Protect Your Good Credit

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “If it seems to good to be true, then it probably is. You can’t get something for nothing!”

Credit card companies have long been encouraging consumers to sign up for their card by offering “introductory” teaser rates. For a while, it worked. I know a lot of people who made a career out of flipping their credit card debt from one company to another trying to stay ahead of the “introductory” rate expiration. The shine of those promotions has dulled and consumers aren’t as likely to sign up for a temporary low rate, especially since most learned the hard way, when the “introductory” rate expired, the base rate was usually in the 24% range.

So now there’s a new ploy to get consumers to sign up for yet another credit card. The special interest, special program cards. Yep! They have one for NASCAR which if you use enough and manage to build up an incredible number of points, you could possibly win a chance to become a “Crew Chief for a Day” and get to hang out in the pit with a race team.

When Discover began offering “cash back” rewards, others quickly followed suit. Now you can even get a GMAC Mortgage Equity Reward card which will pay $25 to your mortgage for every $2500 you charge on the card. (Of course, you also have to have a mortgage with GMAC!)

They have found something to attract most everyone. There’s the Amazon.com Platinum Visa, Toys R Us Visa, AARP Rewards Platinum Visa, or the Starbucks Card Duetto which “automatically credits a cardholder’s account with 1% of his/her purchases which can be redeemed for Starbucks coffee. “Depending on how much you spend a month, you may never have to pay for a latte again,” said Chase spokesperson David Chamberlain.

Forget it, folks! It’s just another method contrived to get you to build up credit card debt. You don’t need it. I can pretty much guarantee you that if you look at what it costs to “earn” whatever deal they are offering, it’s more than what it would cost you just to pay for it outright! Whether it’s airline tickets, a trip, toys, a DVD player or coffee, you’re still paying for it……….you’re just paying for it with interest!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 10th, 2005 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Consumer guidelines, General Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.