[speaker001:] Okay, how do you feel about them?
[speaker002:] Well, I keep trying to get away from them, [LAUGHTER] I used to use a lot of credit cards I guess for a while I would use, you know, a variety of the Visa and the MasterCard and the stores, but I think I, I impulse buy too much with them or I buy things, you know, I see it on sale and I think, oh, it's on sale I have to get it, and I really don't need it or I really haven't budgeted for it so, um, the last couple of years I really have tried not to use them at all.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] What about you?
[speaker001:] Well, we have this philosophy, we use it when we go off somewhere but we pay for it as soon as we come back, you know, as soon as we get our bills,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] we pay it off.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And we only have one. We tore all the rest of them up.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER], okay.
[speaker001:] Because I don't like credit cards for one thing, you know, I mean, they're okay, I guess, if you're on a trip or something,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] you don't have to take a whole bunch of, you know, cash with you,
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] but I don't like using them because I've seen too many people that used them and ended up bankrupt or on,
[speaker002:] Huh.
[speaker001:] chapter thirteen and stuff like that.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] Because they have this weird opinion that if you use that card, you don't have to pay for it.
[speaker002:] That's true if, if it's on the credit card it doesn't seem like it's money out of your pocket. Sometimes you may think, well, I don't have the money so you use the credit card it's like fake money or something.
[speaker001:] Yeah, yeah, and it gives you a, sens-, um, a false sense of security or something it seems like because you say, oh, well, I don't have to pay for it now but you're going to have to pay for it, and it seems like...
[speaker002:] Yeah, you think, well, I don't have it now but payday will come and then I'll have the money.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] But that's probably paying for things that were still owed from last time, [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Right. Are you married?
[speaker002:] Yes.
[speaker001:] Oh, okay. Well, I know that a lot of young people, you know, I, it took me a long time to get it through my child's head, I mean, that was her goal, you know, uh, got to have a credit card,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] but now that she has one, she's only used it one time but she wanted to establish some credit,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] but I think it finally sunk in, you know, because she saw some of the other people and just like she heard them say, you know, well, I used a credit card. And my husband's sister is the world's worst at, oh, well, I'll just use the credit cards and she has all of her credit cards up to the limit.
[speaker002:] Huh.
[speaker001:] You know, and I'm, I'm thinking woman, [LAUGHTER], wake up and smell the roses before they come and get you. But...
[speaker002:] Right. Besides the fact that how much interest you pay and then this...
[speaker001:] Right, and people don't see that either.
[speaker002:] Yeah, this thing that you thought you got on sale, by the time you get done paying with that with all the finance charges because you pay it off over a long period of time, you've spent a heck of a lot of money on that thing.
[speaker001:] Right. The only one that we, we have that we kept was the Discover card,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and it pays you to use it.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] I mean, if you pay your bill off right away,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] if you don't ever have to pay any interest on it because they give you a certain amount every time that you use it, and you make that money as long as you don't ever have to pay them any, uh, interest. Now it's, and people say, well, you know, I'm making money by using this credit card, but they don't realize that if they, I mean, it only takes one time for you to use it and not pay the interest, I mean, you have to pay the interest, not pay it right off,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] that's going to take up what you would have made.
[speaker002:] Huh.
[speaker001:] So that's the only reason that we kept that, we debated for a long time plus they don't have that, um, charge on it, you know, like...
[speaker002:] Service charge you mean?
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] Yearly fee, yeah.
[speaker001:] Right. They don't have one of those. So, it, we decided that was it, you know, and, I mean, everybody calls us and wants to give us a credit card. We have, we could have credit cards running down our ears.
[speaker002:] Oh, you get that stuff in the mail all the time.
[speaker001:] Yes, yes. And then, I-, I'll have, just like, uh, department stores. They'll call me up, you know, and I'll say, look, I don't want the credit card, well, we're just going to send it to you, you know, you don't have to ever use it if you don't want to. They'll send me any credit card, I tear it up. I just can't see it.
[speaker002:] What I really hate in the mail is like for the credit cards that I do have still,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] that they send you these things that look like checks,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] and they say, hey, you know, two thousand dollars, you know, free to you kind of thing, you know, all you got to do is go cash those things and you've got a short term loan. I hate it, [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] I know it, and you know what...
[speaker002:] I can't believe they have the nerve to do that.
