Is VISA card trying to immitate AMEX black card?

[smilingcat]

junk mail de jour. An offer for "The New VISA black card. Made of Stainless steel"

straight into my bottomless vertical filing cabinet.

Who are they kidding. More ways to separate you from your cash. AMEX at least made it exclusive so that if you are are such status conscious attention horder it might meant something. It's an invitation only. Minimum requirement is closely held secret by AMEX. but VISA black, plleeeaaaseee get a life. And oh AMEX black is made of metal too, titanium I think it was.

Meh so the new VISA black what's the requirement? I don't even want to know or care.

If you get one of these promos, just throw it away in trash.

[rebeccaC]

If you get one of these promos, just throw it away in trash.

That’s where all the credit card solicitations that come in my mail go. I especially don’t need the supposed status of a credit card. I use a debit card. With the exception of a mortgage and car payment I just spend what I have or I’ve saved.

[Crankin]

Credit cards work to your advantage if you pay them in full every month.
But, most people don't have the discipline to do that.

[Becky]

Credit cards work to your advantage if you pay them in full every month.
But, most people don't have the discipline to do that.

This. We earn hundreds of dollars in cash every year by using credit cards for everything and paying them in full.

[Crankin]

Yup. I've been grocery shopping with my Amex for years. When we moved to this house, 8 years ago, I bought new family room furniture with the money I had earned from that.
I haven't written a check in years!

[TrekDianna]

Credit cards work to your advantage if you pay them in full every month.
But, most people don't have the discipline to do that.

Yup, we earned almost 300,000 airline miles this year. This pays for our international flights for our 2 vacations every year!

[rebeccaC]

Credit cards work to your advantage if you pay them in full every month.
But, most people don't have the discipline to do that.

My debit card pays 1.25% cash back, refunds atm charges from out of system atm's and is connected to a free checking account that pays money market rates for balances the size I usually keep in it. I only use checks for state/fed quarterly taxes, property taxes and car license fees. Everything else is either the debit card, cash or monthly expense direct debits from the checking account. I do use a company credit card for business purposes and get enough United mileage with the card and flying United for at least one free trip a year. I gave up credit cards after paying off the "undisciplined" :) balances from my graduate school years. It took my first year of working and living cheaply to do it. Debt for materialistic goods makes no sense to me anymore.

[Crankin]

Anything paid out of our checking account is done electronically, including state and federal taxes, excise tax for the car, etc. Property taxes are bundled with the mortgage. I don't ever remember paying those separately. It's weird, we never use the debit card, except to get cash from the ATM. Three years ago, we were in San Diego and went to get cash from an ATM. They kept rejecting our card, so we called our bank who told us that they do not allow ATM use in CA and NV because there is too much fraud. The guy told us to just go to the grocery store, buy something for like 5.00, and ask for cash back. It never even occured to us that we could do this. I bought a little bottle of Tylenol for a headache at Vons! Well, we haven't used the card for that since, and I guess it was better than asking my twenty something son for a loan!

[OakLeaf]

All examples of how expensive it is to be poor ...

Not that it doesn't make sense from the bank's point of view, that they should impose charges on people when they can't make enough money from investing small balances. But from a customer point of view, it's infuriating that people with large balances should have fees waived and even interest awarded, where the people who can least afford it have all kinds of charges deducted from their accounts each month. When I was younger it was still possible to live without a bank account, and most of the poor did so. Nowadays, pretty much only the homeless can exist without bank accounts, and circularly, if they want a permanent residence, not having a bank account is a big impediment.

[OakLeaf]

just throw it away in trash.

Shredder please. We call them "identity theft kits."

[BikeDutchess]

+1 on the shredding. And register through the OptOutPrescreen.com website to reduce the number of unsolicited credit card offers, as described in this link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/stop-getting-credit-card-offers-120015383.html

[rebeccaC]

All examples of how expensive it is to be poor ...

Not that it doesn't make sense from the bank's point of view, that they should impose charges on people when they can't make enough money from investing small balances. But from a customer point of view, it's infuriating that people with large balances should have fees waived and even interest awarded, where the people who can least afford it have all kinds of charges deducted from their accounts each month. When I was younger it was still possible to live without a bank account, and most of the poor did so. Nowadays, pretty much only the homeless can exist without bank accounts, and circularly, if they want a permanent residence, not having a bank account is a big impediment.

I don’t fault a non-predatory bank for needing to make some money for handling someone’s money for her or his convenience/need.

There are checking accounts with no minimum account balance requirements and no monthly fees if someone wants to find them. You may have to use a debit card a specific number of times each month (mine is 15) and get online statements, etc. that lessen the cost of handling your money for the bank. In any case as long as fees for services aren't predatory I have no problem with them and see it as a customer responsibility to learn about it and make a choice. I also see where my bank is making enough money off my balance, even with the interest they pay and cash back, to be able to include more services for me. I see nothing wrong with that and appreciate it even though I realize it's more about competition for deposits.

The reality of poverty and homelessness is that there are so MANY different factors involved not just access to a bank account. You might want to do some reading into what the Gates Foundation, among others, is doing in the challenge to get financial services to the poor and getting education to them on the subject. My city has a strong network of help for the homeless and poor, including some Gates project money, because as a community we care about it. If my city didn't I'd probably be volunteering to help it see the advantage to everyone by helping with those issues.

Crankin….I do tax payments by certified mail to have a record of the date of mailing out of habit….and cuz I usually mail on the day due and get a float for one to three weeks on the money. All forms are electronically sent.