Once debit cards came out, and I could pay for stuff over the phone, and still avoid COD charges, I cut the bankster plastic up.

Millenials with much student debt probably can't get decent rates and are better off without what banks will give them, especially after the 2005 bankruptcy changes makes it impossible to start over.

and debit card only for 7 years.

I've never incurred a penny of interest charge - but the miles have been/will continue to be pretty nice to have!

One month after I arranged for automatic payment in full of my credit card Wells Fargo jumped my interest rate by 10 points. Guess they are betting that there will be a glitch. I only keep the card for the points.

I may get one as I am planning to go overseas again with more frequency in the next few years, but I've done fine without one for many years, now.

The US hasn't embraced that fully but Europe sure has!

Haven't seen a chip credit card in either country
I have two in Korea

I learned my lesson and haven't used one in over 10 years.

If you have ruled out ever trying to buy a home, maybe it doesn't matter.

a trap. YMMV.

Whereby you get all the fun of giving away hundreds of dollars each month while reaping none of the benefits.


Lots of traps out there.

to housing costs go way down over the years. This has happened for each of our three houses.

A lot of people got fooled by those no-document loans several years ago, which were a trap. But conventional fixed rate loans under conventional terms have been a good investment for the large majority of people who've had them.

I'd rather pay rent for the rest of my life and let someone else worry about repairs, maintenance, etc.

My parents have probably spent the equivalent of a Rolls Royce on home improvements and I've had enough of them as a kid to last me a lifetime.

to whatever rent increases they want to impose, or you'll always be moving, looking for a cheaper place.

With fixed rate mortgages, and being conservative about home improvements, we've seen our relative housing costs go down every year.

Plus things like working in the yard, room makeovers, etc just don't appeal to me at all. I'm the anti HGTV person.

Moving doesn't bother me. I've lived in 6 states in 4 years (for work) and it just does not make sense for me to stay in one place. My (financially well off) sister and BIL do not own a house either and none of them want to deal with the home improvements either. I guess my parents overdoing it (still every year they spend about 5 figures on some sort of renovation) turned her off too.

People with children, however, often realize that children benefit from some stability -- stable schools, friends, etc., that come with more control over housing.

(FTR I have no kids, just a niece and one on the way that I like to spoil).

I would have given anything to move. I went to a small school (96 in my class) where 75 were there since K. Something that happened in 1st grade was talked about on graduation day. And if you didn't fit a certain mold, you were an outcast. I'd much rather have a kid move several times than be subject to what I went through. (My sister fit that mold and was fine).

is different, but I'm glad my kids didn't have to.

kids need. Unfortunately even that is out of reach for most people in our country at this point. We've rented one house in the same awesome school district for several years - but we are fortunate to have that income (we did not inherit it - busy paying off multitudes of student loans that we acquired along the way to the "american dream&quot .

I think this is just another reason I feel most comfortable with other socialists - I just don't see property ownership as some wonderful thing. I'm glad it has been a good experience for you but I had to speak up and let my side be heard as well. I think at some point we will give in and buy for the tax benefits. But for me personally I'd rather put money towards things other than a house.

Merely one of many tools in the "qualify for a house loan" toolbox.

Pay it off every month. We end up getting about $300 free groceries every year.

But I use them quite often to get points and then just pay them off.

That was enough for me.

Went without any for decades.Finally broke down and got an American Express because car rentals and some hotels were a hassle without one but rarely use it and pay it off when I do. Haven't even had a car loan for many years. Funny, when we went to refinance our house I thought I would have a terrible time but it turned out I had excellent credit.

I almost broke down and got a store card the other day when they offered 40% off of a rather large purchase but I didn't and I am glad.

but only if you pay most or the entire thing off each month. Using credit because you need it is usually detrimental to your credit rating since it is doubtful you will be able to keep balances low.

50% of your credit limit it will reflect negatively as they look at how much credit you have and how much you have used.

We just got a secured credit card at the advice of our mortgage guy in an effort to clean up our credit and raise our scores so we can finally buy our own place. The less of your available credit you use, the more it improves your credit score, but after 10% it really drops off.

Have two - Amex & Visa.
Both give rewards.
I just hate fishing through my wallets (I carry three wallets to have cash ready with just a reach into the purse.) for cash when people are standing there waiting.
Both are paid off every month.
I understand that the reward points for Delta flights are/have changed - to my detriment. Delta now lets you use points though for partial payment, though, I understand.
In the past I've put airline points to good use, but likely won't be doing as much as that in the future.

Went through bankruptcy about six years ago, learned my lesson and haven't had one since. Debit cards are pretty easy to get and accepted everywhere here (UK) anyway.

I travel for work and could never be without one.

I have mine through my credit union...relatively low rate but I have it set for full balance pay off each month...they don't make a cent of interest off of me. It also earns points and I cash those in at the end of the year for piles of gift cards.

are much more dangerous if you have identity theft or unauthorized charges. Much easier to let the cc company fight it - with debit cards it's up to you to deal with the fraud.

However, we had unauthorized charges against our debit card recently and the bank instantly revered the charges and dealt with it for us. No hassle at all. My daughter had the same experience when she had unidentified charges on her debit card. It may depend on the bank how much they help.

isn't the real problem, though.

