[speaker001:] all right well how do you use credit cards Carol
[speaker002:] scarily very very very seldom
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] only in dire emergencies in fact I leave them home
[speaker001:] uh-huh is that from past experience bad experiences in the past or or just uh the fact that you don't want to be tempted
[speaker002:] I have never uh I've used them but never to the extent of getting in debt like uh some people do
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] it's just that since my money is tight right now I don't even give myself a tempting
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] because I've gotten them all paid off
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] so now I just wait
[speaker001:] okay
[speaker002:] before I use it but um like I'll keep one minor one like Sears in my purse just for identification purposes
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] because I won't use it period
[speaker001:] but like if you'd take a trip or something
[speaker002:] if I'll use bank uh Visa
[speaker001:] yeah yeah do you
[speaker002:] but otherwise huh-uh
[speaker001:] do you order a lot of things over the phone or credit card orders never
[speaker002:] never never
[speaker001:] huh so uh like if you go to uh K Wal-Mart or something you always pay in cash or with a check
[speaker002:] um-hum cash check
[speaker001:] cash okay
[speaker002:] very seldom do I even use cash
[speaker001:] um so your money funnels directly into your checking account huh
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] okay
[speaker002:] how about you
[speaker001:] me I have a Discover card and I use that when when gas prices are the same whether you use cash or credit I usually use my Discover card and I can let my money sit in the bank for an extra because they pay in our credit union pays at the end of the month on your balance so I will let it sit and then draw interest from that and then I'll pay my credit cards off in full every month so you know I have no finance charges as long as I pay off exactly on time which I do and also Discover card gives you a little bit of money back it's not much but you know five or six bucks uh instead of writing a check for a large purchase if I'm disciplined enough I can uh like well uh like buying a suit if I spend like three hundred bucks you know I'll get some of that back through the cash back program and also at the end of the month you know I'll get my interest on that three hundred bucks that was sitting in my checking account that would be gone had I written a check and I do that sometimes but like when we go to the like uh I'd say it's about fifty fifty writing a check or using the Discover card it just I don't know for some reason it just depend if it's something small I don't want to write a uh use my credit card but that's the only one I have and and sometimes we order things through the mail like books and uh which is I just if they have a toll free number I'll call it up and you know charge it to my credit card as as long as you know I'd make myself pay on time every time so there's no finance charge and it's really you know like you said some people go off half wild and spend uh they think because they've got a thousand dollar limit then you know they've got to get that limit every month or something and uh they end up paying finance charges and they just and then they'll pay the minimum balance every month and then end up they may have got something on sale but all the interest you know they end up paying more than what they would have had they just paid cash for it
[speaker002:] see that's exactly I didn't get in debt but what I did was one year oh I can't remember when five six must be eight nine years ago when I paid my taxes I realized that I had ran up so much on my credit card that I was paying interest that was ridiculous I mean sure it was the tax write-off but
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] there was no sense to it
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I mean there was no sense at all to it I was paying more interest on that card than the card was worth as far as I could tell
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] so at that point there we just stepped right on you know just saving all the way in and I'll turn around like on my car I'll borrow against my insurance which I pay five percent interest and buy my car that way
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] and that works
[speaker001:] wow
[speaker002:] so I don't have to worry about it but I use uh override at uh Texin Credit Union so that I don't have to keep too much I keep enough balance in my checking account so I don't have to pay you know a service charge
[speaker001:] what you override
[speaker002:] and then I yeah
[speaker001:] what's that mean
[speaker002:] if I write a check real large it'll go ahead and pull it out of my savings account
[speaker001:] oh okay
[speaker002:] so I don't have to you know worry about it one way of the other and I just keep that minimum balance in there
[speaker001:] okay I see
[speaker002:] so it just you know and I pretty much budget that way all the way around but as I said my money's tight
[speaker001:] yeah is that a free service that override
[speaker002:] right now yeah
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] there's no charge for it
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] so I do it that way but I do as I said I keep the credit card in my purse for identification
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] when somebody wants identification one way or the other
