Did anyone else just catch the MSNBC segment on credit card and fees?

How companies are now charging fees for not using cards? But, the sage advise of the "expert" was not to close accounts because it is so hard to get credit now and getting rid of accounts looks bad on your record (I jettisoned 3-4 accounts over the past several years). That those companies had counted debit card swipes vs. credit swipes and were now trying to get people back to using credit vs. saving. They told of some guy in ND who was given an APR of 79.9% on an account he didn't use much. Then they proceeded to say that it is the wild wild West until the laws limiting credit card fees takes affect.

I felt queasy by the time they segment ended.

can afford and drowning the credit card industry in the proverbial bathtub.

has layaways. It's going back to the way it was.

"The way it used to be" people were not saddled with crushing debt already..

The 800 lb gorilla in the room is that many people today have more than a lifetime's worth of debt, and need lay-a-way. Lay-a-way used to be a convenience..a great way to buy a winter coat when they hit the stores in July or when swimsuits arrived in January..or for a clever Mom-way to buy Xmas stuff that could not be snooped:)

and since lay-away was in-store, and people shopped downtown on lunch hours, it was a nifty way to get people into the store...to pay on their lay-away...but like the casinos in Vegas.. you had to traverse the whole store to GET to lay-a-way, tucked into a back-of-the-store niche:evilgrin:

through my credit union. You couldn't pay me to take out another credit card.

my hubby has his credit union credit card.

THAT's IT. They are both paid at the end of the month IN FULL

Probably dropped off to page two by now, but they both had links to an article from USA today.

The 79.9% interest isn't defensible in any way.

When you close accounts it shrinks the denominator of the ratio.

Deadbeats. I like being a deadbeat in this instance.

I have a debit card--no credit cards. No credit accounts, no car payment, nothing.
I bet my credit score is in the dumper--since I tend not to buy what I cannot afford,and since I don't, I have never checked my credit score--and not going to start now.
I guess I am just not a good little consumer!