My First Pseudo-Rant

I feel a little too much like Andy Rooney here, but do you want to know what bugs me? Those credit card commercials recently where all sorts of people are shopping and buying all sorts of things and they’re all dancing around the store and swiping their cards and everything is happy, right? Then some dope comes up with cash and stalls everybody because he isn’t just swiping a card. He gives this apologetic look to everybody like “gee whiz, I’m really sorry guys, I’ll have a credit card next time. I’m sorry I wasted your precious time.”

It’s an interesting tactic by the credit card companies. The basic message is that it is more polite to use a credit card instead of any other form of payment because it is “faster”. Not only should you use it for your own good, but for the good of others, too. Right, does anybody really believe this? Take cash somewhere, use it as payment (by the way, it is still accepted in monetary transactions anywhere), and see what happens. I’ll save you the time. You give them the money, they give you the change. Done. Where’s Lorry when you need him?

I saw another commercial for either Home Depot or Lowes. They have a store credit card where you don’t have to make any payments for a year if you spend over $300 at the store. Some dopey husband and his wife are in the store and they find out they don’t have to pay for anything for a year so they talk about buying all sorts of things and getting extra carts, and remodeling this and replacing that like everything is free. You’re paying for it sooner or later, so just pay for it now. You aren’t saving any money using a credit card, and the credit card companies do not have you, the consumer, in mind when they try to get you to use their cards. Would you rather pay for 100% of it now, or 20% of it 6 times?

Here’s my financial advice: Buy only what you can pay for. Carry cash. Use it as needed.