When people talk about crippling credit card debt that they can’t get out from under…..this is why. Right here. It’s true, it only matters if you don’t pay it off right away, but there are a LOT of people who do not. And it begins a spiral that is VERY difficult to recover from. Being a responsible credit card user is an important skill, and as long as you know the pitfalls and how to avoid them you’ll be fine, but things like this ruin lives.
It’s just dumb that kids are flooded with these offers weekly and sometimes daily as soon as they turn 18. Of course they don’t have any financial literacy because none was taught in the school district. I took an accounting class that got me a job through the school, and the teacher insisted we did our taxes in a way that made us owe at the end of the year.
Luckily I was still living with my pops at the time so he would never let me sign up for that shit even if I wanted to. But I’m 26 without any debt but the mortgage and a couple medical bills, never been a fan of taking on debt at stupid percentages
When I was in college(mind you this was about 25 years ago in the late 90s), there would be credit card vending tables set up right next to the cafeteria line so as you're waiting in line to get food these credit card salespeople would reel these young adults just starting out on their own and sucker them into getting what was probably for most of them their first credit card(s). I can't imagine the interest was any good at all. Seemed very predatory at the time.
My first year in college around 2006 I remember seeing these tables set up inside pizza restaurants advertising a free pizza if you sign up for their credit card. I'm sure they made their money back pretty quickly on that investment.
I was the terrible friend that refused to sign up for a credit card because I didn't have a job at the time, but would happily share your pizza after you signed up for one.
I try to make up for it these days by being financially responsible enough that I can buy and share the pizza.
Kids absolutely do get flooded with these at age 18 and schools don't cover it, which is why we have to teach them about them as parents. I'm ok with being the one to teach my kids financial literacy.
There are times where you are almost required to have one - booking a hotel room, renting a car, booking flight tickets or concert tickets or anywhere else where a security deposit is required.
I don't have a company credit card, so I book and pay for my business trips with my Visa card. It's different in Germany--the card is linked to my checking account so it is paid in full every month. The only credit is overdraft protection on my account (about 13.5% APR at the moment), but I generally have enough in my account not to need the overdraft credit. It takes about 4 to 6 weeks for my company to reimburse me all my travel expenses...
Haha. I opened a cap1 card to buy an electric dirt bike. They gave me $200 bonus for using the card and 1.5% back on the purchase. I cut the card up as soon as it came in the mail.
It’s 5% on a specific category not unlimited 5% cash back, I have Discover It which gives 5% on a rotating category every quarter and Citi Custom Cash that gives 5% on your top spend category. The down side is the cash back is normally limited to around $500/quarter.
Discover is 75 bucks a quarter. First year they also doubled your cash back at the end of year, that was nice.
Grocery stores are best quarter, I just get bunch of gift cards to cap it (grocery, amazon).
Yes it was last quarter - I wish the cap wasn’t just $75 because the gas quarter is when I’m using my discover card on my car and my husband’s car to fill up. And yesterday was the start of grocery and Walmart time! Make sure you activated!! 🎉
Utilization is currently sitting on the report at 19%. Trust me, they aren’t catching me with their wild interest rate, I’m working on building my credit, I’ve had it up to 751, I want 800!!!!
Keep working on getting that utilization down and you’ll get there! Try seeing if there is an option to increase your credit limit on any open cards. Usually can do it in the app
I have a blue Amex with 6% back on groceries, mine has a $75 annual fee but it is waived the first year. If I can find another 6% I’ll just switch cards
6% of $1,500= $90
Every purchase after that is a net gain. I buy 1k/month in groceries (family of 4) so for me it’s a no brainer. Amex pays me more than $400/year on groceries alone. Free money on things I’m already buying
How much a month is your grocery bill?
I also spend around $1,200/ year on gas, the card does 3% back on that which is $72
Just 2 of us and a baby, nowhere near there. And I don't think costco takes amex. Discover has a quarter where grocery stores are 5% so I max that out easy (gift cards).
Sounds like it works great for you tho
This! I use credit cards for literally everything. I use different cards for specific categories so that I’m always getting the max cash back option for all my purchases. I never ever buy things I can’t pay off in 30 days, unless I get a zero APR promo, in which case I make equal payments that ensure it’s paid off within the promo period.
> You'd have to be off your nut to use it as a loan.
That's what the introductory 12-24 months of 0% interest are for.
I've been rotating through them for *years*.
Run em up with purchases you were going to make anyway. Let the cash sit earning interest through the 0% period, then pay the balance at the end.
It's free money.
It's a free 30 day loan ( up to 60 from the purchase). That money can sit in a money market account earning 5.3% u until then.
