Credit Cards

[secret_no_03 959]

It's said that the average American (I'm sure this goes for several other countries (looking at you Japan where I've read people in Japan may have as many as ten credit cards) has at least 4 credit cards active at any given time and upwards of $15K in debt. So, my question is as follows. Do you have a credit card, if so how many and how much debt do you owe on it, what's the credit limit and why do you have one? Also, if you don't have a credit card, why not?

 

I currently have two, and I can't wait to get them paid off and cut them up, and I'm one step closer since paying off my phone a few months ago.

[Duwang 676]

I have just one and I have zero debt because I prefer to buy things when I actually have the money for them so I only use it in emergencies and pay it off the next month or two.
As for the credit limit, I have no idea but I have never gotten remotely near it.

Edited March 30, 2020 by Duwang

[Mihenno 4195]

30 minutes ago, secret_no_03 said:

the average American has at least 4 credit cards active at any given time and upwards of $15K in debt.

I never understood why my friends have like 4-6 active credit cards. If I don't have money to buy something, I'm not buying it.

 

I have 1 card and I use it for EVERYTHING to rack up the points. I pay it off every month and refuse to ever be in debt. The credit limit on it is only $8,300.

Debt scares me and Idk how my friends can just continue on like they're not drowning in it.

[secret_no_03 959]

11 minutes ago, Mihenno said:

I never understood why my friends have like 4-6 active credit cards. If I don't have money to buy something, I'm not buying it.

 

I have 1 card and I use it for EVERYTHING to rack up the points. I pay it off every month and refuse to ever be in debt. The credit limit on it is only $8,300.

Debt scares me and Idk how my friends can just continue on like they're not drowning in it.

You only get on average 1% back on purchases, so it'd take like 100K to get back 1000 in points and I've heard most people don't even use their free airline miles. I mean technically wouldn't you save money if you got rid of the card, didn't have the payment period and used that money on something else? I mean besides points what advantage does a credit card have over a debt card or cold hard cash? Genuinely interested in your pov. 

[Mihenno 4195]

1 hour ago, secret_no_03 said:

You only get on average 1% back on purchases, so it'd take like 100K to get back 1000 in points and I've heard most people don't even use their free airline miles. I mean technically wouldn't you save money if you got rid of the card, didn't have the payment period and used that money on something else? I mean besides points what advantage does a credit card have over a debt card or cold hard cash? Genuinely interested in your pov. 

I have Chase Sapphire and get 2X points for dining and travel. Within the last year, I've traveled quite a bit (Norway, Japan, AZ, NY, etc) and the card has been great for this. Besides the fact that it's thick and weighted and feels nice to hold, it's been pretty good to me for the travel purpose. I pay for airfare, hotel, food, and everyone else just gives me their share but then it's like the entire purchase is put on the card even though not all of that is mine but I'm getting all the points for it. I currently have 98,000 points which I could cash in for $980 or redeem it for airfare and get an additional 25% out of it.  I'm holding on to it for now because I won't be going anywhere anytime soon (with Corona virus and all).

 

I do have a debit card, but I rarely use that now because I don't get points with it. To answer your question: to me, there's really no advantage other than accumulating points/cash back. There's no real difference if I used my debit card or my credit card. Both end up pulling money from my checking account. With the debit card, that money is obviously pulled right away, but with the credit card, I just end up pulling what I charged on the credit card all in one payment at the end of the month. 

 

Sorry I feel like im rambling at this point lmao. So basically the reason I got my current credit card is because it's weighted and not paper thin and 2x points for food/travel.

[Seimeisen 4406]

I have one credit card and I try to keep my balance under $400. I prefer using my credit card because I get phone notifications for every purchase, and, y'know, points. I only get 1.5% back, but it beats only getting 1% back occasionally on debit. I usually only use debit if I'm making a hefty purchase (high credit usage can affect your credit score), gas (at stations that charge cash price for debit users), and car insurance (because I have to). I pay cash for my share of the mortgage and my car loan (it's a weird story) and that's about it.

 

Having a credit card has not been a problem for me, because my card has no fee, I avoid overspending, I pay my bills on time and in full, and my credit limit is a fraction of what I have in my checking account. If someone's buying things with their card that they can't afford, I will assume that they're either a) going through an unforeseen financial crisis, or b) dangerously irresponsible with money.