[speaker001:] What's really bad about those though is just like young people if they don't, you know, we take the time to, you know, help my daughter, she's in college,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] but it, this is her first credit card thing, well, when she got her first one she was so excited it was unreal. Look at this they sent me this money, you know. So then when I explained to her, look you have to pay this back and they are going to charge you interest, and stuff, of course, she ter-, tore it up.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] But a lot of parents would not take the time, you know, and they wouldn't even think of it or their kids may not be as close as my daughter and I are, and, uh, you know, they may not even discuss it, they go out and cash their check thinking that, you know, they've got something, maybe they've won something.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] You know, somebody sent them something free.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And go out and spend it. And, um, it's just unreal. I mean, I don't like credit cards, I wish that they would come up with some other way to, you know, the only way you could use them is if you were, like on vacation. They would let you use it maybe once a year.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] You know, I mean, of course, I guess some people go out and spend their whole entire limit on it like that at that time but, um, I have seen so many people and I have a friend right now she just got off of thirteen. She got, uh, I can't remember what she called it, it's some kind of, maybe it's sure or something like that, it's something, it's some weird name of a credit card,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and she is charging out of her mind already. And I'm going, you just got off. That's how you got on to it to start with, you know, what is the matter with this person, [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] But, um, it seems like people just, you know, they just think, well, I can just have anything I want. And I just don't see it like that. Of course, I always see pay the bills first and whatever's leftover, that's what you have, but, um, maybe a lot of people don't see it like that, but I can't stand owing. I mean, I cannot fully tolerate to owe something like, you know, I guess it's just because I've been brought up like that. But, um, I could not charge to the limit and knowing that I was going to have to pay this thing out for ever and maybe suffer from having to payout. But, that's just the way I feel about it.
[speaker002:] Yeah, I think it's, it's somewhat a, uh, symptom of our, me generation and that, we think we need all these things and I think my parents always, you know, did without or saved up to, you know, buy things and we consider that so many of these things we just have to have, you know, like when I first got my apartment and I was setting it up I did try to economize some but, you know, I was just like, well, I have to have it all furnished and I have to have all of my kitchen setup and you don't, you know, do without too much and, you know, that's how I got started kind of with setting up a household all up, you know, it kind of like, in the short amount of time. You know, you just have to have these things just, you know, have them at home, have to have them at my own place and that's, you know, a big expenditure to start, um, buying all these things that you think or, or have to have and actually they're kind of luxuries or you should save up slowly and keep buying them and not just rush out and furnish the whole place,
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] you know, going in one big swoop, save up and then buy it.
[speaker001:] [Very faint], yeah.
[speaker002:] But we're not into that. We're into like, have to have it all now.
[speaker001:] [Very faint] oh, yeah. I guess it is like that though because it seems like more and more people are like that. But, um, I guess it's because I'm older, I mean, I'm not real old but I am older and, um, you know, I didn't feel like that I didn't feel like I had to have everything. I guess it was because, well, I had everything when I was at home but I, I don't know why I didn't.
[speaker002:] Well, we're geared to that. We're like, okay, like I want a living room set. And instead of sitting back and, and going, okay, well, it's going to cost maybe a thousand dollars, two thousand dollars and I'll save for two years,
[speaker001:] [Very faint], uh-huh.
[speaker002:] people go, oh, well, I'll just go buy it, put it on credit and they'll pay it off.
[speaker001:] [Very faint], yeah.
[speaker002:] People aren't tuned in to like saving for it and then buying it, they just put it on a charge card, put it on account,
[speaker001:] Huh.
[speaker002:] and then pay off the bill because they want it now. It's always have to have it now.
[speaker001:] Yeah, well, it didn't hurt you, did it, to, I mean, you didn't go out and charge a whole bunch and lose everything, did you?
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER], no, no, but I have had some times when I've had some pretty good balances on there and, uh, you know, I finally, you know, paid them all off and thought this is, you know, kind of nonsense. So, we don't, uh, have big balances on them at, all now we're, we're, you know, we, I use it occasionally but I pay it right off. We're...
[speaker001:] Yeah, well, you learned then, right?
[speaker002:] Yeah, you learn the, you know, the hard way, you hate paying all that interest and I've never been one to itemize on my income, tax and never had enough to itemize and so it's just a big chunk of money and you realize that you're not buying anything on sale your paying, so much more for that item, because you've got finance charge and the cost of having that card every year which is what, forty dollars sometimes just to have the card.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] That's, a lot of money that you went to buy this item.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And then you never feel like you've got anything to p-, to put into savings or anything, you're always just paying bills, paying bills, you know, you don't feel that you have any extra to save. And I hate, I hate living paycheck to paycheck. I like to have a little there, you know, that I can, save so I can feel that, you know, if something comes up I've got the money to pay for it,.