Know Your Credit Score

Gamblers and credit cards are not a good mix. Keep one cc for ease of renting a car or checking into hotels (yes, there are some of each that 100% require a cc and will not accept debit cards) but keep it paid off and use it for nothing else but emergencies. I also believe that anyone, esp. a gambler, who feels the need to explain their financial background and crow about having good credit and loans at their fingertips while asking for advice from a crew of unknowns has more problems than we are reading about.

Your best bet with your credit report is to put it on the "does not exist" list. Identity theft is rampant, esp. with those with good credit. Become a smart cash-only payee, and never use credit for anything but those rentals and hotels. Keep a low limit for even better peace of mind.

Quote: DRich

I disagree completely.

What if I was planning on purchasing a car and was offered a 0% interest credit card for 18 months. I put the $30,000 car on my credit card and take $30,000 out of my bank and buy a fixed interest 18 month CD with it. I still have $110,000 cash in the bank. I decide to take a vacation and go to Las Vegas with a $5,000 bankroll.

I would argue that buying the CD and carrying a $30,000 0% interest debt is a smart move.

Let me rephrase my assertions:

"Engaging in casino gambling while you have a credit card balance that is currently accruing interest is wildly irresponsible in all cases."

"Engaging in casino gambling while you have a credit card balance at 0% interest under terms that you understand 100% and there is no risk that you will ever pay interest to the credit card company MAY be acceptable, under the strict restriction that you are not putting money at risk that will eventually be used to pay off the credit card balance before the 0% interest offer runs out. And it's still not a great idea, just pay off the damn credit card."

The bolded part is important, because CC companies are sneaky (duh, they want your money). They offer the 0% interest deals to hook you, then if you falter by not adhering to the terms exactly, you will get hit with interest from day 1.

Quote: AcesAndEights

Let me rephrase my assertions:

"Engaging in casino gambling while you have a credit card balance that is currently accruing interest is wildly irresponsible in all cases."

"Engaging in casino gambling while you have a credit card balance at 0% interest under terms that you understand 100% and there is no risk that you will ever pay interest to the credit card company MAY be acceptable, under the strict restriction that you are not putting money at risk that will eventually be used to pay off the credit card balance before the 0% interest offer runs out. And it's still not a great idea, just pay off the damn credit card."

The bolded part is important, because CC companies are sneaky (duh, they want your money). They offer the 0% interest deals to hook you, then if you falter by not adhering to the terms exactly, you will get hit with interest from day 1.

Do you think it is OK to eat out or go to the movies if you have a credit card balance?

Quote: GWAE

Quote: AcesAndEights

Let me rephrase my assertions:

"Engaging in casino gambling while you have a credit card balance that is currently accruing interest is wildly irresponsible in all cases."

"Engaging in casino gambling while you have a credit card balance at 0% interest under terms that you understand 100% and there is no risk that you will ever pay interest to the credit card company MAY be acceptable, under the strict restriction that you are not putting money at risk that will eventually be used to pay off the credit card balance before the 0% interest offer runs out. And it's still not a great idea, just pay off the damn credit card."

The bolded part is important, because CC companies are sneaky (duh, they want your money). They offer the 0% interest deals to hook you, then if you falter by not adhering to the terms exactly, you will get hit with interest from day 1.

Do you think it is OK to eat out or go to the movies if you have a credit card balance?

No, I don't. If you have credit card debt it is a pants-on-fire flaming emergency. You can buy groceries and I'll even let you get Netflix Instant for $7.99/month, but paying for restaurant food or movies on the big-screen at $10 or $12 a pop? That is not in your budget. All extra money should be going to immediately reduce and eliminate that toxic debt.

I was raised with very conservative financial values. My parents never used credit cards until the rewards started showing up. Even then, my mom would put a line item in her checking account register for EVERY CC TRANSACTION. Therefore, if there wasn't money in the checking account to cover the CC purchase, the purchase was not made. She doesn't do this anymore and I wouldn't advocate for that kind of extremism with tools like mint.com around these days, but the message is clear: you save money, and THEN you by stuff. If you do it the other way around, you will end up paying thousands of dollars in exorbitant interest fees to the CC companies.

I also don't think anyone should finance a car purchase. Cars are a rapidly depreciating asset. Paying interest on a depreciating asset? No thanks.

My high school football coach (who doubled as my high school economics teacher, small school) said there are only 2 reasons to go into debt: a house and an education. I tend to agree with that.

Anyway, now I'm just preaching. To each his own, you are all responsible adults, I'm not your mother, blah blah blah. Go read Mr. Money Mustache if you want more to read more about how I approach money.

Bravo, A's and 8's!

I wasn't "raised" a specific way, but I was always one that if I didn't have the money, I didn't get the item. Interest seemed like the biggest, most absurd, insane idea I'd ever heard of. Pay money for money? WTF is that shit? ATM fees are the same way. I give you (the bank) money, with which you make money, money that you don't share with me, and then I gotta pay you again just to get my own money back? Are you insane?