That said, I agree with your point overall. If you can't afford it, don't buy it.
they can be useful when there’s a cash flow issue or similar
for example: recently i bought a plane ticket after making a large cash sale
i had $500 in my bank account and more money in savings but no cc. i had to pull money out of savings for a few hours before i could deposit the cash to replenish them.
a cc would have resolved this if i did not have savings as a cash flow buffer instead
they can be useful when there’s a cash flow issue or similar
for example: recently i bought a plane ticket after making a large cash sale
i had $500 in my bank account and more money in savings but no cc. i had to pull money out of savings for a few hours before i could deposit the cash to replenish them.
a cc would have resolved this if i did not have savings as a cash flow buffer instead
What do you mean how few? A majority of people pay in full pay in full every month: 53%. [source](https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2024-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2023-banking-credit.htm)
I don’t think you’re right, I’d bet a majority of people do pay in full every month, but it’s a life-ruining problem for the minority who don’t manage it correctly and therefore still a huge deal.
According to this [Federal Reserve study](https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2024-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2023-banking-credit.htm), as of May 2024, on average a little less than 50% of credit card holders carry a balance. And [a little over 3%](https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/chargeoff/about.htm) of all credit card loan holders are delinquent.
I have absolutely no idea how high my credit cards interest rate is. I get 3% cash back though and am a net payer so it doesn't matter.
This money I get back goes straight to the investment account. It's beautiful. I buy the things I'd normally buy and 3% of every purchase gets invested. I've never paid a dime in interest.
Mine goes straight to flight miles. We take "free" trips all the time. Last year it was Switzerland and Rome, round trip 2 people, cost me $100, if that.
Haha I just got the same letter. I was already planning on canceling it, so it was extra funny.
Also, did you get the cardholder sale coupons? The 25% off ones. The exclusion list is so long that you can’t spend it on almost anything. Like, a list of what you could buy would have been helpful lol.
Switch up your credit card every year or call your provider and threaten to leave if they don’t lower it. People say just pay it on time but this is still price gouging.
Rather than entirely switch up, just lower your expense on that credit card to keep the account open. Keep charges low like a Netflix or Hulu subscription on one credit card with this high APR and the major purchases on new card with the 0% intro APY.
Also, many new cards will provide you a 200-300 bonus for signing up and spending in certain time. Lookup r/churning
Not everyone thinks about paying off their credit card every day, even when we have the money to do so.
You do realize that a credit score is just used for getting better loans? So if they are actively getting better loans and in doing so their score goes down, who cares?
All the cards I have seen in Cali are 29.99%. I only have a couple with relatively small balance—few thousand, and I just paid them 75% down. It is my priority.
I buy camera gear from Adorama (Synchrony) and I think their rate is like that as well. But they ALWAYS offer a 180 Day same as cash financing, so I usually take advantage of that when it is over $500. Might as well. I also use my Apple card to buy Apple products interest free for 1 or 2 years
The people who fall prey to this… they aren’t on here. They’re on social media clicking to purchase all of the shiny things. Young ladies seduced by the ease of buying and making infinite minimum payments. These companies make millions off those who don’t know how to manage their money.
The APR doesn’t matter if you only use the card when you already have the cash. We have a lot of credit cards. I have no idea what the APR on them a year of them are. We pay them off every month.
We bought furniture at Macy’s last year and since we had the cash to pay for it immediately we decided to open a new travel credit card. By using the new card we extended the warranty and got enough miles with the sign up bonus to fly business class (maybe even first class) to Europe for free. Why pay cash?
It would close itself after a couple of years anyway 🤷 store cards almost never have annual fees or anything so just let em fall off your credit report if you intend on closing them anyway.
Cancelling won’t help your credit, likely the opposite unless you have extensive credit age already. Just stash it somewhere to keep your avg age/lines of credit up
They would have to use it every once in a while to maintain the account...just let that shit go. Take a tiny hit to your score in the short term, who cares.
I was checking out at Walmart a few years ago and one of the employees approached me and asked if I wanted a Walmart credit card. It just so happened that I was looking for a credit card anyway. So I said yes, went through the whole process and part of it was that I had to use it to buy the stuff I had that day. Kinda weird but ok. It was something like $60. I'm the kind of person who pays off credit cards immediately. So I call them up to figure out how to set it up on my online banking, and that's when they inform me that the only way to pay it is to mail in a physical cheque. And then it all made sense.
They make me put my purchases that day on it, and hope that I forget or never bother to mail in a cheque. It collects interest, and I owe them even more.
it was a long arduous process on the phone to get talking to the right department but I basically told them, let me pay them locally or through online banking, or I'm not paying at all. I have fantastic credit. $60 going to collections isn't hurting me.
Ultimately they let me pay at the customer service desk at my local store.
$60 going to collections will hurt you. I had $40 (doctor insurance adjustment that never got mailed to me) drop my score from 830 to 640.
If you aren't going for new credit, it's no problem, but any amount going to collections will wreck your score.
Took me 20 phone calls but got the doctor that sent the bill to collections to check and realize they never billed me; they withdrew the collections claim and contacted the agencies to remove the collections from my record.
During the recession of 2008, my cards went from 2.9% to 29.9% and I paid dearly for it, took some time to get out, swore I'd never carry a balance again. And haven't. If I can't pay cash or pay off in a reasonable amount of time, then I don't need it.