[speaker001:] it's
[speaker002:] but usually I won't put anything on that card unless it's something I really unbelievably need otherwise I better have it somewhere else
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] because I'm like you I'm not going to have a balance on that thing because it's too easy I know too many people that pay off that card well I've got this credit card well maybe I'd better use that one or something like that and I'm saying huh-uh not me
[speaker001:] yeah  it's just it's just so easy when uh okay I think a lot of it's psychological you hand a piece of plastic and all you do is sign your name at least either with cash or with a check you have to write out the amount so you actually see how much you're spending
[speaker002:] well it's like um the little piece of plastic for uh to get your money out or the credit union all you have to do is put it in the machine one way or the other
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and like I'll run down there like you know for vacation and things like that and I'll leave it in there in savings account till the last day
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and then I'll put the card in and pull it out what I want but I'll pull it out of savings because I don't keep any balance in the checking
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] but that's still that's easy enough as it is but I wouldn't use the machine to pay fifty cents or a dollar for it
[speaker001:] oh yeah no kidding
[speaker002:] I won't even go that far
[speaker001:] I complain every time I I mean we've only had to do it twice since my wife and I've been married in nine months is use the machine that charges and it charges a buck and one time it was because the machine at TI was broken and we had to have cash so we had no choice but to go to the other place and the other one wa s just this weekend when we just we were leaving out of town and we had to you know just have some cash and so we used the automatic teller card but you know I'm very chintzy with my money I don't like to spend lose a dollar just because I use a machine or something it's
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] senseless
[speaker002:] but I'm like you if there's something really that I wanted I'll write to them before I'll put the credit card call in though I won't put it on the card unless I really I'll take write them letter uh check for it
[speaker001:] yeah that's
[speaker002:] because it wastes too much time on the credit card and I'm kind of I'm leery about things going on my card because I've had you know had to go back and return something and it took so long to get it off and that was years ago
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] so I'm having real good luck with a credit card I mean it came off there's no problem but it just takes too much scares me
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and like Tom Thumb's got uh credit card now they used for groceries
[speaker001:] really
[speaker002:] yeah over here in in Plano
[speaker001:] their own Tom Thumb card
[speaker002:] uh-huh and you can charge your groceries on it
[speaker001:] that's funny
[speaker002:] and uh you can either charge your groceries on it you have a choice or you can write a check and they okayed it that way
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] so you don't have to keep going and get it you know credit check and things like that and they'll give you an extra twenty five dollars no charge or anything else like that but I won't even put that on the groceries
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] because hey what happens if the clerk marks in an extra number or something like that and I don't check it
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] no thank you I don't want anything going on my card you know in my checking account unless it's I know about it
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] but do you like Discover card I hadn't heard too much about it
[speaker001:] yeah it seems a lot more places are taking it now which when I first got it it was a problem with it I I said I don't want to use the credit card and I just carried it with me like you said for identification and sometimes when I would take it go on a trip you know it it was good to have a credit card because like if my car breaks down or something a lot of states don't because I travel from Indiana to Texas and a lot of states won't take out of state checks like you know just some gas station out of the way
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] they want cash or a major card so I went ahead and got that and there's no fee no service fee for it plus they play pay you cash back at the end of the I think I earned probably eight or nine bucks last year which isn't very much but I'd just started to use it and and like I I had some major purchases I just was dumb and forgot to put on there like uh I wrote a check for my wife's wedding ring which was a lot of money and if I would have put it on the Discover card the money you know could have sat in the savings account or the checking account for an extra month and it also would have paid me probably you know eight or nine bucks back on uh the end of the year thing so I messed that up so I you know I'm still not in it's not a good habit to use it but fortunately I'm not uh like some people not a spendthrift and I really have to think about my purchases and I know if I have money in the checking account to cover it then I I'll use the Discover card you know to get a little more interest but uh yeah I I'm just very