poll on your credit card (s)

[dixiegrrrrl]

Poll question: poll on your credit card (s)

[Bill McBlueState]

1. which banks are the Big 5? n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Big 5: Citibank, Bank of America, HSBC Bank USA, Wells Fargo Bank and JP Morgan Chase.

[Mira]

2. I voted and K&R I want to see the results also ! N/T

[myrna minx]

3. I have stopped using credit cards, but I do owe on 2 cards issued from the big 5.

I'm on track to be out of debt in two years.

[MorningGlow]

4. We have a Bank of America card with a pretty big balance

and I'm pissed off about it. x( My mom is going to help us out with some money in the next month or so (mom rocks), and the first thing we're going to do is pay that bastid off and make every effort not to run up another balance on it. Wish us luck.

We also have a debt-consolidation loan with Capital One. I wanted to pay that one off instead, but the interest rate is less than half the BofA card, so BofA goes first.

[Fresh_Start]

5. other more than one of the above

have community bank and major banks
pay off most cards in full, financing major purchase on one card at 2.99%

[Deja Q]

6. 1 just about paid off, another with a balance (but stopped using voluntarily until paid off)

Apart from the laptop for upcoming school and outside-apartment venues, the big balance CC would otherwise have been paid off next month. The net delay is not terribly long...

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. Never had a credit card, never wanted to.

Thought about getting one for buying online, and renting cars... but then they came out with debit cards. problem solved.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

27. have debit card

[damntexdem]

8. I have Skank of America cards. Still paying on big balances.

But haven't charged on them for years.

[960]

9. I have multiple credit cards with all of the 5 banks and more.

I am in debt about 50% of my annual income.

I am paying them off and closing them left and right.

I don't care if that hurst my credit score. I don't want any more credit. I just don't want these weasles making another penny off of me or calling/harrassing me.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. Welcome to DU and best of luck on your way to debt free...

:hi:

[960]

16. Thank you!

It's great to be here, and I'm well on my way!

:toast:

[mike_c]

10. I'm happy to say that I don't use credit cards....

I use a debit card for those times when plastic is easiest to deal with. And I do have one gasoline company credit card for road emergencies, but I rarely use it and NEVER carry a balance. Living within my means is a really good feeling.

[CTyankee]

Two cards: chase rewards and LL Bean. I pay full balance on each every month and get something

back on each. coupons for clothes plus free shipping/returns on LL Bean. I buy my wardrobe basics from LL Bean so that helps. I get $ back on gas purchases with my chase rewards card. I don't see why I even need another card...

[klook]

11. I have been in credit card debt hell before

and I'm never going there again! I pay mine off *every* single month. If I couldn't pay it off out of available funds I would sell something to raise the cash to pay it off.

I feel sorry for people who are too deep in debt to pay theirs off (just as I was). It's a strangling, oppressive feeling. For anybody with a credit card balance, paying it off should be among your foremost financial priorities. It took me years, but I finally whittled my balance down to $0, and it goes back to $0 every month.

BTW, on the big-picture implications of high credit card rates, I highly recommend an article in the April 2009 issue of Harper's, Infinite debt: How unlimited interest rates destroyed the economy by Thomas Geoghegan.

Do you know what credit card companies call customers who pay off their balance in full every month? Deadbeats. That's right -- deadbeats. Because they can't make exorbitant profits at our expense. If that's what a deadbeat is, I hope to be one the rest of my life.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. Thank you for that link....and I agree with your post.

Horrible smothered feeling to be in debt.

We are not in debt now, have not been for some time, but I find I have to watch my internet buying. The "little" purchases add up.

[Adsos Letter]

14. AmEx, Discover... pay full balance monthly.

[DemReadingDU]

17. I have GM credit card, and pay it off monthly. n/t

[nichomachus]

18. I don't consider them "credit cards." I consider them "charge cards"

There is a difference. I put my expenses on the cards and pay them off at the end of the month. That way, I don't have to carry a lot of cash and I don't have to write a lot of checks. I also get a statement that shows me where my money went, and I don't have to balance my checkbook (which I'm really lousy at). But I never use them to borrow money from month to month. I never buy anything I don't have the cash to pay for.

And I get fabulous prizes for using the cards.