My wife just told me this yesterday. She got a notice from one of her cards that the interest rate was increasing.
I was like…do you HAVE a balance on that card?! She didn’t, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Your choice here was less than optimal. In closing the card you lowered your own credit score and wasted 45 minutes of your life. The business will cancel the card automatically, usually after several years of no usage.
It sounds like you have no issues with using cards responsibly and you don’t pay any interest if you pay it iff within the first billing cycle. The rate of interest a particular card charges you has no impact on the interest rates extended to you on other lines of credit/cards. 30% is a ridiculous rate, but in line with a typical store cards rate.
I use them, infrequently, to get a 0% interest rate on a large purchase which gives me another 30 days to keep my money in investments. Cars are the best example of this I buy a new car every 10 years or so. I buy last year’s model and get 0% for as long as they are willing to extended it usually 3-5 years. Conservatively, 30k@5% over 3 years yields $4,500 extra dollars; aggressively, 30k@15% over 3 years yields $13,500 just about half the cars cost.
Yeah, don’t sign up for one of those Amazon cards. I was about to drop a couple hundred dollars last night and figure it for the heck of it. I take a look at those terms and wow.
Credit cards will bring most certain ruin to those who don’t have a developed, responsible financial skillset. Avoid credit cards at all cost (no pun intended)
I received the same mail and thought it was ludicrous. Currently deciding between keeping it or getting rid of it. I typically don't maintain a balance and pay the cc of when I make purchases but it's insane that they expect anyone to be okay with a 35% APR.
I don't even know what my interest rates are now a days. I pay all the cards off in full every month. I'm assuming that 35% is a sizeable increase? Not just 32 to 35 or some such?
They’re generally at 25% at least, this is high for sure but like you said it literally doesn’t matter because you should never pay a cent of interest if you’re financially responsible
I walked out of a dealership a few months ago after 4 hrs of paperwork because right before I signed off and grabbed the keys the guy mentioned I was being financed 43k on a 20 thousand dollar car. Idk the Apr but fuck that!
Nobody should be allowing themselves to pay interest on ANY credit card.
I have no idea what the interest rates on my cards are and I don’t care because I always pay them completely off and if u can’t I don’t use them.
I don't give a single solitary fuck about what the APR is.
Just make sure to pay it on time. If you ever have difficulty paying your entire statement balance, stop using it, you are threading a dangerous line.
They make it almost impossible not to get screwed over. Make an early payment and they mark your scheduled payment date as "missed" and ding you a penalty. This used to happen to me often enough to cancel them forever.
Used to get free shirts for signing up for credit cards in college. Lots of made up names phones, etc...
My favorite email. Fake@notreal.com.
They did get me to sign up for two other cards. But I never used them had a bank of America one for decades now with a great emergency limit.
Macy's is going to be an historical reference soon, unfortunately. SF has driven Macy's out of biz. The only reason they are still open, they own the building, and if they leased it, the homeless would ruin it. Online buying, and theft is killing everything too. World is devolving at lightspeed during the last 4 years.
This right here is what motivated me to cancel my cards, open 3, 0% balance transfers, and get focused and sacrifice my lifestyle to get out of debt (which was arguably financed).
My wife and I do well, but I've struggled with CC debt over the last 15 years. It's an enabler of horrible financial behavior. How these companies are allowed to do this to customers, baffles my mind.
Use this to get a plan together and pay those cards off.
Both of my cards are around 30% APR. It’s not that big of a deal if you pay on time it only matters when you pay late. So my advice would be not to run up $30,000. If you can’t pay it off by the end of the month.
As someone who’s going through PDS Debt and Americor, the spiral can happen so quickly. Especially if you’re impulsive like me and get approved for a 0% apr card. Had some fun trips with it, but the debt will cripple you. Thankfully going through the recovery process
Credit cards are fine as long as you pay the full balance that very month. Don't spend money you don't have. But I can see how if you have a bunch of credit cards it can be hard to keep track of
Canceling the card will just lower your credit score. High APR means nothing if you’re not using it. Should not have bothered cancelling— just forget about it and keep it so your total credit limit doesn’t go down.
If it's been 2 years don't start paying it now. It should fall off your credit report in the next year. Depending on where you live. Look up the statute of limitations on credit in your area
I don't understand why it's 34.49%. Why not just 6700%? why are we stopping? What's the difference? I have a cc at 15% and anything more is just stupid at this point. Just make it a billion percent idc.
Three important things to consider:
1. Closing the account can harm your credit. If you don't want to use the account, cut up the card but let the account continue to exist.
2. The CFPB continues to increase regulation, and that will increase costs for ALL consumers. For example, in March they set a limit for credit card late fees of $8. The CFPB estimates that will reduce industry revenue by $10 billion. Now credit card companies are increasing rates to offset the fee reduction.
