Debates
02 Feb 07
02 Feb 07
Originally posted by Bosse de NageYou are being suckered, bomb your credit cards. Pay off your debt, and in doing so increase your credit rating, and only use debit cards. Whatever you do, don't just pay the minimum balance on your credit cards, you are only paying interest. Even if you can only pay 20 or 30 dollars more above the minimum, do it.
Banks keep offering me credit cards, but I already owe them money. Spending cuts the pain, though, no doubt. Am I being encouraged to pile debt upon debt? I get the feeling I'm being suckered. Is there anyone I can bomb, or shoot?
And for heaven's sake, buy a home.
02 Feb 07
Originally posted by CliffLandinGood advice.
You are being suckered, bomb your credit cards. Pay off your debt, and in doing so increase your credit rating, and only use debit cards. Whatever you do, don't just pay the minimum balance on your credit cards, you are only paying interest. Even if you can only pay 20 or 30 dollars more above the minimum, do it.
And for heaven's sake, buy a home.
I'm interested in the suckering process, though. I have a home, and I can always sell my mother if I need to--but how are people who can barely make ends meet persuaded to spend more than they can afford? Do banks want more bank robberies?
02 Feb 07
Originally posted by Bosse de NageBomb or shoot the moneylenders? The only way you can really hurt them is to not use their services and thus avoid their usurious ways. How then to get out of the debt hole? Quit using credit to buy non-essentials like drinks and eating out, cut your spending altogether and pay off your current debt as soon as possible so you avoid interest and fees. Also, I would advise anyone in their 20s and fresh out of school to work a second job, no matter how menial or unrelated to your college degree or affectations. This way, you avoid spending money in the nightclubs or going out, you'll have extra to pay off any student loan debt and most importantly, you can start funding your lifestyle (down payment on car and house), retirement (it's never too early to start thinking about the future and socking some money away in a 401(k)-plan) and future healthcare needs (long-term care and disability insurance). The best thing I ever read on these matters was a simple little book called, "The Richest Man in Babylon," and I highly recommend it to anyone living in a modern, capitalist society.
Banks keep offering me credit cards, but I already owe them money. Spending cuts the pain, though, no doubt. Am I being encouraged to pile debt upon debt? I get the feeling I'm being suckered. Is there anyone I can bomb, or shoot?
02 Feb 07
Originally posted by der schwarze RitterBombing and shooting them hurts them more.
Bomb or shoot the moneylenders? The only way you can really hurt them is to not use their services and thus avoid their usurious ways. How then to get out of the debt hole? Quit using credit to buy non-essentials like drinks and eating out, cut your spending altogether and pay off your current debt as soon as possible so you avoid interest and fe ...[text shortened]... Man in Babylon," and I highly recommend it to anyone living in a modern, capitalist society.
Borrow money from them and spend it on guns to shoot them with.
02 Feb 07
I wasn’t working a few years ago & the house needed a new roof, so not wanting to part with any cash at the time, I put the roof on the credit card. I accepted the next mail offer for no interest for 90 days on transferred balances. I did that 6 times. After each transfer I canceled the old card. The 7th time I tried it I was denied another credit card with the explanation ”does not know how to use credit”, so had to pay off the balance. Actually I thought I did pretty good beating them at their own game because I got an interest free loan for a year and a half.
02 Feb 07
Originally posted by Bosse de NageHow much for your Mom? Is she hot?
Good advice.
I'm interested in the suckering process, though. I have a home, and I can always sell my mother if I need to--but how are people who can barely make ends meet persuaded to spend more than they can afford? Do banks want more bank robberies?
03 Feb 07
3 edits
Originally posted by Bosse de NageIf you can find an unlimited supply of credit cards and not have to conform to any credit limits then why not try and initiate a cycle of credit wherein you live comfortably and as you accumulate more debt you bring more banks on board to help you keep bailing out the previous guy.
Good advice.
I'm interested in the suckering process, though. I have a home, and I can always sell my mother if I need to--but how are people who can barely make ends meet persuaded to spend more than they can afford? Do banks want more bank robberies?
I havent bothered with the math but assuming you want to live on the equivalent of say US$ 100,000 per year, you could probably keep the cycle going indefinitely until someone asked nasty questions like what your underlying income was, the nature of your business or your nett worth in assets. But given that the banks may be greedy enough to want to stitch you up without asking too many questions, as long as you pay each credit card bill on time and have a strategy for accumulating credit cards, you could probably devise a computer program to keep tabs with which Peter's turn it was to be paid by which Paul.
I reckon you could keep it going for as long as you were meticulous in your payments and if you acquired assets along the way. As long as you kept on top of it and were not trying to defraud the system( ie : in the sense of it that you tried to pay each monthly minimum bill) who knows.
By year 5 you may find that you need a new credit card every three minutes and that your accumulated minimum monthlies now stand at US$ 1,000,000. Apart from that and the fact that you wouldn't want to look down for fear of the height of the tightrope you were crossing, I don't see how you could fail if all you were only interested in was maintaining your 100K/year lifestyle and you had no-one question your need for another credit card.
03 Feb 07
Originally posted by kmax87Actually Kmax, that's right on the money. (no pun intended).
If you can find an unlimited supply of credit cards and not have to conform to any credit limits then why not try and initiate a cycle of credit wherein you live comfortably and as you accumulate more debt you bring more banks on board to help you keep bailing out the previous guy.
I havent bothered with the math but assuming you want to live on the equiv ...[text shortened]... ining your 100K/year lifestyle and you had no-one question your need for another credit card.
There's a huge difference though between banks and credit card companies. Banks are tough, CC companies are ripe for the plucking.
I spent many years working for a fortune 500 credit card lender as a case administrator for lots of fraud and bankruptcy claims. Fascinating work to be honest. Some tactics people used were amazing. Of course I also saw some pretty sad stuff from folks that just don't know how to manage money. But the scam artists, I loved'em. Some were simply brilliant.
What Kmax outlined above actually happens. It's a tiny percentage of accounts that pull it off and stay ahead of the "game", but it can be done. And done well for a few years. After that the "player" either files bankruptcy, in the old days that would be chapter 7, or they leave the country. But not until spending every available dollar of credit on goods they can carry with them.
After leaving the country for a few months they reapply for a new work visa, new social, a new name, new everything. And start all over again.
And guess who pays for all of that?
03 Feb 07
Take all the credit cards they offer you and use them for important big ticket items you need for your family. Then, when you are max'd out and are about to fall behind, go nuts and buy all the frivolous crap you've always wanted until they cut off your credit and start threatening you.
Then tell them to go screw themselves, because there's nothing they can do. I speak from experience. It was very liberating, and I've never looked back.
03 Feb 07
1 edit
Originally posted by der schwarze Ritterdo what we do in the uk where new card companies keep offering interest free credit deals. first run up say £10k debt on a card, keep it until just before the interest free period expires, usually 6 to 9 months, then get a similar deal with a new card and transfer the debt. then repeat....
Bomb or shoot the moneylenders? The only way you can really hurt them is to not use their services and thus avoid their usurious ways. How then to get out of the debt hole? Quit using credit to buy non-essentials like drinks and eating out, cut your spending altogether and pay off your current debt as soon as possible so you avoid interest and fe Man in Babylon," and I highly recommend it to anyone living in a modern, capitalist society.
i did it for many years and paid no interest, so its was "free" money.
they even invented a name here for people who do this, "rate tarts".