My ex-wife got me into the credit game, and to her credit, she was a snake about it. Like wrobe is doing, she'd push debts onto no APR jobs, then switch em around or pay em off, allowing us to sort of live above our means without having the "credit penalty" of interest. But, and this is what wrobe and everyone else needs to remember and plan for - Shit Happens. You lose a source of income, you have an emergency cost that causes you not to be able to pay in time, you (I) get (got) a divorce, and your house of cards comes toppling in on your face. Your little $10k project that you've been juggling on 0% apr just turned into a $10k project for which you are paying 20% apr (or $24.XX% in my case), and you're paying a car payment a month and watching your $10k principle drop a whopping $5 every time.

I'll admit my actions today were odd, and it got better as I went through my drawer and found 2 more pre-approved offers that I got. It was an instant red flag day with 5 hard hits and 5 approvals for an additional 5 figure credit increase in less than 12 hours. But I earned this through using my resources properly. And according to the CK simulator, everything I did today caused my score to increase. It may have been better to wait until I need to transfer balances to avoid interest. 3 of the 5 new accounts are O% interest for a minimum of 12 months.

I'm not done. I closed one account and plan on closing 2 more that have annual fees.

Losing 1000 will do more harm to my feelings than anything else.

As for my card counting skills, I was a bit nervous and cautious in my 11 hours of blackjack, but I recall very few high positive counts and the 2-3 times there was a high count I caught the cards. It was the marginal +2,3 counts where I was getting crushed.

I haven't borrowed gambling money since 1992. And that was paid off within an hour.

Nice buy on that car...

Quote: wroberson

I'm not done. I closed one account and plan on closing 2 more that have annual fees.

Getting back on topic, you do know that closing a bunch of accounts could hurt your credit score, right?

Yes. I'm shocked that it went up in the simulator. The one I closed was finger hut, a catalog thing I've had for a year. I bought this pad for my mom, r.i.p., and a GPS that I use daily. I was going to get a set of large binoculars for the comet hat disentagrated on Thanksgiving, but I held off. The other 2 are my oldest accounts with low limits and annual fees. I'll have the exact damage in about a week. I'm expecting the score to crash from 738 to under 700.

I'm just pondering if I should spend the 2k to get the 50,000 miles, spend the 500 to get the 200 cash, and spend the quota to get the 10,000 resort credits. I don't need more crap and the only thing that makes any sense is gold and silver at apmex, or jmbullion. With that I can sell and repay the the card(s). The cost is .89 per oz over spot for silver and the cost over spot for the gold. Shipping would be free. Most likely a small loss if done with a quick turnaround.

It made my day and I really want that gold, silver and free airfare.

EDIT: The forecast is confusing. Maybe I'll dump it all into pepper and coriander.

The most important day of my financial life was back about 22 years ago when I finally stopped buying car after car on credit with small downpayments. As another poster said, I was wasting thousands of dollars on interest for a rapidly depreciating asset that I knew I would never keep. Buying cars on credit and paying them down faithfully may help your credit score and may make you feel good (and you may feel all giddy and superior as you drive that shiny new piece of performance machinery you didn't expect you could afford off the lot) but any car purchased over time is a very poor financial choice to make.

Quote: Beethoven9th

Getting back on topic, you do know that closing a bunch of accounts could hurt your credit score, right?

If there is an annual fee then it is worth the small hit. His AAOA will rebound after a few months so his scores would rebound as well.

A&8's... I fully understand your point and you may be 100% correct about debt. However, for me it goes like this. I currently have $800 in credit card debt. We don't make a lot of money so $800 currently is a fair amount of money. Last weekend we went to the casino as we do about once every 6 or 7 months. We took $600 with us. We absolutely should have paid the credit card down but sometimes just getting out and having a life and doing something that you really want to do trumps a little bit of interest that we are paying. If I have to live in a shell because of that $800 then what is the point of living. Just my opinion, right or wrong it is still my opinion.

Quote: tournamentking

The most important day of my financial life was back about 22 years ago when I finally stopped buying car after car on credit with small downpayments. As another poster said, I was wasting thousands of dollars on interest for a rapidly depreciating asset that I knew I would never keep. Buying cars on credit and paying them down faithfully may help your credit score and may make you feel good (and you may feel all giddy and superior as you drive that shiny new piece of performance machinery you didn't expect you could afford off the lot) but any car purchased over time is a very poor financial choice to make.

Wait until you have one stolen. I agree, not even a 2500 car at 22%. You need collision and that's where the insurance rates go up.

First,

Thanks to everyone who puts up with me and for posting solid advice, comments and jibs. I do read more posts than I post.

Second,

Had to go there...

I did the math on my above post on page 6. It's a no brainer to me. I can pick up 2 ounces of gold at the current price of 2616 and resell it back to the same company for 2470. A loss of 146. For that 146, I get 200 cash and 5 one way tickets on SW Air valued at 189 each.

Bonus: $1145
Loss: $146
Prize: $999

I would be a fool not to do this. The other option is buying 2500 in crap that has no to little value to me.

I'm pretty much done here, but who knows, everything could come crashing down and I would have to share my destruction to be fair.

Thanks again...