Credit Card Usage Drops

Bad news for holiday sales – but good news for America, in the long run:

Christmas will no longer be on credit for many shoppers, despite tempting offers from retailers and credit card companies trying to coax the plastic out of consumers’ wallets.

The lowest percentage of shoppers in the 27-year-history of a national survey said they used credit cards over the Thanksgiving weekend, while the use of general credit cards like Visa and MasterCard fell 11 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to the credit bureau TransUnion…

I work for a major credit card issuer and let me lay a bit of advice on you:  don’t use credit cards.  Complete scam – cash machines for major banks, that is all they are.  Yes, they really are trying to trip you up in to carrying high balances – especially at the higher interest rates.  And they are always looking for ways to tack on fees (so, Mark, why do you keep working there if its that bad?  No other jobs immediately available…as soon as I can find something else, I’m out of there:  tired of, in a sense, working for the enemy).  The only rational use for a credit card – if you are determined to use one – is if you pay off the full balance prior to the due date; then you get charged no interest.  If you can get one of the programs which allows you zero percent, that is great – but be sure (and I mean SURE) you pay off the balance before the interest kicks in.

The bad news here is that retailers – and the banks – were counting on a surge of credit purchases to get things rolling in 2010.  We, the people, were supposed to go further in to debt in order to make life good for the banksters.  Seems that the people have other ideas.  And that is a good thing – better if people just get in the habit of first saving money and only then going out to buy things.  As for me, I’ve sworn off debt except for a home mortgage – as much as I can manage it, I’ll never borrow again.  Better to have fewer things with peace of mind, any day of the week.

HAT TIP:  Mish’s

Read more at Noonan for Nevada