Home Sweet Simple Home
Paying for the privilege
You will never guess what I got in the mail- a credit card offer. I’ve been getting these off and on for the last few months. It seems the harder we work to repay and repair our credit the more they are sending these- in hopes we’ll fall into the trap again.Normally, I don’t even look them over but take them directly to the shredder, but Mr. Steady wanted to open it and see what they were offering.
Well, besides 9.9% introductory rate (didn’t say for how long)- which it didn’t exactly “promise” that I would get- just “as low as”, they listed some “small fees”. Upon tallying it all up on the calculator, those “small” fees added up to $272.00! There was a start-up fee, an annual fee, introductory fee (to get the introductory rate you had to pay a “fee”!), an additional card fee . . . .
Can you believe that? They [the cc company] actually think I’m desperate enough to pay $272 a year, on top of interest, just to have credit! Yeah, right!
I’m sure they thought they were making me a sensible offer- after all, I’m a credit risk. The reality- Mr. Steady and I got a good laugh out of it and sent it through the shredder. We would have mailed them an “interesting” letter in their envelope except that they were even too cheap to send a postage paid envelope! Well, what’s another 41 cents when you shell out $272.00?!
I am sure we’ll be seeing more and more of this. More of what? Well, I’m sure I’ll be, personally, seeing more of these “offers” to help re-establish my credit (unless I opt out of receiving them- which we plan on doing). But I also think we’ll be seeing more credit card companies tacking on “small” fees. I’ve even heard they’ll raise your interest rate/tack on a fee/cancel your card if you continually pay your balance in full every month. Why? Because they aren’t making money on you!
We are very thankful that we are working hard to get out of debt now; thankful that we’ve learned we don’t need credit cards to survive; thankful that we’ve already started this journey.
One thing I read today is that if your cc company continues to hike your interest rate- you can ask them if they would freeze the current rate if you closed the card and made payments on the balance. You should make sure you get it in writing though.
We had one credit card that we didn’t put with the debt solution company we are currently still in contract with because they advised us to have one card “to help us create good credit”. Ahem. We quickly decided we did not want/need any credit cards whatsoever and closed the account- we didn’t pay off the balance but closed the account. We did not ask them to freeze the rate- and they did not! It went up from 17% to 24% in a matter of months. Mr. Steady contacted the company about it and they lowered it to 20%. Still pretty stiff but less is less. We will have the card paid off in a couple of months. All I can say is, “Good riddance!”
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7:37 PM, 2008-Feb-11 .. Posted by gabbie427Wow! Glad you closed that account. Better late than never I say!!!! Don't you wish you had stumbled across Dave Ramsey's book and principles years ago??? I know I do.
Keep up the good work Amy! You are doing great!!!
God's Blessings,
Amy Jo
Untitled Comment
8:21 AM, 2008-Feb-12 .. Posted by IsabellaOn the back or bottom of all credit card applications (sent in the mail) should be an opt out number. You call this number so they don't send you the (all companies) credit card applications.The call takes about 2 minutes. We do not receive (cc aps) them anymore. This is important for not getting cc's but also for identity theft. When you call, it is good for several years. I
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