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Poor poor Justin.

He lost his card, and “couldn’t log in” to online banking to make a payment to citi bank. Now he’s whining, because they raised his rate, AND hit him with a late payment fee…

You know…EXACTLY AS THEY TOLD HIM THEY’D DO when he KNOWINGLY, and WITHOUT COERCION, signed a CONTRACT.

Poor Justin couldn’t mail a payment…or pay over the phone…no, of course not. And, clearly, it’s citibank’s fault he lost his card in the first place.

http://consumerist.com/2010/02/citi-socked-me-with-fee-rate-increase-because-i-lost-my-card.html

Ya know what, Justin? I haven’t paid an “unreasonable” (or, for that matter, a reasonable) credit card fee, rate, or payment in…what…7 years now. You know why?

Credit card companies exist to make money. They make money by encouraging you to spent money you don’t have in the first place, charging you for the privilege, and then making it as difficult and time consuming (and expensive) as possible to continue doing it…all so you can be irresponsible and juvenile.

So, I decided there had to be a better way….and, amazingly enough, there is…

I DON’T SPEND MONEY I DON’T HAVE.

ALL
DEBT
IS
TOXIC

Remember the scene in Full Metal Jacket, where Hartman finds the jelly donut in “Pyle”’s locker? He’s frustrated at his “inability” to train pyle, so he decides to enlist the help of the rest of the company. Knowing full well what the outcome will be, he has the rest of the unit bear the punishment for Pyle’s mistakes, beginning with having them do pushups while Pyle eats the donut.

“They’re paying for it, you eat it!” he screams at Pyle, handing him the donut.

Welcome to the “jelly donut” of personal finance…high risk credit cards.

Despite the fact that every individual who holds a credit card signed an agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions of the issuer, mass whining and hand wringing prompted congress to enact new legislation to “protect” people from the “evil” credit card companies.

How DARE a company seek to make a profit, through means expressly and willfully granted to them by their supposed “victims”??? Why, those evil greedy bastards, wanting to charge PRECISELY the fees they TOLD you they’d charge, that you AGREED to let them charge when you WILLFULLY charged more than your “limit”.

Of course, with the new legislation going into effect this past Monday, we’ve been regaled with news stories about the new “traps” and “sneaky policies” the card companies are using to make back the estimated $12,000,000,000 congress took out of their industry. Apparently, wanting to replace the income you just had forcibly removed from your pockets is “sneaky”.

It seems that now, even those who pay balances “on time”, never go above their “limit”, and “use credit wisely” will now be paying “outrageous” fees and charges.

…get ready for higher annual fees, higher balance-transfer charges, and growing charges for overseas transactions.

says http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/21/federal-credit-card-law-create-new-traps-consumers/

Banks and other card issuers have already been aggressively implementing new fees or raising existing ones to help make up for any potential revenue lost as a result of the CARD Act.

says http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/17/news/companies/credit_card_rules/

Pyle got caught with his jelly donut…now all of you ‘responsible” cred card users are going to pay, while he eats it.

Enjoy your pushups, folks.

Meanwhile, those of us with no cards will quite happily laugh our collective asses off while you try to explain to us how important your credit cards are, and how you simply can’t survive without them.

Wake up, folks. Stop buying things you can’t afford, and start living on what you make.

“But, credit cards are a necessity!!”

You can’t, apparently, rent a car without them, for example.

Never mind that Hertz, Enterprise, Avis, Budget, and National all have terms and conditions allowing you to rent a car with a debit card. http://www.ncnblog.com/2007/04/18/can-i-use-a-debit-card-to-rent-a-car/

Apparently credit cards offer you consumer protection unavailable with your debit card.

Never mind that EVERY Visa debit card comes with consumer protection, including a zero liability policy for unauthorized charges and identity theft. http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/debit/visa_check_cards_faq.html#anchor_19

Apparently you can’t book a hotel or travel without a credit card. Well…unless you do a simple 30 second google search dand find such links as http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/overview/announcements.html?propertyID=1050 or https://wwwc.druryhotels.com/content/faqs.aspx

Or heck…book your whole trip on Travelocity, and use one. http://tinyurl.com/yhtut92

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Do some of these things require a balance large enough to cover deposits, incidentals, etc? Sure they do. Is that a problem for you? Then WHY ARE YOU TRAVELING? If you can’t afford to take the trip, then YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO TAKE THE TRIP. How “important” you think it is that you be at location X for event Y isn’t the issue here…the issue is that you can’t pay for what you’re trying to do.

You are not entitled to take a vacation. You are not entitled to be there for your cousin’s/niece’s/brother’s wedding/funderal/bah mitzvah. You are not entitled to see that race/game/concert.

These are things that responsible people work for, plan for, and prepare for. They have an emergency fund to cover things like traveling to an unexpected funeral. They plan for things like next summer’s vacation. They prepare for things like important moments in their relatives’ lives.

Grow up, act your wage, and stop making excuses for your desire to live beyond your means.

Anything you can do with a credit card, you can do with a debit card…except spend money you don’t have.

Yes…I cleaned the blog out…left only a couple of previous comments about debt.

From here on out, this will be the home of my rants on the subject of debt.