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Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic

wsj.com

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Re: Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic

#111

Post by johansch »

joslin01 wrote: post #96
askldfhjkasfhd wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on how you perceive the difference between the two examples here? Being financially foolish and negligent seem both to apply to your experience. "Was I being outright financially foolish ordering $100 bottles of Chardonnay at the club? Not at all. Was I being financially negligent ordering whatever small thing came my way that I wanted?"

Outright as in "completely" or "immediately" financially foolish is like going to the club with your friends and announcing drinks are on you. My negligence (as in, I didn't stay on top of it as good as I should have) I meant as more drawn out and not so painfully obvious. It's like a hole in a boat that you keep meaning to get around to, but hey the boat's still moving just fine.

You pretty much fit the description of a financially irresponsible person, I have to say, I'm afraid. (You seem to be aware too so that's good I guess.)

Re: Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic

#112

Post by toomuchtodo »

damptowel wrote: post #98
JonFish85 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit card debt probably isn't the "earliest" signal of that. We've been running pretty solid federal deficits for going on 40 years now -- that's probably a good indication that people feel that they deserve more than they pay for.

Governments have been running deficits for 5000 years, it's how currency is established.

US citizens are binging on credit to make up for stagnant wages. That's not a theory, that's a fact. First it was housing, now its credit card and auto loan debt.

Fun fact: Subprime auto loan bonds are in a slow motion trainwreck:

http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/15/investing/subprime-unpaid-au...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-21/this-is-wh...

Re: Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic

#113

Post by nostrebored »

conception wrote: post #89
xhrpost wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Median is $2,300 which brings this into perspective a bit more. http://www.valuepenguin.com/average-credit-card-debt

Thanks for this. Was about to go nuts about how useless an average is on this sort of thing.

Well the median is an average so...

And honestly both averages should be presented together, paints a terrifying picture

Re: Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic

#114

Post by electroly »

throwawaykeno wrote: post #63
harryh wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ya, I've seen these. It seems like the fee would likely be more than the value of the reward making it a losing proposition? Just wondering if the OP found a better way.

The land lord I use allows paying with plastic. There is a ~2% fee. It's better than a wash financially, but just barely. But it's net win for me even when it's a wash because I don't have to worry about mailing a check every month. FWIW in months when I buy expensive plane tickets or make reimbursed purchases I skip paying rent with the CC.

If you just don't want to mail a check every month, you don't need to go as far as a credit card and paying a 2% fee. Your bank should have a bill-pay feature, and they will cut a check and mail it on your behalf. Usually this is a completely free service and can be done on an automatic schedule.

Re: Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic

#115

Post by blindfly »

JoshGlazebrook wrote: post #109
throwaway9574 wrote: post #106

I know some may criticize this, but I cut up my credit card soon after moving into my first apartment. My wife and I use debit cards exclusively, but I know it's only a matter of time before our card numbers get skimmed online or through a hacked terminal. Does anyone know of any measures we could take to minimize the effects when that does happen?

(not affiliated in any way) but privacy.com lets you hook up to your bank account and lets you generate one time use card numbers for individual bills, etc. They recently expanded to 15,000 banks/credit unions. It won't help with physical card skimming, but for online stuff it can. https://privacy.com/ Another option is to use one credit card, and only use it for bills/budgeted expenses and NOTHING more. Then just pa…

Not affiliated either but I love privacy.com! I've been using them since I saw it on HN a few weeks back and no looking back. I regularly get to exchange messages with the team and they've fixed many bug reports in record time (nothing serious, just finicky stuff).

Unlike my credit card companies who refuse to get with the program and show me auths and captures in somewhat real time. Having to wait days to find out what went through is such a joke. I thought cards were supposed to be easier... if I spent $10 in cash I know I've spent $10, with a CC I wait 3 days and find out butterfingers misplaced the decimal and I'm left trying to hunt down $1000.00 that's now on my account while I'm miles away.

Re: Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic

#116

Post by blfr »

koenigdavidmj wrote: post #35
siscia wrote: post #27

Honest question. There aren't debit cards in the united states? They are simple plastic cards like credit carda but the bank is withdrawing your money directly from your account. There is not debt involved.

Even those of us who don't carry a balance often prefer credit for the additional fraud protection features. Can't do a chargeback on a debit card.

You can definitely do a chargeback on a debit card. It's just that you have to pay first and then get it back later.

Re: Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic

#117

Post by dionidium »

nametakenobv wrote: post #85
superuser2 wrote: post #58

I propose that credit card debt is simply the earliest signal of "not making enough money to sustain the life you think of as normal." We have not yet come to terms with the fact that the overwhelming majority of people outside of a tiny sliver of elites are going to be lucky to afford bare subsistence in the years to come. Credit card debt lets us delay confrontation with the reality that wages have not grown enough…

Please stop with this heart-breaking narrative about the unequal in income, starving americans. It's about iphones and clothes, not groceries.

iPhones and new clothes are exactly the kinds of things that the middle classes can't really afford, but think of as normal.

Re: Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic

#118

Post by [deleted] »

winslow wrote: post #80
prostoalex wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is correct, the total outstanding debt was down as of year ago (side benefit of lower gas prices leaving more cash in the pockets of consumers), but the article mentions the banks have revved up their credit card distribution since then: "Because many creditworthy consumers are still cautious about spending, lenders are turning more aggressively to subprime borrowers. Lenders issued some 10.6 million general-pur…

So we are back at the subprime lending model. Correct me if I am wrong but from my understanding this is what ultimately caused (or one of the biggest factors along with adjustable rate mortgages) the housing collapse and economic downturn circa 2007/2008. So how is this subprime lending any different via the credit cards? We could hypothesize that credit card debt won't be as massive as mortgage debt and thus may no…

[deleted]

Re: Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic

#119

Post by shogun21 »

throwaway9574 wrote: post #106

I know some may criticize this, but I cut up my credit card soon after moving into my first apartment. My wife and I use debit cards exclusively, but I know it's only a matter of time before our card numbers get skimmed online or through a hacked terminal. Does anyone know of any measures we could take to minimize the effects when that does happen?

Credit cards have much greater fraud protection than debit cards. In the few times someone made a fraudulent purchase on my credit card, they instantly messaged me to confirm, then removed the charge and mailed me a new card/number.

Re: Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic

#120

Post by dionidium »

JonFish85 wrote: post #91
superuser2 wrote: post #58

I propose that credit card debt is simply the earliest signal of "not making enough money to sustain the life you think of as normal." We have not yet come to terms with the fact that the overwhelming majority of people outside of a tiny sliver of elites are going to be lucky to afford bare subsistence in the years to come. Credit card debt lets us delay confrontation with the reality that wages have not grown enough…

Credit card debt probably isn't the "earliest" signal of that. We've been running pretty solid federal deficits for going on 40 years now -- that's probably a good indication that people feel that they deserve more than they pay for.

Analogies from federal budgets to household ones are specious at best
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