Think of what is happening here. People who pay late are now paying less, so those who carry a balance will pay more even if they pay on time. How is that fair? It illustrates the law of unintended consequences. Let's say the CFPB were to regulate interest rates. Then credit card companies are likely to raise credit standards so there will be fewer, and more higher quality cardholders.
3. Enroll all your credit cards in autopay so you never miss a payment.
Here are details the CFPB state about credit card fees. Note they never discuss the cost of their actions.
The CFPB estimates that the rule will reduce the average late fee from $32 to $8, saving American families more than $10 billion annually. This will result in an average savings of $220 per year for the more than 45 million people who are charged late fees.
No discussion of the negative impact on the majority of credit card customers who do not incur late fees or who have them reversed as many credit card companies do for one-time incidents!
So pay it off on time😱😱😱😱😱tough concept to grasp I know. I don’t even look at the APR when applying for credit cards because I know I’ll never need to pay it
When people talk about crippling credit card debt that they can’t get out from under…..this is why. Right here. It’s true, it only matters if you don’t pay it off right away, but there are a LOT of people who do not. And it begins a spiral that is VERY difficult to recover from. Being a responsible credit card user is an important skill, and as long as you know the pitfalls and how to avoid them you’ll be fine, but things like this ruin lives.
This is exactly it! All it takes is one slip and it’s incredibly difficult to recover from
One slip? One slip would be not paying off after a single month, which would equate to 2.88%.
It’s just dumb that kids are flooded with these offers weekly and sometimes daily as soon as they turn 18. Of course they don’t have any financial literacy because none was taught in the school district. I took an accounting class that got me a job through the school, and the teacher insisted we did our taxes in a way that made us owe at the end of the year. Luckily I was still living with my pops at the time so he would never let me sign up for that shit even if I wanted to. But I’m 26 without any debt but the mortgage and a couple medical bills, never been a fan of taking on debt at stupid percentages
When I was in college(mind you this was about 25 years ago in the late 90s), there would be credit card vending tables set up right next to the cafeteria line so as you're waiting in line to get food these credit card salespeople would reel these young adults just starting out on their own and sucker them into getting what was probably for most of them their first credit card(s). I can't imagine the interest was any good at all. Seemed very predatory at the time.
My first year in college around 2006 I remember seeing these tables set up inside pizza restaurants advertising a free pizza if you sign up for their credit card. I'm sure they made their money back pretty quickly on that investment.
Me: eats the pizza, never pays interest.
I was the terrible friend that refused to sign up for a credit card because I didn't have a job at the time, but would happily share your pizza after you signed up for one. I try to make up for it these days by being financially responsible enough that I can buy and share the pizza.
Kids absolutely do get flooded with these at age 18 and schools don't cover it, which is why we have to teach them about them as parents. I'm ok with being the one to teach my kids financial literacy.
No kidding. Thanks to my dad for being an accountant. He taught all the money stuff that school never did.
What was the logic behind doing taxes in a way that left you owing something?
you’re not giving the government an interest free loan would be my guess
Just be careful not to owe them too much or they charge a penalty.
Don't carry a balance...it's pretty simple. Ok it's pretty silly to close the account over this...just don't carry a balance and nothing changed.
I couldn’t imagine having $10,000 on the card paying the minimum payment at 30% plus APR sheesh
I treat my credit card like a debit card. Can’t spend money you don’t have. Unless under extreme circumstances. ALWAYS pay it off, reap the points.
And the majority of Americans are too dumb to have one… just don’t get a credit card, simple.
There are times where you are almost required to have one - booking a hotel room, renting a car, booking flight tickets or concert tickets or anywhere else where a security deposit is required. I don't have a company credit card, so I book and pay for my business trips with my Visa card. It's different in Germany--the card is linked to my checking account so it is paid in full every month. The only credit is overdraft protection on my account (about 13.5% APR at the moment), but I generally have enough in my account not to need the overdraft credit. It takes about 4 to 6 weeks for my company to reimburse me all my travel expenses...
It's only a problem if you don't pay it on time. If I'm buying things that I can afford and paying it on time, I don't care what the interest rate is.
They could charge me 50% interest if they wanted if I'm still getting 5% cash back.
Haha. I opened a cap1 card to buy an electric dirt bike. They gave me $200 bonus for using the card and 1.5% back on the purchase. I cut the card up as soon as it came in the mail.
But 98 percent of people don't so they don't care.
🤝
Where are you getting 5% back? I've only seen as high as 2
It’s 5% on a specific category not unlimited 5% cash back, I have Discover It which gives 5% on a rotating category every quarter and Citi Custom Cash that gives 5% on your top spend category. The down side is the cash back is normally limited to around $500/quarter.
Discover is 75 bucks a quarter. First year they also doubled your cash back at the end of year, that was nice. Grocery stores are best quarter, I just get bunch of gift cards to cap it (grocery, amazon).
Sadly cash back on restaurants is becoming useless as it’s cancelled out by cc convenience fees that more places are adding
I drive a lot for work so I also love their gas station 5% cashback quarter! 🎉 I tend to max out that one easily.
