credit cards, cash advance and title loans!

Echoing webdog, what is it about borrowing and lending that make it inherently unwise?

 

Thank you, menageriekeeper, I appreciate your perspective.

I'm still not sure that there is something inherently wrong with borrowing and lending, but I do recognize that it can lead to some very bad things on both sides when good judgment isn't used.

 

We do the exact same thing...never give expecting it back if it does come back thank God if not no hard feeling and reuined relationships. :thumbs:

Very good OP, since I find it amazing that many christians find nothing wrong with being in debt they cannot pay or filing for bankruptcy, which is really stealing.

It is ok to borrow if you are able to make your payments each month and if you know you can pay it off within a certain amount of time. We know if we put a big purchase on our card (as we only have one) that we can pay it off within six months or less.

I know people have hardships or are self employed...and in that case they should LIVE knowing this and adjusting to that lifestyle.

Good example we know a family with seven kids and the husband will not work in a real work enviorment for whatever reasons. So he has chosen to do a job fixing one computer part which can be all around the world at times. But it only happens once in a while and now that technology has advance that part is no longer needed. Anyway one year he made ALOT of money and instead of saving that money or putting some of it towards health insurance for the kids (they had NONE) they went to Africa all 9 of them and spent the money shooting over 15 animlas and bringing their heads and skins home (must have cost a fortune) pearl earings and necklesses etc. etc. well after six months later he hasn't worked since (it's been over a year) and one of their kids died from cancer...they didn't have health insurance to take the kid to the doctors thinking he had growing pains. And now they will lose their house that they have 2nds and 3rds on and a brand new BMW car payment (he bought his wife a bmw car since she always wanted one) went towards the house. Now they will lose it all.

I say that is very poor mangement and they didn't live within their means...which many Amercians find hard to do. And yes they are christians who think God will get them out of this and they tend to depend on others to help...God knows we did many times till we saw the pattern

 

I'm sure they get their money a vast majority of the time or they wouldn't be in business.

I've worked in Rent-to-own which is generally along the same lines as some of the businesses you are referring to so I've seen the other side of things. My first reaction to your story was to wonder why your friend vouched for the women to begin with. You say these folks no she doesn't have an income? They asked a reference, didn't they? Did he lie?

I can also say that these places do not want people to over-extend. I know, that sounds strange given all the money people pay them, but who is the first to lose if the person can't pay? Our store manager had the final decision regarding approving a rental agreement. He was a pretty cold guy, I admit, but even he had to think, "how much will I spend having to collect from these people?" Making money is the goal of any business and if these businesses over-extend their customers, they lose them.

I think our most Christian response is to teach people wise borrowing and spending practices. You can't imagine how many "good Christian folks" would lie and cheat their way around me to keep me from repo-ing their TV.

 

Helen, your post (#3) is excellent. It covered many aspects of the topic in a simple, helpful manner. It is very, very important that we manage money well.

Yesterday I signed up for a credit card at a local store to save 10%. They are hoping I'll shop there more often, use my card, and occasionally pay them some interest on my purchases. I'll probably just tear the card up. You have to be very careful, because even honest business people try to draw you in and get you doing business with them in ways that benefit their bottom line.

 

Just keep in mind that acts like this actually hurt you and cost you more in the long run even if you do just tear it up, because the mere fact that you applied affected your credit score. If you use credit in the future, you could find yourself not getting as good of interest rates due to credit score hits like this.

Should this be a big surprise? It's called "capitalism"... EVERYTHING works that way, get used to it. Everything in business is done to get you to do something that affects their bottom line. This is why that quote I mentioned earlier is so true:

"Business is the art of taking money from one man's wallet and putting it into yours, without resorting to violence".

All advertising, negotiations, store layout, special offers, sales, investments in high customer service... EVERYTHING is done to get you to take money out of your wallet and put it into theirs. By tempting you with that 10%, they're trying to get you to take even more money out of your wallet and put it into theirs by giving the illusion that they're helping you. It's not stealing, it's capitalism.

Wal-Mart and every other big store study how customers walk around a store, and what products they're most likely to buy if they're near certain other items, and things like that. Why do you think that milk is at the very end of the store? They want you to walk by a blue million other things first. What do you think those discount cards are for at like Kroger's? They mark up the items so that they're too expensive normally, but you get a "discount" if you use their card. Why? They're running that data through computers to analyze the buying patterns of different demographics. Why do you think that Wal-Mart focuses on the "rollback" items? Because they don't want you to pay attention to everything else that costs too much, such as the green peppers that cost 3 times what I can buy them across the road for, or the bread that costs 4 times as much for poorer quality.

All of this is done so that they can take more of your money, and it's so sophisticated that it's an art form. This is why the older I get, the more I see that this statement is true. Open your eyes and you'll see it. Everybody wants your money, and they'll pull out every trick possible to get it.

 

Read my previous post.

 

That is not quite true. Part of your credit score is how much of your available credit is used. They say you should use less than 1/3 of it to look good.
For example, if you have a $1000 credit card, keep the usage $300 or less.
If you had two credit cards with $1000 limit on each one, that would be $2000. If you had a combined balance of $600, that would be in guidelines. However, if you cancel one card, and then have that $600 just on the one card with $1000 limit, your credit score would go down because you would then be at 60% utilization of available credit. Even with making regular payments on time.

Taking out another card and then tearing it up and not using it is actually a method some use to boost their credit score because of the above scenario. However, doing it repeatedly would backfire because part of the credit score is also based on various other factors.

 

I just think that there's really only a minority of the population that doing such a thing would help with. As for as it backfiring, yes, that's true, especially with "potential debt". With the logic you gave, the more unused credit you've got, the higher score you've got, which is not true at all. When you've got either several small unused credit cards, or even one or a few large unused credit cards, creditors must take this into consideration, because if they loan you a certain amount and expect you to repay it, then you turn around and take those credit cards that you've already got and max them out, your ability to make your monthly payment could be severely negatively affected, and therefore you will be viewed as being a riskier investment than somebody who has a smaller amount of potential debt.

So typically, unless you're just starting out and need some credit to your name, adding more credit in a scenario like this just hurts you in the long run.