re: I promise I'm trying to think about CC interest.

Those of you griping about how irresponsible people are with credit cards aren’t discussing how predatory banks are with credit cards: who they target, where they target them, how they target them, and the fact that banks are not required to educate people how much they could end up paying in interest charges. (i.e., introductory bonus points, 0% introductory offers, etc.)

Or discussing the fact that you have to establish a credit history before you can buy anything else necessary for modern life: cars, homes, appliances and furniture.

Banks are required to show the total cost of all other loans including interest. Why aren’t they required to do it for credit cards? A simple table of how much you end up paying on different balances if you only pay the minimum payments would suffice.

Government doesn’t exist to keep people from being stupid, nor should it…

Usury was illegal through almost all of our history

I think a portion of Americans get in trouble with CCs is they don't have enough to make ends meet - for a variety of reasons - some non-sensical, no doubt.

I hate the darn things. Only use when ordering on line. Have been enslaved to them in the past and hopefully never again

You have to scroll down for his stuff about credit cards.

I will agree the rates can get ridiculous

I have a 2.5 million dollar line of credit for my farm at 8% interest


I have a CC with 10k limit with 22% interest

Although the farm LOC is secured with 50% hard collateral

All my home expenses (mortgage, utilities, car payments) come out of a joint account but everything else is charged to a credit card then paid off when the statement comes in. If they're going to give you points for every transaction and you were going to spend the money anyway why not use them and have the benefits of stronger fraud protections than debit cards to boot? I have zero credit card debt. We don't spend money we couldn't afford to pay for when the bill comes due.

With that said, the interest rates on credit cards are laughably high but when you hear stories about people financing cars on credit card level interest rates...you know that most Americans are not the most financially literate and get themselves over the barrel with banks routinely.

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I will agree the rates can get ridiculous

I have a 2.5 million dollar line of credit for my farm at 8% interest


I have a CC with 10k limit with 22% interest

Although the farm LOC is secured with 50% hard collateral

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That is the conundrum with credit cards. The bank is truly taking less risk with their 2.5m LOC than the 10k credit card because of the secured assets tied to the former. They deserve to account for their risk however a customer such as yourself ought to be able to get a better deal on the credit card than they offer.

I've got to assume your credit score is as good as mine if not better and it is insane that they even bother keeping the rates they do on my cards because they're never going to see a dime of interest from me anyway...they make all their money off my transaction fees from the businesses.

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Caps will just limit financiers allowing people with higher risk to get credit.

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The danger here is when the banking lobbyists tell Anna and AOC that their customer base will decrease with theses CC interest rate caps so in order to maintain our high risk CC holders with lower rates the federal government will have to absorb some of that risk. Not good.

Credit cards are great if they are used correctly. You just can’t afford to charge anything you can’t pay for the next billing cycle. If you can’t pay it off in 30 days you have a problem. Maybe have 2 cards, one with a relatively low interest rate used for emergencies or for bigger ticket items you can’t pay for in 30 days and a second one that is used for anything you can pay for on the due date.

The CC companies of course love the folks that only pay the minimum balance. The CC companies hate those who pay the card off 100% on the due date. With electronic payment now there is no excuse in being late on a CC payment. Be a customer the CC companies hate.

There has to be disclipine when using such a powerful tool as a credit card. Just because your car can go 120 mph doesn’t mean you should try it. Set a personal limit and adhere to it.