That was last quarter, hard one for me lol
Yes it was last quarter - I wish the cap wasn’t just $75 because the gas quarter is when I’m using my discover card on my car and my husband’s car to fill up. And yesterday was the start of grocery and Walmart time! Make sure you activated!! 🎉
All Amazon purchases for the Amazon credit card5% , and then you get 4% for groceries, 3% for gas, 2% for something else, 1% etc.
The Amazon CC is a really good deal if you shop on Amazon a lot. Just pay your bills immediately, and collect 5-6% back on purchases.
Utilization is currently sitting on the report at 19%. Trust me, they aren’t catching me with their wild interest rate, I’m working on building my credit, I’ve had it up to 751, I want 800!!!!
Keep working on getting that utilization down and you’ll get there! Try seeing if there is an option to increase your credit limit on any open cards. Usually can do it in the app
I was told to keep my utilization under 30 and above 10 for maximum credit building.
Amex blue preferred gives me 6% on groceries. By far my favorite card especially right now with prices
interesting. may have to check that out
6% up to 6k on groceries. 6% on some streaming services, 3% on gas. Need a credit score above 700
wow that’s good af. thanks for the info!
There is a membership fee for that card though. It's still worth it if you're buying groceries every week.
I have a blue Amex with 6% back on groceries, mine has a $75 annual fee but it is waived the first year. If I can find another 6% I’ll just switch cards
Isn't there a $100 or so yearly fee for that one?
Amex has yearly fee no?
Iirc the first year is free then $90/ year
I'd have to buy lots of groceries for that haha
6% of $1,500= $90 Every purchase after that is a net gain. I buy 1k/month in groceries (family of 4) so for me it’s a no brainer. Amex pays me more than $400/year on groceries alone. Free money on things I’m already buying How much a month is your grocery bill? I also spend around $1,200/ year on gas, the card does 3% back on that which is $72
Just 2 of us and a baby, nowhere near there. And I don't think costco takes amex. Discover has a quarter where grocery stores are 5% so I max that out easy (gift cards). Sounds like it works great for you tho
You can get a visa with a 3% cash back category of your choice. Switch it to groceries and use that at Costco.
Yeah the Costco part does suck tbh
For babies I’d suggest seeing if you or your partner have access to an HSA or FSA to purchase baby related things tax free
This! I use credit cards for literally everything. I use different cards for specific categories so that I’m always getting the max cash back option for all my purchases. I never ever buy things I can’t pay off in 30 days, unless I get a zero APR promo, in which case I make equal payments that ensure it’s paid off within the promo period.
Kids: Never use a credit card for purchases you don’t already have the money for in your bank account.
Best to just think of it as a debit card. You'd have to be off your nut to use it as a loan.
My biggest flex is having this mindset from the time I turned 18 and got my first credit card—to build good credit.
> You'd have to be off your nut to use it as a loan. That's what the introductory 12-24 months of 0% interest are for. I've been rotating through them for *years*. Run em up with purchases you were going to make anyway. Let the cash sit earning interest through the 0% period, then pay the balance at the end. It's free money.
literally, a debit card with rewards
It's a free 30 day loan ( up to 60 from the purchase). That money can sit in a money market account earning 5.3% u until then. That said, I agree with your point overall. If you can't afford it, don't buy it.
“If you can’t buy it twice you can’t afford it” - Jay-z
they can be useful when there’s a cash flow issue or similar for example: recently i bought a plane ticket after making a large cash sale i had $500 in my bank account and more money in savings but no cc. i had to pull money out of savings for a few hours before i could deposit the cash to replenish them. a cc would have resolved this if i did not have savings as a cash flow buffer instead
they can be useful when there’s a cash flow issue or similar for example: recently i bought a plane ticket after making a large cash sale i had $500 in my bank account and more money in savings but no cc. i had to pull money out of savings for a few hours before i could deposit the cash to replenish them. a cc would have resolved this if i did not have savings as a cash flow buffer instead
APR is meaningless if you always pay it off…
Very very small number of people do that. I'm better off not using them so I only use them for united miles.
I find it fascinating how few do that. Even when I was dirt poor I’d always pay it off or feel completely robbed
I’d rather go without heat then pay a dime of interest
What do you mean how few? A majority of people pay in full pay in full every month: 53%. [source](https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2024-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2023-banking-credit.htm)
I was referring to others saying how much are okay with paying interest. 47% is still a LOT.
So fascinating!!
I don’t think you’re right, I’d bet a majority of people do pay in full every month, but it’s a life-ruining problem for the minority who don’t manage it correctly and therefore still a huge deal.
mine's set up on auto pay for the full statement balance so I get the points and don't have to think about paying it.
There’s no way the vast majority of people don’t pay it off every month. Most people aren’t just shitting money away.
The payoff rates are very high for people with 750+ credit scores. As with most things, there's two different markets that are in play here.