This happened to Mr Pipi recently...he had bought an electronic item costing less than $3.00. It didn't work, so the company said OK, send it back and they would refund his money, which they did, into his checking account because he had used his debit card to pay for it.

The bank got suspicious and froze his account, unfortunately not immediately notifying him even though there's a Message Center. No, it took a week for them to send a letter. Meanwhile a bunch of bills he had paid online were held up because of that, but he didn't know that until he got the letter from the bank.

He called the bank and got it straightened out, but it was a major pain.

So two weeks ago a similar thing happened, only this time the bank was suspicious because a piddly amount (again less than $5.00) was sent to a company in China. Again, account frozen. Again, he had to call and straighten it out.

He said to hell with that, and will never use his debit card again for online purchases. Credit cards only, because even if one of them gets frozen for a week or two, at least it's not screwing with the bank account that pays our monthly bills.

It doesn't matter how terrible things get for them, most of what they do is argued to be because of a radical shift in priorities rather than them playing the shit cards they were dealt.

I have still yet to meet a living, breathing "Millennial" who's stated priorities align with the media narrative.

So many of these pieces are nothing more than filling the 24 hour news cycle. Yet it does open up an interesting discussion on the use of credit cards.

the generation coming up is going to have lower wages, smaller houses etc. All the articles on austerity and the like are preparing this generation to not have the "american dream" their parents and grandparents were promised. It's a shift to 3rd world status for the masses.

He wanted to go straight into the workforce (computers). We taught
him to get a credit card, only use it for what he could pay off every month,
and he did (just like we do--never carry a balance on any of our credit cards).

When he was 21 he was able to qualify for a mortgage on his own. We let him
use money his grandmother left him, along with some we gave him that we would
have spent on college for him, to make the down payment. He's continued
to be very astute financially. For about two years he rented out his second bedroom
in the townhouse he bought, and used that money to create a nice savings account
for himself.

He just took a new job last May--hired by someone he'd worked with in a previous
job--and although he hasn't let on to us what he makes, we suspect it's somewhere
in the neighborhood of $75K--maybe more--and he'll be 28 next month.

Then...there's our youngest, still using a credit card on Mom and Dad's account.
He's a grad student now and managed to get scholarships to pay a lot of his expenses
as an undergrad, a Fulbright for his 10 months in Berlin, and now a really nice tuition
aid package for grad school. He'll use up the rest of what his grandmother left him
for grad school (nothing left for a mortgage), but we also talked him into NOT taking
out student loans but let us fund the remainder of what he'd need that he couldn't cover
with work study. So, it's quite likely he'll graduate with an MFA from Yale in 2017 and
have NO student debt. We figure that's as important as learning how to manage a credit card.

I don't want any credit cards. ATM cards work fine and if you are out of money, you just don't get anything further. Its smart...

Have not had a CC since 2000, not hat i don't get offer's i just rip them up and toss them n the trash. Oh i still got a home last year W/out CC history Myth Busted.

debit is easy day to day ... and I've even stopped using that in many locations because the security is obviously lacking in this country. If they start using the chip technology like other countries I would be happy to carry less cash. I find it easy to shop in stores that have ATM's - I can take out some cash from the ATM at Target for example and use it for my purchase there. We've had several cases of scams in restaurants/gas stations (with debit card numbers being stolen) so I use cash there as well.

Good news for America. Cash is king. shut down the payday loan companies. Loan sharks should be in jail.

My wife is 62 and neither of us has had a credit card and don't plan too. We use a debit card but thats a whole different world. If we write checks we're penalized but not so with the debit card. we don't keep much cash around so its either write or slide

It doesn't get used.

We ended up getting one because we get cash back for using it and we can set up our regular bills to be paid with it, but we're wealthy and have no problem paying it off every month. We did use only a debit card for a while, but it has a limit as to how much you can buy on it a day, and that was annoying.

I do think this is a good trend.

or are credit cards saying no to them?

If this is a "jobless out of college" generation - card companies are not going to line up to eat of lot of debt.

Card companies are not dumb. As we have seen they are predatory. If they want these millennials hooked on credit they will find a way.

I went through bankruptcy and even though it was discharged (that means I won) I've had such peace of mind ever since that I just don't want one anymore. Not even for emergencies. I finally make enough that I can save a little every month and I've been able to deal this far with emergencies. Granted, I do need to replace and fix my appliances, but I'll do that when I have enough money to do it.

I can get credit now, and sometimes I've been very close to applying for it, but at the last minute I simply don't. I know that it's a trap anyone and everyone can fall into. There are times I've had to borrow some money to get things fixed, but I always pay it back even if it means having no money for the last couple of weeks in the month.

Life gets simpler and there's nothing wrong with that. For entertainment I use Netflix and I have Comcast that covers my internet access, my telephone and cable TV and I have my computer. What else could I want? I'm not really depriving myself of anything more than instant gratification. I've adapted pretty well to it too.

I use it for Gas and buying stuff on the internet because I get good amount of points for both. I never put more then 300 dollars a month on it though.

I hate that they push these loan sharks on campus by offering free T-Shirts! Yea later you can say "I am in debt up to my navel and only have this cheap T-shirt to show for it".