[speaker001:] card yourself or
[speaker002:] uh yes uh uh not as much as I used to we used to have quite a few credit cards and over the the last few years we've tried to cut them back a little bit and and uh down to mainly mainly one each uh
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah
[speaker002:] uh it's it's easy to let them get out of control
[speaker001:] yeah it's I work at a at a financial institution and seen quite a bit used to be a loan officer and seen people with you know they've had well I've seen a person with forty thousand dollars in limits and about twenty thousand dollars of it used and I and we we've got one but it's just for absolute emergencies we hardly ever use it
[speaker002:] oh yeah yeah that's uh that's what we try to to go to uh and eliminate all the uh uh department store uh credit cards uh got rid of all those
[speaker001:] yeah for sure yeah they uh they can like you say you can once you start using them they they're always real real willing to raise those limits for you that's for sure
[speaker002:] yes they they uh they used to be uh uh more credit conscious I think the credit card companies now with with interest rates as high as they are they don't have to be as credit conscious they can
[speaker001:] um-hum no they can afford to write off a lot more
[speaker002:] yeah they can write off a lot more losses now
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh which which I kind of disagree uh with I'd rather them going back to being a little bit more credit conscious and and lower the rates
[speaker001:] yeah that's excuse me yeah that's true I uh well I can't see why people if they shop around you can find uh you know thirteen fourteen percent rates without any problem I can't imagine why anyone would even think about paying nineteen you know because there's
[speaker002:] yeah I I've heard though that the ones who are offering the lower rates uh do have tougher credit checks and than the ones with the higher rates have
[speaker001:] yeah well that make you you know that makes sense I guess if they're they're not willing to write off as much but
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] you know it there's a lot of people you know I that uh you know you receive all those ones in the mail and it just seems like well we sent we'll take it just because they sent it to me and then they get charged fifty dollars cost or a year for the just the fee and everything it
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I don't know I just I have a hard time I like I say I working in a financial institution I just I'm really rate conscious I guess and can't see paying you know hardly or near that much twenty one percent gets pretty crazy
[speaker002:] yeah well yeah well well people people shop real heavily for when they for savings accounts and everything else to get that extra percent or two and then they don't look at at spending uh eighteen percent on on credit it's uh for some reason they don't look at it that way
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah yep there's I imagine there's there's quite a few people who just pay it off monthly so they don't have to charge you know get get charged any but it seems like the people that can least afford it are the ones of course that can't pay it off monthly and get
[speaker002:] that that's that's true we we have tried uh in the last couple years to to do just that and use them for convenience and pay them off but there's
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] sometimes around Christmas and times like that we sometimes charge up a bit and takes a couple months to pay them off but
[speaker001:] yeah yeah that's true
[speaker002:] but the people who who can't afford it uh they really get caught up in in the minimum payment and the interest rate it it's sort of like the federal government
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah exactly that's true but yeah I uh I I think that would do the whole country a lot of good is a lot of you know consumers paying down some of that debt they've got it just seems like they're they right now they can't afford to buy anymore because they're up to the limits in debt and and everything and so you know that's part of the reason I think everything's kind of stalled out but
[speaker002:] yes that's right well the credit card companies I know are arguing against uh being forced to lower their rates but uh
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh I think it would only mean that they'd they'd have to go back and and toughen their requirements a a bit and they'd probably make just as much money they just wouldn't write off as many losses
[speaker001:] yeah that exactly you know when that thing was they were trying to pass through through that through Congress they the thing that Congress didn't realize is that yeah they would just shut off all the people that were marginal and you know it would slow you know they were trying to pick things up but it would just it do wouldn't do any good because you know the banks aren't stupid they're going to realize that they can't you know they can't keep affording to write off five percent if they're only charging you know thirteen fourteen percent
[speaker002:] yeah that's that's right yes uh well like in like in any business they uh the same thing happened to banks you know they didn't look at uh the credit worthiness of making a lot of loans either and that's in uh in real estate and other things and it's the same with credit cards
[speaker001:] um-hum that's true that's true I don't know what will happen like I say we're sure trying we we just got the one and we just don't want to get any more
[speaker002:] yeah we I I use a company one somewhat uh uh to to uh
[speaker001:] no
[speaker002:] do air travel and all but uh I make sure that one's always uh paid off because I'm responsible for the interest on that one if if I don't pay it off uh uh
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah if it's not huh huh where do you work at
[speaker002:] I work for uh an oil company and they they issue a an American Express card so that you don't have to ask for uh expense advances when you have to travel and buy air tickets so
[speaker001:] oh do you um-hum um uh yeah
[speaker002:] so you just use your card but it's but it's in your name so it's up to you to pay it off and and because it's American Express you can't run up a a credit on it so that
[speaker001:] turn in the voucher um