The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

just so you know in states they do not have debit cards like we do. so a visa check card is like a debit card, where you take money right from your bank account. However, I still agree that credit card companies are evil, along with insurance companies. all bad.
 

SBP,

A guy named Alfonse intecepted your new card and is enjoying his vacation in Thailand at your expense.

You may want to call your provider and double check your new card status.

RBP
 

RBP beat me to the advice... I'd check and make sure there are no charges on that piece of plastic. ESPECIALLY when you lost it in Vegas.
 

KKP's right about the check cards, which I support only because they make it easier to order items online when only Visa or MasterCard are accepted. (A few online stores in Canada now offer an Interac option -- "few" meaning, like, five -- but not all banks participate.) I do hate that Visa ad, though. I'm all for speed and efficiency and what have you, but no one who pays with cash is an idiot -- in fact, this person is probably the smartest one in line.

I'd also like to add that credit cards aimed at teens make me sad. I don't care if they're basically plastic allowances, with parents in control of the amount and bill. By the time these boys and girls are in their twenties, they'll likely have multiple REAL credit cards and still feel as if they're spending someone else's money/getting shit for free (all while avoiding collection agency phone calls). Hold off on getting credit cards as long as you can, kids!
 

Ben, I think you're misenterpretating the commercial - they may not be encouraging debt accumulation, but rather suggesting that it is surprising to see anyone forego the convenience of a credit card. That is my interpretation.

I hole-heartedly disagree with anyone who think banks and credit card companies are "evil businesses". They are by far my favourite businesses - I can't name a single other company that provides me the same level of service and convenience that my bank and credit card companies do - all for the grand total of $0 annually. In fact, many credit cards actually pay you to use them (ie dividend cards, grocery point cards).
Credit card companies are not to blame for people drowning in debt - their users are. Suggesting anything else is simply an attempt to look for a scape...err...sheep.
/rt.
 

RT, I will have to kindly disagree with you.

Banks and credit card companies (which for the most part, are one in the same) lure many clients who have no business getting credit in the first place: students, low-wage earners, the unemployed. They charge outrageous interest rates, more than enough to negate gains from grocery points, and these people are slaves to the bills they get paying the high interest rates assigned. When I was in high school, I managed to get approved for combined credit of nearly $10,000, on $8.00 an hour. How they hell did they approve that much for me???

Now you may say, "Well, they should shop around for a good interest rate". But for people like us, who are low-risk and have good employment, have more options. For someone who has never had a job, or never had credit to begin with, they get real shitty rates. And the lure of the companies showing the low-monthly payment options, make people think that it's for them. Then other things start to happen, for instance, increases in their credit limit that was never asked for. Now some people are addicted to cocaine, some are addicted to cigarettes, and some are addicted to cake (like me, well, the cake part only). And some people are addicted to credit. It's easy to find things you want to buy and charge it and not worry about paying for it right away. North Americans crave materials goods and are bombarded with advertising telling us the more you have, the better you are than your neighbor. So someone who doesn't make a lot of money and can't afford that new plasma, they're going to put it on credit.

Now RT, I know that after you put something on your card, you pay off that bill in a month and you're debt-free from the credit card company immediately. That's how it should work. But, you're the exception more than the rule.

Remember something, and this is a fact that many people in our post-secondary educated circle of friends forget: Most people aren't smart. The average IQ is 100, and if you talk to someone with that IQ, they aren't the CEO of a big corporation. When you hand out credit to people who don't know how to handle it, bad things happen to them, and the banks you love profit from their misery. They need protection (the people, not the banks!).

Credit card companies may not be solely to blame for bankruptcies, but trust me, like the drug dealer who sells crack, they certainly have a hand in it.

Peace out!
 

I don't pay for EVERYTHING with cash either, but for the most part, I'm a cash paying kinda girl. It usually freaks the cashiers for a moment knowing that they will actually have to count change...although the register tells them what to give me. Sick world, eh?