Everybody probably already knows this but, you can get an Amazon credit card (really Bank One) and they will give a $30 credit. There is no lower limit on what you can spend it just has to be at least the $30 credit. I did it and will probably never use the card again. How does a company make money doing this?
Steve
The truth is that the average credit card debt per American household is about $8,000 with an average interest rate of about 18%. This amounts to $1440 in interest per year. I would guess that most of the people who bother to get the card actually will use it. Even if their interest rate is only 10%, that means they only have to have an average annual balance of $300 for one year to make up for the initial credit. Personally, having hits on your credit report for these types of things is not really a good idea, so I would never get a card like this unless I planned to use it. That's why I only have one credit card and it is locked in my file cabinet and only used in extraordinary cases.
Steve xxx asks:
On your "probably" and the fact that probably 90% of people who get such cards go ahead and use them.
Charlie Self "Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good." H. L. Mencken
Steve wrote:>Everybody probably already knows this but, you can get an Amazon
I dunno. Are you on the Federal do not call list, and did you read the fine print? Tom
Work at your leisure!
In the last 8 years I have been paid back by 3 credit card companies about $5,450.00 in rebates. I average about 3% return on every thing I buy on my credit cards. The trick is to always pay those cards off monthly. At the moment I get 1% rebate on every dollar I charge and an additional 4% when I buy from a grocery store, gas station, or drug store. And they love me.
Well, Leon, you're using the credit card as it was originally intended - a convenience NOT a chance for revolving credit. As long as you can maintain that scenario you will be ahead of the game.
Vic
On 01 Dec 2004 15:25:08 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@aol.comnotforme (Charlie Self) spake the words:
Recently, I was offered a Bank of America business card. The annual service fee was only $100. Needles ta slay, I turned it down.
I tore up another credit card offer last week. Their interest rate was 28.94% ! When I was growing up, I took a Business Law course in high school. Back then, 28.94% interest was called "usury" and the bank would have been keel hauled for it. I wonder if a certain group of old-line Sicilians runs the CC companies now.
I keep one CC tied to my bank account for general purposes and one for the business. The rest of my cards were cut up by me years ago and I don't miss any of that interest payment crap at all.
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They make money by suckin' folks who live off of credit into their web.
18% and up.
and by charging a percentage of each purchase payable by the merchants.
No ... they're in Congress.
They don't love you, they keep hoping you'll become a revolving credit junkie.
Actually, you can blame the Supreme Court and the former Govener of South Dakota for letting loose the reins on credit card interest rates. There was an interesting program on this a couple of days ago on PBS (maybe "Frontline"?).
Supreme Court ruled that the usury laws of the state where the person making the credit decision was located ruled. So if an Ohio employee of a New York bank makes the decision to grant credit to a customer in California, Ohio law rules. Then SoDak's govenor, in exchange for the promise of jobs from Citibank and other big banks, led the charge to repeal SoDak's usury laws that capped interest rates on credit cards. Banks moved their credit card ops to SoDak and other states soon followed in repealing usury laws.
Tim
LOL. After all these years and the thank you notes for being a good customer, the sure sound like they love me. I do generate a lot of revenue created by using their cards. I am of no risk and they get a percentage form the vendor every time I use the card. this would probably be considered the gravy end of this type business. Steady in come little by little that is of little risk.
You watched Frontline this week dincha?
And, to top off the great offers, the banks can raise rates by any amount at any time for any reason with just 15 days notice.
Excellent show. Frontline is on my list of shows that I often arrange my schedule around or tape.
Yeah and at the end he said that although the increase in S. Dakota's economy was a great step forward, he felt uneasy with the realization that he helped release the beast on consumers who are least likely able to afford the tactics.
BTW, did anyone believe the head of the Comptroller of the Currency vs. the SF district attorney concerning Providian? Or that guy who's the head of the lobby organization for the credit card industry? He certainly looked uncomfortable with the line of questions.
Same governor who later killed a motorcycle rider after blowing a stop sign. I believe he was sentenced to 6 months probation. Courts decided he was on "government business" so the victim's family now has to sue the state to try and recover their loss. In that program, and it was "Frontline" he says he doesn't regret selling his soul to the Citibank, afterall, it brought some jobs to South Dakota. Not to mention it helped him get elected to Congress after he left the governor's mansion.
Nice guy.
John Emmons
Who cares, just zero balance the thing every month and the can raise the rates to 90% and it still won't cost you a dime.
You know that, I know that, practically everyone *knows* that - but few actually live by that rule. Jeez, if $8000 is the _average_ credit card balance of the American family just think about those who float much higher than that who pull up the zero or just a few hundred balance accounts to create that average.
something like 20% pay off each month.
Not to mention that if you pay off your balance each month for a long enough period of time, you'll become a non-welcome customer.
Folks who think that by paying on time, never keeping a balance, etc. makes them "good"customers to the credit card issuers have got it completely backwards.
Ironically, they're the worst customers.
John Emmons
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