 

2 hours ago, Mihenno said:

I never understood why my friends have like 4-6 active credit cards

People I know who have multiple credit cards tend to designate a different purpose for each card. They'll have one card that gets maximum points on certain buys, another card that gets good points for others, at least one of them is Visa or MC, at least one of them doesn't have foreign transaction fees (if they're travellers, or weebs like us), and sometimes a business credit card.

 

9 minutes ago, Mihenno said:

it's thick and weighted and feels nice to hold

omg I LOOOOOVE thicc credit cards, I want one so bad 🤩

[platy 3018]

No credit card and no debt for me. I prefer to pay everything up front and have been lucky to not need to resort to a credit card so far. I'm not good with numbers and finance mumbo jumbo so it's better to keep it simple 😅

[Zeus 7997]

Two credit cards, like $30 in debt.

[Arkady 396]

No credit cards. I like to see first hand how much money I'm spending. (here lately they are trying from above to push credit cards and similar non corporeal money, and I imagine that with time maybe they'll succeed, but us italian are culturally VERY attached to paper money)

 

The only card (issued by our postal service) I have is a rechargable one where you cannot go in debt because you can only use the money you have in it, and I use it only for internet purchases.

[secret_no_03 959]

9 hours ago, Mihenno said:

I have Chase Sapphire and get 2X points for dining and travel. Within the last year, I've traveled quite a bit (Norway, Japan, AZ, NY, etc) and the card has been great for this. Besides the fact that it's thick and weighted and feels nice to hold, it's been pretty good to me for the travel purpose. I pay for airfare, hotel, food, and everyone else just gives me their share but then it's like the entire purchase is put on the card even though not all of that is mine but I'm getting all the points for it. I currently have 98,000 points which I could cash in for $980 or redeem it for airfare and get an additional 25% out of it.  I'm holding on to it for now because I won't be going anywhere anytime soon (with Corona virus and all).

 

I do have a debit card, but I rarely use that now because I don't get points with it. To answer your question: to me, there's really no advantage other than accumulating points/cash back. There's no real difference if I used my debit card or my credit card. Both end up pulling money from my checking account. With the debit card, that money is obviously pulled right away, but with the credit card, I just end up pulling what I charged on the credit card all in one payment at the end of the month. 

 

Sorry I feel like im rambling at this point lmao. So basically the reason I got my current credit card is because it's weighted and not paper thin and 2x points for food/travel.

Ah, okay. Well it makes sense if that's all you use, but studies have shown people spend way more with a credit card than they do with debit and way more than cash because when you use cards there's no discomfort like what you get when you have to hand over individual paper money/coins. Just some food for thought, glad you pay it off though. If you don't mind my asking, what's your credit score at this point?

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

11 minutes ago, secret_no_03 said:

If you don't mind my asking, what's your credit score at this point?

don't answer this question

[secret_no_03 959]

23 minutes ago, Peace Heavy mk II said:

don't answer this question

Not sure how it's a big deal, I was just curious, the higher the score the more someone had been very good at paying debt for a long time and the lower you're either drowning or in some cases, when you get rid of cards, your score will slowly decrease down to 0. 

[saishuu 3220]

so no one is gonna question why some random guy in a weeb forum is asking people about their credit cards and their credit scores and limits like that's normal? no one? okay

[secret_no_03 959]

58 minutes ago, saishuu said:

so no one is gonna question why some random guy in a weeb forum is asking people about their credit cards and their credit scores and limits like that's normal? no one? okay

Really curious about how one could benefit in a criminal way by asking about that stuff. Not like I'm going to be asking folks for a loan or something. I entirely ask to get a perspective on everyone else, there's people all over the world here and people from every country tend to act differently in terms of how they use credit cards. I literally only asked about scores and limits because of my own. I have a 653 and a 5000 limit on one and 1500 on another, and sadly both keep getting maxed out as I'm underwater when Murphy comes around and I don't have an emergency fund. 🤷‍♂️

[Naaaaani 1173]

I've got only one with near $5k limit. No problems with it, I always keep my debt in range of 0-300.

