Credit cards -good or bad?

[Randyonr3]

I brought something up last year on the forum that very few think about..
its not your credit when going but recovering it when you get back..
We paid off everything befor we left, our home, our rental, our cards and had nothing in bills when we left..
8 years later, we went in to buy a Car... Not a chance.. our credit history had dropped off the system and were told we we were worse off than having bad credit as we were now "Ghosts" .. even thou we owned property..
we ended up borrowing a small amount <(at high interest) using our home to restart our credit..
Dont dump your cards if you ever plan on comming back.........

[capn_billl]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

But I wonder if it is the same problem that Foolishsailor spoke of..."With a debit card your money is gone, with a credit card if you prove you were robbed, or that there was a form of identity theft you are not out the money. They cancel the card".If you pay up front and it is stolen, would you loose the money?

Some have a hot number to call if stolen, but the big protection is you rarely put more than a hundred or two on at a time, limiting loss to whatever you haven't spent yet.

Also harder to steal someones identity from a prepaid.

Also no way to max out credit, or empty checking account.

SO a loss is more like losing an empty change purse, no frantic phone calls trying to stop payment, and protect your credit, and life savings, and replace ID's.

[capn_billl]

Originally Posted by Randyonr3

I brought something up last year on the forum that very few think about..
its not your credit when going but recovering it when you get back..
We paid off everything befor we left, our home, our rental, our cards and had nothing in bills when we left..
8 years later, we went in to buy a Car... Not a chance.. our credit history had dropped off the system and were told we we were worse off than having bad credit as we were now "Ghosts" .. even thou we owned property..
we ended up borrowing a small amount <(at high interest) using our home to restart our credit..
Dont dump your cards if you ever plan on comming back.........

Yeah; accounts drop off after 7 years. 10 if delinquent.
You have to have at least one active account every 5 years or so.

[svpattyd]

Not having credit history can also effect auto insurance rates and home/ renters insurance rates.

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by capn_billl

Some have a hot number to call if stolen, but the big protection is you rarely put more than a hundred or two on at a time, limiting loss to whatever you haven't spent yet.

Also harder to steal someones identity from a prepaid.

Also no way to max out credit, or empty checking account.

SO a loss is more like losing an empty change purse, no frantic phone calls trying to stop payment, and protect your credit, and life savings, and replace ID's.

I don't know to me if you're putting so little on it what's the purpose in having it? You'd be constantly going online to add to it and in that emergency when you really need it you don't have it. The prepaids seem more a PITA to me but then I use mine a lot here in Thailand and back in the States. The key is you have to pay them off monthly and if they get stolen there is protection for that but do have a backup.

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by Randyonr3

8 years later, we went in to buy a Car... Not a chance.. our credit history had dropped off the system...

Good point. I remember talking to a fellow some years back who was convinced that he could get a loan anytime he wanted, because, as he put it "I have perfect credit--I've never borrowed a penny!"

I don't think I ever quite convinced him that NO credit history is, in many ways, worse than a bad credit history. Without ever having borrowed anything, without any credit history, he was going to find it quite impossible to get any kind of serious loan if he ever needed one. I tried to explain the need to slowly build up a credit history with credit cards, or a personal line of credit at a bank. I suspect, however, that he continued to eschew banks and credit, ignorantly believing that if disaster ever struck, and he suddenly had a real NEED to borrow anything, he would be able to do so because of his "perfect credit."

It really is kind of amazing (and sad) how many people haven't got the first clue how money, banks, and the financial markets work in our modern world.

[capn_billl]

Originally Posted by Doodles

I don't know to me if you're putting so little on it what's the purpose in having it? You'd be constantly going online to add to it and in that emergency when you really need it you don't have it. The prepaids seem more a PITA to me but then I use mine a lot here in Thailand and back in the States. The key is you have to pay them off monthly and if they get stolen there is protection for that but do have a backup.

With a prepaid you don't only have to have one, you can get as many as you want.

You use your prepaid when using an atm with a laptop duct taped to the side in a third world alley, and use your primary card when picking up your charter boat, or checking into a major hotel for a month.

[sv Winterlude]

We have one credit card, a VISA since that seems to be the most accepted outside the US (at least in the Western Caribbean). It actually simplifies our monthly bills since we just set them up to be paid automatically by the VISA (keeps the automatic payments away from our checking account). Then a VISA payment is automatically paid monthly with our checking account. Since I may have no way of knowing how much the VISA would be every month, the automatic amount is set up to cover a minimum amount that we always have on it. The balance gets paid whenever I have an internet connection and can check it & pay it online. This way we have no bills to worry about monthly which works out great while cruising! Good Luck!

[SaucySailoress]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Only two cards that matter visa and MasterCard.

Dave

The only two cards that really matter are Mastercard Gold and Diners Club. 'coe they're the ones that get you into the airport lounges.

[44'cruisingcat]

We love our credit cards. Have been living almost exclusively on them for at least the last 10 years, never paid a single cent of interest on them, and in fact they've saved us interest back when we were paying off mortgages.

[JRM]

Originally Posted by SaucySailoress

The only two cards that really matter are Mastercard Gold and Diners Club. 'coe they're the ones that get you into the airport lounges.

Pffft. Gold is so 1980's. The new highbrows are carrying the Carbon card. It's $600 a year just to keep it, more if you want the real goodies. Gets you into the usual airport lounges, but also special events and VIP treatment at places like Sak's. They advertise right on it that it's only available to the top 1%.

JRM

[David_Old_Jersey]

I read a leaflet on the prepaid CC's a while back (I was at an airport and was bored!) - seemed that one of the catches was that they expired (after 6 months?). Not sure if that was on the remaining balance after 6 months following issue / loading or simply if unused for 6 months.

But to be fair, I wasn't paying that much attention - so could have got that wildly wrong!