without these things we are not worthy. I know we have the free will to choose a different life, but it is difficult. It has become so ingrained in our culture. It's human nature to want to be accepted.

It is a struggle, but I choose freedom from this day forward. If I can't pay for something in cash, I don't want/need it. If someone doesn't accept me for this, good riddance!

As Parick Henry so eloquently put it, "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

Yes, I have been in debt several times with CC's being my major downfall. NO MORE! I have 2 debit cards. One I use for shopping, gas, etc and I went back to writing checks for everthing else for the household and using snail mail. The other debit card is for my savings account only and can only be used to withdraw at an ATM.

The first time I ever had a credit card was when I got married my second husband. My first husband died in a car accident when our kids were still babies. As a single mom of three kids, I lived below poverty level without government handouts and managed to pay my bills, feed my family, take care of all our needs (as well as a few wants) and I still put money aside every month.

I'm not saying this to brag but to make a point. After I got married again, my husband was already using credit cards and had a couple of student loans. No matter how much money we made together, we still managed to outspend ourselves. I would have said we used credit very responsibly and the truth is that according to our lenders, we did. We were never late, always paid off our loans early and until a few years ago, we paid our credit cards in full every month.

Eventually though, between us both losing our jobs, the collapse of the economy, some losses in the stock market, and years of habitually turning to credit cards, the domino's began to fall and our house of cards came tumbling down. Living life financially the way you (Eguy) are describing it has always been more comfortable to me than using credit. However, not having credit cards is still very uncomfortable to my husband. For now, he is in agreement with me that we won't be ever getting into debt again. The further we go into our chapt 13, the more he's getting used to it. My hope is that after three years of living without credit, he will finally become comfortable with the new financial habits we are forming and experience the sense of freedom that only comes from being completely, totally debt-free.

Cheers!

The Bajan

[Eguy]

Yes, I have been in debt several times with CC's being my major downfall. NO MORE! I have 2 debit cards. One I use for shopping, gas, etc and I went back to writing checks for everthing else for the household and using snail mail. The other debit card is for my savings account only and can only be used to withdraw at an ATM.

[aquabluesrq]

I've sworn off ALL debt!! I'm quite extreme in my views on debt these days. After a looooong hard look at my situation and our debt based society in general, I've concluded it to be a form of modern day indentured servitude.

Thanks to credit, everything is overpriced. Look no further than the student loan and housing crisis for evidence of this! Medical care is another prime example. Medical tourism is on the rise as health care costs sky rocket! Most of us can no longer afford basic health care costs.

America was founded on the concept of Freedom, yet somehow we've decided to trade it to the banks for crap advertisers and others convince us we want or need. They convince us that without these things we are not worthy. I know we have the free will to choose a different life, but it is difficult. It has become so ingrained in our culture. It's human nature to want to be accepted.

It is a struggle, but I choose freedom from this day forward. If I can't pay for something in cash, I don't want/need it. If someone doesn't accept me for this, good riddance!

As Parick Henry so eloquently put it, "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

[kawh]

Credit Cards are only good if you can pay off the balance at the end of the month other than that they provide a false sense of financial freedom...
Debit cards are good, but you still have to manage your money because you can easily overdraft your account with ease.

Just as you say. Plus credit cards give you a little warm sense of security. I miss that sense of security, even tho it's false. Guess I still am in withdrawal from CCs, and would use one in a minute if I could. I am getting sick of having to watch my checking balance all the time before I use my debit card.
Financial mgmt my arse, it didn't teach me how to not miss a credit card.

[Snax]

That's a very instructive dose of reality that most of us know too well.

At almost two years out from our filing date, we do continue to utilize the one credit card for non-emergency stuff very regularly for one reason; to make money!

We have a Capital One Card, pay $30 annually, have never paid an interest charge since we got it, and have received over $200 in cash back in the 18 months we have been using it. That's not frequent flyer miles or credits only useable at some overpriced retailer, but credit either directly to our account - or a check in the mail. Of course the trick is to use it like a two-step debit. We don't purchase anything on it unless we have the cash in checking to back it up except of course for the emergency I noted earlier in the thread, and I make sure that the balance is paid off not just every month, but at least once a week if not more.

Of course this cash back is coming from somewhere, and that is unfortunately from the retailers who are charged for the credit processing service (who roll that back into prices, but that's another issue), but many of the fees for using a debit card are similar to them, making little difference to them which one you use, so use the one that pays you!

I must sound like an ad for Capital One at this point, but used prudently, their ads for "The Card That Pays You Back" aren't hype and are worth the trouble.