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

What forum is this again 

[saishuu 3220]

1 hour ago, secret_no_03 said:

Really curious about how one could benefit in a criminal way by asking about that stuff. Not like I'm going to be asking folks for a loan or something. I entirely ask to get a perspective on everyone else, there's people all over the world here and people from every country tend to act differently in terms of how they use credit cards. I literally only asked about scores and limits because of my own. I have a 653 and a 5000 limit on one and 1500 on another, and sadly both keep getting maxed out as I'm underwater when Murphy comes around and I don't have an emergency fund. 🤷‍♂️

you just want to compare very sensitive financial information with others in a forum about Japanese music, in a very unstable situation worldwide no less suuure. from discussing politics with very questionable views months ago to then vanishing from the forums after new rules were set and then returning all of sudden creating a discusstion about credit scores? there's nothing shady about you at all!

[CAT5 9075]

There seems to be some confusion here. Allow me to elucidate some things:

 

There is nothing wrong with this thread. Yes, MH is primarily a Japanese Music forum, but we created all of these different subforums FOR A REASON. If you are not interested in taking part of this discussion, then don't. It's as simple as that.

 

People who are not staff members have no business trying to dictate what content/discussions should or should not be posted here. Stay in your lane.

[secret_no_03 959]

52 minutes ago, saishuu said:

you just want to compare very sensitive financial information with others in a forum about Japanese music, in a very unstable situation worldwide no less suuure. from discussing politics with very questionable views months ago to then vanishing from the forums after new rules were set and then returning all of sudden creating a discusstion about credit scores? there's nothing shady about you at all!

Well I have no reason to need to defend myself to you, but since you're calling my motivation into question, I left because I got out of VK for a bit, which happens from time to time as my musical interests are cyclical and this coronavirus and the discussion I knew it would bring about was the other part. So, I'm back because of my inescapable love of VK and real world discussions. 😁 There's plenty more things to talk about than politics in a forum of adults.

[secret_no_03 959]

2 hours ago, Naaaaani said:

I've got only one with near $5k limit. No problems with it, I always keep my debt in range of 0-300.

I could kick myself every time for getting limit increases over the past nearly 5 years I've had my oldest card. Glad you're able to reign it in.

[heresytrash 250]

I only have my debit/credit card, and never go over my budget and keep my checking at a comfortable spot. I always make sure to have savings as well in case, which came in handy when we had a family emergency and I suddenly needed to fork over 800 dollars almost for housing. 

I only have rent and utilities to pay for right now, and I use transit so I don't drive so that helps a little bit with my saving. I know once I learn to drive and get my own car I'll have to rework it, but I don't see the need for 4 credit cards. 

[solaris05 53]

I do fall into the range of Americans who have more than 1 credit card, but I don't have THAT many. I have a pretty good limit on both but I do NOT overspend and max out cards. I first got one when I started working as a teenager because I wanted to start building good credit since that's pretty important in America. Spend only what you can afford to pay back etc etcccc. It's useful for emergencies.

 

please don't max out credit cards for bands yo lmao

[secret_no_03 959]

19 minutes ago, solaris05 said:

I do fall into the range of Americans who have more than 1 credit card, but I don't have THAT many. I have a pretty good limit on both but I do NOT overspend and max out cards. I first got one when I started working as a teenager because I wanted to start building good credit since that's pretty important in America. Spend only what you can afford to pay back etc etcccc. It's useful for emergencies.

 

please don't max out credit cards for bands yo lmao

Same, the ONLY reason I got one to begin with was because I was told that I need to get one, need to build credit, need credit for pretty much everything in America supposedly, but I took advice from family, family who had filed bankruptcy, a mother who had 20 credit cards at one point, and a marketing culture that prays on the young and impressionable. Excuse my French, but my fucking APR is 26.40% on the 5k and 24.24% on the 1,5k one, and I've been told that that's insane and an apr should be around 10-15%, but I had no idea when I signed up because like I'm sure everyone knows, they don't teach this in school and they market credit cards to young people and anyone can get one including the dead and pets. 😫

[solaris05 53]

1 hour ago, secret_no_03 said:

Same, the ONLY reason I got one to begin with was because I was told that I need to get one, need to build credit, need credit for pretty much everything in America supposedly, but I took advice from family, family who had filed bankruptcy, a mother who had 20 credit cards at one point, and a marketing culture that prays on the young and impressionable. Excuse my French, but my fucking APR is 26.40% on the 5k and 24.24% on the 1,5k one, and I've been told that that's insane and an apr should be around 10-15%, but I had no idea when I signed up because like I'm sure everyone knows, they don't teach this in school and they market credit cards to young people and anyone can get one including the dead and pets. 😫

Ooooof yeah thats dangerous. Most people dont know much about it so it just goes downhill into that debt