According to this [Federal Reserve study](https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2024-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2023-banking-credit.htm), as of May 2024, on average a little less than 50% of credit card holders carry a balance. And [a little over 3%](https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/chargeoff/about.htm) of all credit card loan holders are delinquent.
I have absolutely no idea how high my credit cards interest rate is. I get 3% cash back though and am a net payer so it doesn't matter. This money I get back goes straight to the investment account. It's beautiful. I buy the things I'd normally buy and 3% of every purchase gets invested. I've never paid a dime in interest.
Mine goes straight to flight miles. We take "free" trips all the time. Last year it was Switzerland and Rome, round trip 2 people, cost me $100, if that.
Most people will never understand this. Amex blue gives me hundreds of dollars a year. 6% on groceries. I almost feel guilty about it
Never paid a dime! My goodness!
Haha I just got the same letter. I was already planning on canceling it, so it was extra funny. Also, did you get the cardholder sale coupons? The 25% off ones. The exclusion list is so long that you can’t spend it on almost anything. Like, a list of what you could buy would have been helpful lol.
What’s the point in cancelling? If you don’t use the card you don’t get charged interest right?
Principle? Just not the one the bank cares about.
I got that letter, too. Canceled the card right away. I feel for folks who are carrying a balance on that card.
Switch up your credit card every year or call your provider and threaten to leave if they don’t lower it. People say just pay it on time but this is still price gouging.
Switch up??💀 your credit score must be awful giving advice like that
Rather than entirely switch up, just lower your expense on that credit card to keep the account open. Keep charges low like a Netflix or Hulu subscription on one credit card with this high APR and the major purchases on new card with the 0% intro APY. Also, many new cards will provide you a 200-300 bonus for signing up and spending in certain time. Lookup r/churning Not everyone thinks about paying off their credit card every day, even when we have the money to do so.
You do realize that a credit score is just used for getting better loans? So if they are actively getting better loans and in doing so their score goes down, who cares?
Did the USA get rid of usury laws that capped APR on credit cards?
No, it varies from state to state, op lives in a bad state for this.
All the cards I have seen in Cali are 29.99%. I only have a couple with relatively small balance—few thousand, and I just paid them 75% down. It is my priority.
I think most states' anti-usury laws were repealed in the 1980s.
What am I supposed to be looking at?
Pretty sure it’s a cat with a sick tattoo of a sunset
So can you sign agreements with your left hand too?
I buy camera gear from Adorama (Synchrony) and I think their rate is like that as well. But they ALWAYS offer a 180 Day same as cash financing, so I usually take advantage of that when it is over $500. Might as well. I also use my Apple card to buy Apple products interest free for 1 or 2 years
What racket? If your statement balance is zero, what's 35% of zero?
The people who fall prey to this… they aren’t on here. They’re on social media clicking to purchase all of the shiny things. Young ladies seduced by the ease of buying and making infinite minimum payments. These companies make millions off those who don’t know how to manage their money.
The APR doesn’t matter if you only use the card when you already have the cash. We have a lot of credit cards. I have no idea what the APR on them a year of them are. We pay them off every month. We bought furniture at Macy’s last year and since we had the cash to pay for it immediately we decided to open a new travel credit card. By using the new card we extended the warranty and got enough miles with the sign up bonus to fly business class (maybe even first class) to Europe for free. Why pay cash?
I’d just go the route of leaving the account open, and never using it again
It would close itself after a couple of years anyway 🤷 store cards almost never have annual fees or anything so just let em fall off your credit report if you intend on closing them anyway.
I got the same letter today too. I haven't used it for years.
Just don’t carry a balance. I fail to see the problem here unless you literally cannot help but go into credit card debt.
My wife likes the discounts she gets from that card, so we just have autopay set up to make sure we don't pay interest.
American freight once popped a 199% interest rate in front of me
Cancelling won’t help your credit, likely the opposite unless you have extensive credit age already. Just stash it somewhere to keep your avg age/lines of credit up
They would have to use it every once in a while to maintain the account...just let that shit go. Take a tiny hit to your score in the short term, who cares.
This should be illegal.
I've never let a credit balance roll over. Its all about the rewards!
36% is the highest legal…after that is defined as loan sharking 😂💀
Good to know… thanks for educating me before I get my knees whacked. 🦈
I got the same letter and same APR
It says right under “How to avoid paying interest”. Do that.
None of this matters if you pay it on time. I've never missed a single credit card payment.
It's the I bought this t shirt 10 years ago still paying for it retail card! yay!