[rhett o rick]

19. I have credit cards in both top 5 Banks and local CU, but could only vote once. nm

[Froward69]

20. ONE credit card

that i use once a month... it is the oldest account I have. i pay off far more than the interest and balance each month. I usually use it for appliance purchases. otherwise I pay cash. the interest is 29.99 as I mailed a payment in late about a year ago...

5 years ago i told
AM express
Discover
and others to pound sand.
my credit number jumped up that following year.

[robinlynne]

21. american express...

[cascadiance]

22. Yes, these guys just applied to be a "bank" to get bailout money, they should be added!

And they are one of the worst bastards with their policies now too!

[barbtries]

23. i haven't had a credit card

since the 90s.

[Shadoobie]

24. Chase

I used to not have a credit card from the big five but my original Providian card became WAMU and is now owned by Chase. It used to be a fixed interest (decent rate) card but with the Chase acquisition it is now variable and at a higher rate. I will probably dump it after I pay it off over the next couple of months.

I knew WAMU was going to get into financial trouble for awhile. About a year ago, I had paid off the credit card and included some extra to account for the interest. I was off and ended up paying 1 cent too much. No big deal but a a couple of months later, I received a check from WAMU because of the credit. A check for $0.01!?! It cost them more to send it to me. Not really surprised when WAMU was bought out by Chase.

Greg

[ms liberty]

25. We have a Capital One card, and they've recently pissed us off, particularly mr liberty!...

I voted in the other column, because Capital One isn't really one of the big 5 (I think).


They've pissed us off by suddenly raising our interest rate, even though we have not been late on our payments, and are nowhere near our limit. We do have a balance on it, but we pay more than the minimum each month.

[starroute]

26. I didn't realize my Sears card was Citibank till a week or two ago

It started off years ago as a Sears store card, then became a MasterCard but said "Sears National Bank" on the statements. I didn't look closely until they jacked up the interest rates a few weeks back -- and I still don't know when it switched to Citibank, or if it was that way all along down in the fine print.

I used to use a different Citibank MasterCard, which had started off as my husband's local bank card back in the 60's. I switched to using the Sears MasterCard because they seemed more trustworthy -- but now I'm seriously thinking about getting out.

I do pay the balance off every month -- but they've also started sending the statements closer and closer to the due date. Even though the statement is available online around the 11th of the month, it doesn't show up in the mail until the 21st or later -- and the payment has to be in the mail by around the 26th. That doesn't give much of a window, and in December, when Christmas slowed things down even further, I had to drive over to Sears Hardware and pay it in person to get it in before the due date.

I like using the credit card for things like my automatic fuel oil and satellite tv payments -- I think bank account auto-deductions pose too much of a risk for errors and overdrafts -- but it's becoming more and more of a hassle.

[DeschutesRiver]

28. For the last 30 years, our credit card with one of the regional banks is paid off monthly

if and when we use it. A matter of easier bookkeeping for us - if they ever get sticky about those of us who use but pay off in full monthly, we'll just quit using the card, as it is only for convenience, not for the revolving credit function. I'd also use credit for emergencies as well, if money couldn't be raised any other way and we had to have it for purposes of our basic needs due to a catastrophic event or medical situation.

I just closed an account at BOA - teller needed two pieces of id, asked specifically for my "debit card". Told her I didn't have one, and at first, she said she didn't believe it. I said believe this, I have never had a debit card in 51 years on the planet, and haven't had an atm card or carried a balance on a credit card since I was 18 and experienced how easy it was to be waste money and carry credit too easily for things that didn't matter in the long run. We didn't even take the credit card they'd offered us when we'd bought a CD there a couple of years ago - they offered a bunch of things, like the free checking, mm, & debit/credit/atm cards because of the CD.

I felt like a freaking dinosaur after that conversation. But I never liked the understanding that stuff I buy with other people's money is stuff that is still owned by strangers with a cold heart, until I pay it off. So I avoid it as much as possible.

[CoffeeCat]

29. We have no credit cards...only a debit card...(nt)

[AwakeAtLast]

30. I have NO credit cards!

It took a damn long time and two small interest loans (thanks Dad!), but I finally paid off what I owed about ten years ago. One divorce was all it took to run up those balances, BTW.

I am not going to say it has been easy living without credit cards, but I am very glad I've not bowed to temptation again!