[Pic0o]

I just checked our bill to see it inflated roughly $15 bucks a month, for the same services. While on the phone, I also learned HBO is in the $13 bucks per month range (yeah, I passed on adding this). February is looking to be a hefty inflation month, as I know the credit cards are also doing the 'you must pay interest on no payments' stuff.

I also hear D.C. is actually getting motivated to make some jobs. I'm betting tax time + lots of unemployed people = a sting to the taxed bottom line profits for politicians. Inflation sucks, especially when those of us lucky enough to still have a job, stand just about zero chance of getting any pay increase, let alone something to keep up with the inflation rates.

/am rant.

[JeT]

Gotta love inflation with no pay raise.

[J0k3r]

Pic0o, on 12 February 2010 - 09:07 AM, said:

I just checked our bill to see it inflated roughly $15 bucks a month, for the same services. While on the phone, I also learned HBO is in the $13 bucks per month range (yeah, I passed on adding this). February is looking to be a hefty inflation month, as I know the credit cards are also doing the 'you must pay interest on no payments' stuff.

I also hear D.C. is actually getting motivated to make some jobs. I'm betting tax time + lots of unemployed people = a sting to the taxed bottom line profits for politicians. Inflation sucks, especially when those of us lucky enough to still have a job, stand just about zero chance of getting any pay increase, let alone something to keep up with the inflation rates.

/am rant.

Time Warner sounds like Comcrap in the aspect of price hikes. Whats this credit card thing you speak of?

[Pic0o]

@ CC Thing:
I saw multiple letters, that basically state 2 things:
1. For any 'No payments' plan, you must make a minimum payment of the interest, but not the core card payments.
2. Minimum payments (for regular cards and payments) are now calculated from your total balance, not some fixed number.

These are Gov't mandates to 'fix the credit cards'. I can see where the thought process is going, but it still seems kinda useless, except for people with no ability to grasp that always making minimum payments = eternity to pay off balance.

[Pea]

I like that having a great credit score and yet no credit cards hurts my credit in the long run. I thought by at least building credit via paying bills and paying off two different car loans at the lovely age of 23 would be good enough. Apparently, that is not so and you really HAVE to have a credit card even with a great credit score. I'm in the 700's for Christ's sake! I don't like to owe people money or pay interest on shit. Why the fuck is there punishment for that?

This entire world is retarded. I want to be apart from it.

/rant

=)

I did some offbrand c's. Probably not the best idea. Lmao.

[Pic0o]

They gets antsy if you are too good @ paying bills and not having a balance.

[Xerxes]

Pic0o, on 19 February 2010 - 07:44 AM, said:

They gets antsy if you are too good @ paying bills and not having a balance.

That is not true at all I learned. I use my VISA to avoid paying bank fees as the transaction limit is well below what I do in a month as I use 0 cash. I keep my balance on my CC @ 0 pretty much all the time (I have never paid any interest with my credit card). My credit score is very high apparently for someone my age (29), or at least thats what the mortgage broker told me when we went to check.

Honestly, I am generally too lazy to remember to pay bills on my own, all my bills get charged to my credit card directly. I will never let a company do direct withdrawl from my bank account, working in billing proved to me that is a terrible idea. Computer makes an error, sorry you are fucked for 5-7 days while it gets adjusted. With a credit card I can just call them up and be like, stop that payment bitches!


Rather than the gov't fixing credit cards they need to outlaw those OUTRAGOUS payday loan folks. The interest on those make it so the retards who go there will continually have to and keep falling more behind.

[Pea]

Yea those places are disgusting! Swindling greedy bastards.

But that's what I'm saying, I have a great credit score, especially for my age and yet, I applied for a Lowe's credit card and they would only give me a limit of 800. So I said whatevs and just paid cash for my washer and dryer. Those credit cards have some ridiculously high interest rates on them but not for the first year so I was gonna use that to my advantage... oh well. Spent what I had saved up instead. Although not all of it of course, gotta have those emergency funds just in case. =\

If the mortgage person was happy with your score then I'll stop sweating. I plan to be house-hunting in two years when I get out of the AF. WEWT! So that was the only reason I was really getting my panties in a bunch. =p

[JeT]

Pea, on 19 February 2010 - 12:19 AM, said:

I like that having a great credit score and yet no credit cards hurts my credit in the long run. I thought by at least building credit via paying bills and paying off two different car loans at the lovely age of 23 would be good enough. Apparently, that is not so and you really HAVE to have a credit card even with a great credit score. I'm in the 700's for Christ's sake! I don't like to owe people money or pay interest on shit. Why the fuck is there punishment for that?

