[speaker002:] I started when I was in college you know they always offer credit cards for college students
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] so I went ahead and and accepted every one that I was offered because I knew it would be easier to go ahead and get them and establish credit early
[speaker001:] um-hum right
[speaker002:] so I pack I pack around a lot of them but I only use a few of them
[speaker001:] you have a lot of discipline they make it really easy for people to uh to get credit cards especially college students
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I have uh two daughters who who both are in college or in fact one has finished now but they both have a lot of credit cards
[speaker002:] and they give you such high credit limits it's it's easy to get caught up
[speaker001:] and uh-huh
[speaker002:] in the minimum payment trap
[speaker001:] uh right and then they they give you uh uh the credit limit and then you're always seemingly seemingly up to that limit now I have quite a few credit cards that I'm always almost up to the limit on most of them and that's that's how a lot of people get into trouble
[speaker002:] yeah I've got I've got two that I you know that usually I'll have a a balance on
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and then all of the others I just try to use kind of like you would an American Express card and and pay it off every month that way I feel like I'm getting you know a thirty day loan
[speaker001:] right yeah
[speaker002:] but I don't have to worry about you know running them up too high except at Christmas then they usually go then they usually get run up pretty good
[speaker001:] yeah well you have a lot of discipline I uh I'm trying my best right now to pay off some of mine I I've paid off about four credit cards this year and uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] but still I have some that are are up to the limit and especially the Visa card that you can go and get cash on it seems like every time I'm short of cash I just go get get it from Visa
[speaker002:] yeah  now that's one that's I've never used my Visa for cash before
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] can you use it like at a bank machine or
[speaker001:] uh it well uh you can go in a bank and just hand them the Visa Card and say I want a cash advance or if they've sent you a uh a number that you can use you know a a personal identification number that you can use in the uh Impact machines or whatever you you can do that
[speaker002:] yeah oh okay
[speaker001:] because I have one that I don't have a pin number for you know sometimes you have to ask them for that
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and then I have one that uh just gave me the pin number automatically
[speaker002:] now we got that's that's funny you said that because we got a credit card um my husband and I got credit cards in the mail one day that we hadn't even applied for
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] then a couple of weeks later we got we got pin numbers and then we got a a bill saying you know uh the yearly fee it was like forty dollars and we we cut them up and sent them back because we we hadn't even applied for them and we didn't want them
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] but they they had just automatically approved us and sent them without even contacting us
[speaker001:] oh wow
[speaker002:] so I thought man I don't know if I trust this or not
[speaker001:] well they they do that a lot if you have good credit and you have been paying your bills on time everybody in the world will offer you a a credit card
[speaker002:] it's like let's see if we can get her to run up her bills but it's hard I mean it's it's tempting when you see something to say well I'll just charge it and sometimes I'll do that but usually I I will try to pay everything off the next month or the ones that that usually have an outstanding balance all the time I'll I'll pay more than the minimum payment
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] just I feel I feel like even that little bit helps
[speaker001:] right well you know the way the economy's going and inflation and the recession and all that I think we we really need to try to stay out of debt as much as possible that's that's why I've I've really started to try to to pay off mine and get out of debt because we never know when we might you know get laid off or something especially me I work for Texas Instruments and they've had had a lot of of uh you know layoffs lately
[speaker002:] I know it well I work for TI too
[speaker001:] you do
[speaker002:] and I think they're getting ready to to probably sell us out our division
[speaker001:] where are you
[speaker002:] in Johnson City Tennessee
[speaker001:] Johnson City uh-huh I know they're selling out somebody in Colorado Springs
[speaker002:] yeah yeah they just they just announced that didn't they
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] so I mean it's it's kind of a bad time to be a slave to your credit cards
[speaker001:] it it certainly is
[speaker002:] I've um
[speaker001:] I have worked on a part part time job um where I was a collector for um
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh uh a jewelry company people um that they just had this jewelry account it was Zales Jewelry in fact and uh a whole bunch of people I mean they have about a thousand collectors I guess
[speaker002:] man
[speaker001:] and uh there's just so many people that have bought jewelry which is really a luxury item and then they they just can't pay for it something something happens you know you hear so many stories listening to them like
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] uh you know they lost their job or uh they they've signed for a friend you know they got it in their name but they got it for a friend and then the friend wouldn't pay them and now they're stuck with the bill and it's ruining their credit and
[speaker002:] ooh didn't pay them
[speaker001:] you really have to watch it this you know because yeah because every every month all of these credit cards report to the credit bureau you know automatically most most of them do
[speaker002:] man that's scary I didn't realize that
[speaker001:] yeah and if you if you're uh it's bad because if you you know your bill is due on the fifteenth then you're you're not past due until the fifteenth of the next month but
[speaker002:] yeah oh okay
[speaker001:] you know if you if you pay one day after that fifteenth you're not one day late you're thirty days late
[speaker002:] they don't they don't recognize any time difference do they
[speaker001:] right right and anyway we need to watch our credit reports and all that kind of
[speaker002:] ooh that's scary  that's something I never thought about getting you know checking with to see what what your credit report looked like
[speaker001:] um-hum well you know you you can do that I believe it costs a bout ten dollars
[speaker002:] might be worth it for peace of mind
[speaker001:] oh yeah it is it is you might even find somebody's been reporting on you and you didn't even know it you know you I mean you might think you're paying something on time or and you by that day and you're thirty thirty days is not real bad though anyway
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] if you've got a charge off on your credit report report or something like that that's when it really gets bad or something you haven't paid in sixty days or ninety days you know things like that
[speaker002:] really I think that Discover card has a good idea with you know giving you a little cash back incentive for each amount you you purchase as long as you don't go crazy trying to get cash back
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and since they don't have the yearly fee
[speaker001:] do they charge a lot of interest on that card I don't
[speaker002:] I don't know I've never I haven't gotten one just because it's I I felt like with Visa and MasterCard and American Express you didn't need another one
[speaker001:] uh-huh um-hum
[speaker002:] I would think it wouldn't be you know much more than the eighteen or nineteen percent everyone else charges
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] so that that wouldn't be too bad
[speaker001:] well always watch out for somebody anybody who bills you out of Atlanta Georgia or there's a couple of other places that are able to charge us like twenty one and twenty two percent interest I know I had a charge with uh Spiegel and I hadn't read the uh terms of the credit agreement really and uh when I did I you know I realized that that it just looked seemed like I was never paying the balance
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] off you know and I looked at the credit card agreement one day and it was like twenty three percent interest
[speaker002:] holy cow
[speaker001:] and that's the one bill that I hurry up hurried and paid up and and I've always watched it since then you really have to watch those interest rates
[speaker002:] definitely that's awful I mean there's no point in giving them any more money than we have to so
[speaker001:] that's true so anyway they can't bill you any higher than eighteen percent I think in in Texas but there there are a couple of states that can
[speaker002:] well that's great
[speaker001:] and one to watch out for is anybody that bills you out of Atlanta Atlanta Georgia
[speaker002:] I'll try to remember that one oh
[speaker001:] well
[speaker002:] well see I was trying to think if there was anything else
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] so I guess the worst problem I ever had with with a credit card though was um I got a an item on my bill that I had never purchased
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] I had ordered a sofa and had filled out the paperwork but they weren't supposed to process it until they delivered it and I changed my mind but then they went ahead and charged it on my account
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum ooh
[speaker002:] and it took me about eighteen months to get that all of that mess off of my account
[speaker001:] wow
[speaker002:] so that's that's probably the worst thing I've ever had happen with a credit card
[speaker001:] I wonder if they