On 1/7/2016 9:43 AM, Dave Smith wrote:
> On 2016-01-07 7:54 AM, Nancy Young wrote:
>
>> Unless someone has used my credit card who it not authorized,
>> I'm never surprised at the end of the month. That's only happened
>> once. That I could straighten out without a hassle and without
>> the funds disappearing from my checking account, the way it goes
>> for debit card users.
>
> The only surprises I have had lately were on charges I made in
> California and discovered I have been gouged on the exchange rate. We
> were there with a friend we were visiting in Palo Alto and it was a
> short drive from her place. I bought an $85 sweater and a $15 cap. When
> the bill came there was a charge for a little over $150 at a place
> whose name I did not recognize in a place called Mountainview. I have
> to go rummaging through bills and when I found the one from REI I
> immediately recognized the purchases, and then consulted Google Maps and
> saw that Mountainview was the municipality in which the store was located.

Talk about pulling a fast one. I wonder how they came up with
that number.

>> Of course, people who don't handle credit well are better off
>> with a debit card, but that's another subject.
>>
>
> Some people do not.

It's one of those know yourself things. I never had major credit
card debt but enough to know it's a trap that can be hard to climb
out. Some people know they can't resist spending on credit, good
for them to stay away from it.

> My son ended up in credit card debt and it was tough
> for him to pay it off.

I am thankful that I didn't have credit available when I was
starting out.

> I could have helped him out but I hoped that he
> would learn from a hard lesson.

You don't want to make it easy but at some point I'd probably step in.
Not too fast. And it would be known it was a one time thing. Of
course, he might say no thanks, people have their pride.

> I have known a few people who owed so
> much on their cards that they had a rough time each month coming up with
> the minimum payments.

It's really tough. I can't imagine being in that deep, but it happens.

> Personally, I have a newspaper subscription,
> telephone and satellite bills that I pay by credit card. I occasionally
> make telephone or online purchases by card. Other than that I usually
> only use credit cards for something big that I can pay off with money
> due in soon. Christmas is an expensive time so I pay about half the
> present purchases by card and pay it off in January.

I carry a bit of cash and it is in my wallet for weeks. I charge
everything big or small and pay it off every month. Of course, by this
point I hardly want anything expensive enough to make a difference,
maybe a car once in a while, or some furniture.

nancy