Comments on: Consumers to Banks: Take this Card and Shove it

By: Matt Jabs

Matt Jabs — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:17:54 +0000

How encouraging. I have had multiple debates with other PF Bloggers over whether or not this “frugality/anti-debt” trend is here to stay. I argue it is, and the stats in this article, coupled with “the word on the streets” tends to agree.

Good stuff TML.

By: cjbr549

cjbr549 — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:10:29 +0000

I expect some of the folks who use rewards cards and pay off their balances every month have abandoned them as the rewards have been cut. That probably makes up some percentage of the folks that closed accounts. It is a good sign that people are paying that debt off, though. That is the real road to recovery, when people aren’t worried about loosing their jobs and feel better about their financial situation, they will be willing to buy some more and help pick the economy up. Hopefully lessons will have been learned and they will buy within their means.

By: MasterPo

MasterPo — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:08:20 +0000

You pretty much can’t rent a car or buy a plane ticket with cash these days. Even most brand name hotels want a credit card at check in even if you’re going to pay in cash.

By: slsdoug

slsdoug — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:55:45 +0000

One problem with debit cards is there is no recourse if there is a purchase problem. With a credit card, you can contest the purchase if there is a legitimate problem.

If hotels, car rental agencies, airplane bookings, etc can find a way around using a credit card we can truly put credit card usage in the past. I would like to see these entities take PayPal and direct bank transfers as methods of payment.

By: MasterPo

MasterPo — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:34:55 +0000

A lot of consumers I would bet closed a card or two by rolling them into another card, albeit probably at a lower interest rate.

As for FICO, while I don’t love it, it’s no different than say SAT or other general scoring methods. Somehow in every walk of life the powers that be (that is, those who you are asking to decide to accept you for whatever) need some kind of yard stick to measure you and everyone by on an equal footing. Flaud as it may be FICO, like SAT, is that yard stick. Something else may replace it some day. But some kind of standardized measure will always be used. It has to be.

By: Evan

Evan — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:54:44 +0000

I doubt this is will be a continuing trend, but only time will tell

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:38:37 +0000

What is even more surprising (and pleasing for Mr. ToughMoneyLove to learn) is that 32% of consumers report paying off or even closing at least one credit card account in the last 18 months. This means that a full 1/3 of all eligible American consumers no longer own a credit card.

Most Americans have more than 1 credit card, and I would bet that almost everyone of those that closed an account had more than 1 card. So it is good, but it probably has not significantly altered the number of Americans with credit cards.