Pea, on 20 February 2010 - 11:33 PM, said:

But that's what I'm saying, I have a great credit score, especially for my age and yet, I applied for a Lowe's credit card and they would only give me a limit of 800. So I said whatevs and just paid cash for my washer and dryer. Those credit cards have some ridiculously high interest rates on them but not for the first year so I was gonna use that to my advantage... oh well. Spent what I had saved up instead. Although not all of it of course, gotta have those emergency funds just in case. =\

If the mortgage person was happy with your score then I'll stop sweating. I plan to be house-hunting in two years when I get out of the AF. WEWT! So that was the only reason I was really getting my panties in a bunch. =p

For my first credit card I got declined when I tried to get a buy.com CC card (reward points can all be put toward awesome buy.com things). Paying bills and paying off loans doesn't really mean much to a lot of these places if you don't actually pay through a credit card and build up credit or own real estate.

Anyhoo, I ended up getting a CC with my bank and they gave me a $5,000 LOC right off the bat. Some Visa Signature Power Rewards hoo-haa. They were able to see that I had a checking (was using debit for years) and savings account with them, so they could see my real-world history a lot easier than going by just credit score stuffens. I was looking for a card with no weird fees for maintenance or certain transfers or minimum whatevers -- but one with a moderate APR, as I was going to pay off my balance fully every month. Other than school loans I pay towards monthly, I am not in any debt, so wasn't someone who wanted to use a CC to carry over a balance month to month.

Now I pretty much put 95% of my purchases / bills on the thing and rack up them reward points.

If you're potentially house-hunting in 2 years, I'd try to get something setup sooner than later. Maybe through the bank you use. World loves to fuck people over.

[Pea]

Hmm I guess it couldn't hurt... I just don't really want one. Lmao. I dunno, I just have a vendetta against them. But since overall it'd probably help me a hell of a lot more to get one I will try it out. If not through my bank, possibly through USAA. I hear they're pretty swell about that stuff. Although in the long run, my bank would maybe like me more. HMMM!!! Thanks for the info, I don't want to run into any major hiccups when the house hunting commences.

[Pic0o]

Debt free must be nice. We have a couple cards, home improvements loans and a car payment coming back to the fold. At least my old debt from my foolish just out of college phase is almost completely gone. Buying computer gear on cards is dangerous just outta school, but that loot gave me more learning per dollar, as those machines are still running.

I like the idea on paying with a CC. The debt reverse crap is silly to deal with.

[JeT]

Pea, on 08 March 2010 - 01:25 AM, said:

Hmm I guess it couldn't hurt... I just don't really want one. Lmao. I dunno, I just have a vendetta against them. But since overall it'd probably help me a hell of a lot more to get one I will try it out. If not through my bank, possibly through USAA. I hear they're pretty swell about that stuff. Although in the long run, my bank would maybe like me more. HMMM!!! Thanks for the info, I don't want to run into any major hiccups when the house hunting commences.

Sounds good. So far I've paid $0.00 in fees or interest or whatever, so I think as long as you read all the small print and know what you're signing up for, you'll be good.

Pic0o, on 08 March 2010 - 07:36 AM, said:

Debt free must be nice. We have a couple cards, home improvements loans and a car payment coming back to the fold. At least my old debt from my foolish just out of college phase is almost completely gone. Buying computer gear on cards is dangerous just outta school, but that loot gave me more learning per dollar, as those machines are still running.

I like the idea on paying with a CC. The debt reverse crap is silly to deal with.

Word. Well I have some decent-sized school loans to pay back, but other than that I'm good.

It helps that I sold my car before moving to Philadelphia and haven't had to pay for car insurance or car payments, etc. for last 5+ years. Def saves me a good bit of money month-to-month. Sometimes it would be nice to be able to just drive off somewhere, though.

I'm also still renting, so I'm not really investing in property at the moment, which would be nice also-- but I just don't know where I'll be a couple years down the road, so putting a down payment on some small house doesn't really seem like a good idea for me just yet.

[Pea]

Yea, debt free is nice, I really want to keep it that way too dammit. GRRRR!!! Lol. But I dun has a house! AAAHHHH!!! Soon though... sooooooon! Although, the house-hunting might get pushed back to 3 years from now instead of 2. It depends what jobs are available imagery-wise when I get out. If I can contract with the gov for a year overseas I could make some mad monies (provided I get my bachelor's between now and then.) If I take 3 more CLEPs I'll have my associate's, so it's do-able. But with the contract money of that extra year I could make a hefty downpayment on a house. Some place like the UAE or Qatar would be the best cause you can still drink there, lol. But depending what's available I would maybe take an Iraq or Afghanistan one. We'll see how I like Afghanistan when I deploy, either later this year or next year.

I'm thinkin Austin, TX for a living area once I'm house-hunting though. Texas is good to its teachers and I love hot, sunshiney weather! Plus, Austin is beautiful, lots of hills and pretty landscape.