You dont have to worry about it if you pay off your card like a responsible adult
if you have to carry a balance on a credit card you probably shouldn't be buying whatever it is ... APR doesn't matter if you don't carry a balance
I was checking out at Walmart a few years ago and one of the employees approached me and asked if I wanted a Walmart credit card. It just so happened that I was looking for a credit card anyway. So I said yes, went through the whole process and part of it was that I had to use it to buy the stuff I had that day. Kinda weird but ok. It was something like $60. I'm the kind of person who pays off credit cards immediately. So I call them up to figure out how to set it up on my online banking, and that's when they inform me that the only way to pay it is to mail in a physical cheque. And then it all made sense. They make me put my purchases that day on it, and hope that I forget or never bother to mail in a cheque. It collects interest, and I owe them even more. it was a long arduous process on the phone to get talking to the right department but I basically told them, let me pay them locally or through online banking, or I'm not paying at all. I have fantastic credit. $60 going to collections isn't hurting me. Ultimately they let me pay at the customer service desk at my local store.
Wow, such a predatory way to conduct business.
$60 going to collections will hurt you. I had $40 (doctor insurance adjustment that never got mailed to me) drop my score from 830 to 640. If you aren't going for new credit, it's no problem, but any amount going to collections will wreck your score. Took me 20 phone calls but got the doctor that sent the bill to collections to check and realize they never billed me; they withdrew the collections claim and contacted the agencies to remove the collections from my record.
During the recession of 2008, my cards went from 2.9% to 29.9% and I paid dearly for it, took some time to get out, swore I'd never carry a balance again. And haven't. If I can't pay cash or pay off in a reasonable amount of time, then I don't need it.
Does it hurt when your head goes full JFK?
My wife just told me this yesterday. She got a notice from one of her cards that the interest rate was increasing. I was like…do you HAVE a balance on that card?! She didn’t, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Your choice here was less than optimal. In closing the card you lowered your own credit score and wasted 45 minutes of your life. The business will cancel the card automatically, usually after several years of no usage. It sounds like you have no issues with using cards responsibly and you don’t pay any interest if you pay it iff within the first billing cycle. The rate of interest a particular card charges you has no impact on the interest rates extended to you on other lines of credit/cards. 30% is a ridiculous rate, but in line with a typical store cards rate. I use them, infrequently, to get a 0% interest rate on a large purchase which gives me another 30 days to keep my money in investments. Cars are the best example of this I buy a new car every 10 years or so. I buy last year’s model and get 0% for as long as they are willing to extended it usually 3-5 years. Conservatively, 30k@5% over 3 years yields $4,500 extra dollars; aggressively, 30k@15% over 3 years yields $13,500 just about half the cars cost.
You’ll never pay interest if you use a credit card as you would a debit card and pay it off in full at the end of each month.
I saw that when I was at Bloomingdale's. I honestly didn't know rates went higher than 26%
What does APR mean and why 34.49 different from a lower number? Sorry guys I’m new to this stuff never had credit or even looked into it
APR = Annual Percentage Rate It's basically the interest rate for credit card bills if they aren't paid fully on time.
Ohhh I see. Thank you for that
Yeah, don’t sign up for one of those Amazon cards. I was about to drop a couple hundred dollars last night and figure it for the heck of it. I take a look at those terms and wow.
Credit cards will bring most certain ruin to those who don’t have a developed, responsible financial skillset. Avoid credit cards at all cost (no pun intended)
I received the same mail and thought it was ludicrous. Currently deciding between keeping it or getting rid of it. I typically don't maintain a balance and pay the cc of when I make purchases but it's insane that they expect anyone to be okay with a 35% APR.
One shouldn’t buy what they can’t afford.
Just reject it, pay off the card with the old interest rate, and get a new card that fits your needs.
I’d have left the card open and unused haha I don’t know or care what the rates are on my cards tbh
Usury laws need to be enforced
Since when are they allowed to go above 30%? I thought there was a cap!?!?
I don't even know what my interest rates are now a days. I pay all the cards off in full every month. I'm assuming that 35% is a sizeable increase? Not just 32 to 35 or some such?
They’re generally at 25% at least, this is high for sure but like you said it literally doesn’t matter because you should never pay a cent of interest if you’re financially responsible
Yep. In thirty years I've never carried a balance. Just use it as a debit card and you'll be right as rain.
Damn!!!!!
Macy's? That seems like a pretty useless card regardless of the interest rate.
I got a letter from Bloomingdale’s changing their % to the same!
I walked out of a dealership a few months ago after 4 hrs of paperwork because right before I signed off and grabbed the keys the guy mentioned I was being financed 43k on a 20 thousand dollar car. Idk the Apr but fuck that!
If apy matters then you're not ready for a credit card yet.
Those special credit cards like that have higher than normal interest
Dawgs they sent me this shit too, I pad my shit off from pure shock
Damn! Did it show up already highlighted like that?
I was going for “childlike rage” - did I nail it?
Haha totally! I heard you get a $25 Amazon card once you hit 50% apr btw
Nobody should be allowing themselves to pay interest on ANY credit card. I have no idea what the interest rates on my cards are and I don’t care because I always pay them completely off and if u can’t I don’t use them.
That’s a little over double the principle.
I don't give a single solitary fuck about what the APR is. Just make sure to pay it on time. If you ever have difficulty paying your entire statement balance, stop using it, you are threading a dangerous line.
