I started a series of posts on Remembering Why I Don’t Want Another Credit Card to help keep track of the things I read that cause me to think to myself, “I never want to deal with a credit card company again!“. That was a start, but not quite the right solution to my problem since I would have to go digging through single posts when I want to review the list. So…I started a page, Credit Card Stories, with a list of articles, news stories, resources, or anything else that causes me to remember the phrase “I never want to deal with a credit card company again!“.
For the record, I do not think that credit cards are evil, though I do think that most credit card companies are evil (or at least dirty) and personally I want nothing more to do with them.
A few people successfully game the system and earn money with their credit cards (playing what is commonly known as credit card arbitrage). Go right ahead if that floats your boat, but I don’t want to invest my time keeping tabs of every little transaction, changes in policy, or dealing with customer service at a credit card company when they inevitably make a mistake and try to steal my money.
You can’t argue that people make money with this game, but I’ve never read biographies of the rich getting rich by playing credit card arbitrage. I’ll try to make my wealth the old fashioned way and I think achieving wealth will be much easier if credit card companies don’t have a part in my financial life.
For the vast majority of people, credit cards do not help you to achieve financial freedom! If you carry a balance, your finances are moving in the wrong direction. You need the power of compound interest working for you, not against you, to become wealthy. Credit cards may seem like part of the American Way, but they don’t have to be.
Visit the Credit Card Stories page for some inspiration to say goodbye to credit cards and feel free to send me links to include in the list. I know I have missed a lot of good articles and I will be updating the list indefinitely.
By Eden, Sun 6 Jan 2008, 6 Comments, Categories: Credit Cards
January 6th, 2008 at 5:35 pm | Frugal Dad said:
I’m with you, credit card marketing and collection practices are downright dirty, even if their tool isn’t necessarily bad. I actually used to work for the enemy (credit card company) and I saw first-hand the way they treat people.
January 6th, 2008 at 5:37 pm | Eden said:
@Frugal Dad – Interesting, you must know all the dirty secrets then.
January 7th, 2008 at 9:13 am | Sandy said:
I don’t have time right now to read your article – looks like a good one, so will later. But I’ve commented before on your site, and wanted to share something that happened to me personally. When I was on vacation, I charged $135 on my credit card. I do online banking. I have a 0 balance, so as soon as the charge appeared, I transferred funds from my checking account to pay for it. Well, day after day after day passed and my balance wasn’t at 0 yet. So I called them and they said: “Oh about a month ago, we changed our policy so that when you make a payment, it won’t get posted until your due date.” And then she actually laughed. I said I didn’t think it was funny and why didn’t they send their customers an e-mail notifying them? I realize this isn’t a big deal, but for someone like me who keeps a 0 balance, I feel like they are still screwing me because I wasted time having to call them and checking on my balance every day.
I would love to get rid of this credit card, but I use it to hold hotel reservations and air travel. Is there a way that someone can do those things without a credit card? I would appreciate any feedback about that, like rental cars, too because to have the credit card people/policies off my back would bring me greater peace than I could probably imagine.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:46 pm | Eden said:
@Sandy – that sounds like another dirty trick! Thanks for sharing.
About traveling without a credit card- I have rented a car without a credit card before, but not recently. I am going on vacation this summer and I will be paying for airfare, a hotel, and a rental car all without credit cards (I haven’t used one since September) so I will be sure to write about how all of that goes.
January 10th, 2008 at 10:39 am | kitty said:
Sandy, so what happened on the due date? Did the payment appear then? If yes, then what is the problem? Maybe their computer is programmed to take off the payment from the “amount due” column in the database not the “new charges” column. Why is this a dirty trick?
They haven’t charged you interest, right, they haven’t lost your payment, so they didn’t gain anything.
If you really want to avoid all possible problems, you can simply sign up for automated payment of the full balance with the credit card company. Then they deduct the necessary amount exactly on the due date; you are guaranteed never to be late regardless of the due date. This is what I do and it works like charm.