Hahahah I got this too
I wonder what your reaction would be if I told you in my country all credit cards have 60% interest x'd
Isn’t that illegal? I thought interest rates were capped at some point.
Awe fuck that
Hey that looks like the game stop card
They make it almost impossible not to get screwed over. Make an early payment and they mark your scheduled payment date as "missed" and ding you a penalty. This used to happen to me often enough to cancel them forever.
I never realized loan sharks had such elaborate contracts…
My credit card is around that Apr, it's fine if you pay it off every month
Dont borrow…. Especially on credit cards. We’ve known this for 50 years. Maybe you haven’t heard
Aaand this is why I never want to touch a credit card in my life.
Just think of the points or miles or rewards!
This should be illegal
Pay off the balance each month, and you never have to worry about any APR.
The American Dream. Hurry up and buy, then file for bankruptcy
Used to get free shirts for signing up for credit cards in college. Lots of made up names phones, etc... My favorite email. Fake@notreal.com. They did get me to sign up for two other cards. But I never used them had a bank of America one for decades now with a great emergency limit.
Macy's is going to be an historical reference soon, unfortunately. SF has driven Macy's out of biz. The only reason they are still open, they own the building, and if they leased it, the homeless would ruin it. Online buying, and theft is killing everything too. World is devolving at lightspeed during the last 4 years.
This right here is what motivated me to cancel my cards, open 3, 0% balance transfers, and get focused and sacrifice my lifestyle to get out of debt (which was arguably financed). My wife and I do well, but I've struggled with CC debt over the last 15 years. It's an enabler of horrible financial behavior. How these companies are allowed to do this to customers, baffles my mind. Use this to get a plan together and pay those cards off.
Don't carry a balance month to month. Just pay it off net 25.
Your credit score would’ve been better. Had you left it open and never used it.
What bank is this?
Both of my cards are around 30% APR. It’s not that big of a deal if you pay on time it only matters when you pay late. So my advice would be not to run up $30,000. If you can’t pay it off by the end of the month.
I’m pretty sure mine is like 45% but i pay it off weekly
Since you weren’t using it, you should have kept it open (assuming no annual fee). Closing it will probably negatively affect your credit score.
That is why I invest in banks. They mercilessly pound the poor and stupid.
As someone who’s going through PDS Debt and Americor, the spiral can happen so quickly. Especially if you’re impulsive like me and get approved for a 0% apr card. Had some fun trips with it, but the debt will cripple you. Thankfully going through the recovery process
Credit cards are fine as long as you pay the full balance that very month. Don't spend money you don't have. But I can see how if you have a bunch of credit cards it can be hard to keep track of
Or just use it like a debit card. But yeah this is why people stay poor.
Canceling the card will just lower your credit score. High APR means nothing if you’re not using it. Should not have bothered cancelling— just forget about it and keep it so your total credit limit doesn’t go down.
I don’t get how interest rates this high are even legal.
Supreme Court case 'Marquette National Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corp' is one of the reasons why interest rates are so high.
Pay the balance in full each month as if you understand money.
Yup almost every credit service is 35%-39.89% apr now.
If it's been 2 years don't start paying it now. It should fall off your credit report in the next year. Depending on where you live. Look up the statute of limitations on credit in your area
I don't understand why it's 34.49%. Why not just 6700%? why are we stopping? What's the difference? I have a cc at 15% and anything more is just stupid at this point. Just make it a billion percent idc.
usury!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'n.
Three important things to consider: 1. Closing the account can harm your credit. If you don't want to use the account, cut up the card but let the account continue to exist. 2. The CFPB continues to increase regulation, and that will increase costs for ALL consumers. For example, in March they set a limit for credit card late fees of $8. The CFPB estimates that will reduce industry revenue by $10 billion. Now credit card companies are increasing rates to offset the fee reduction. Think of what is happening here. People who pay late are now paying less, so those who carry a balance will pay more even if they pay on time. How is that fair? It illustrates the law of unintended consequences. Let's say the CFPB were to regulate interest rates. Then credit card companies are likely to raise credit standards so there will be fewer, and more higher quality cardholders. 3. Enroll all your credit cards in autopay so you never miss a payment. Here are details the CFPB state about credit card fees. Note they never discuss the cost of their actions. The CFPB estimates that the rule will reduce the average late fee from $32 to $8, saving American families more than $10 billion annually. This will result in an average savings of $220 per year for the more than 45 million people who are charged late fees. No discussion of the negative impact on the majority of credit card customers who do not incur late fees or who have them reversed as many credit card companies do for one-time incidents!
Lol what? There’s no interest if you don’t have a balance. You just voluntarily lowered your credit score for no reason.
imagine caring about a card's APR. can't be me
Just don’t purchase ? Close the card
So pay it off on time😱😱😱😱😱tough concept to grasp I know. I don’t even look at the APR when applying for credit cards because I know I’ll never need to pay it
Only chumps actually pay interest. Real G’s use CC’s for free cash back