Baz L – Hey! Haven’t heard from you in a while! Hope you had a Happy Holiday and a good new year. So they got you too. Maybe if we start calling them every day they’ll cave! I figured they wouldn’t be giving away “free” money for long. I seriously wonder how long these rewards cards will really last. Nice to hear from you.

Honestly, I’ve never even looked at my interest rate, because I didn’t plan on carrying a balance with them. If I need to make a purchase, I use my BoA card at 7.9%.

But Chase has got me at 22%. They recently bumped my limit an additional 1.5 K, so I thought that meant good things.

I called them up to ask for a rate reduction and I got the generic 1.5% drop. But what I was also told is that, there are “no specials available” right now, and that I could try back later. They told me that if I accept the 1.5% drop, then I’d be locked in for the next 6 months.

So I think I’ll stick to the plan of calling every week or so.
Yeah, they suck for rates, this is true.

Oh, BTW.

I have the rewards card with them, but I applied for the Freedom card (since u get 3% on the top 3 spending categories). I was refused (for some reason). No one can tell me what the problem is. They say it’s due to something in my credit report. After this, I checked my credit report and scores and everything is fine. My lowest score is 739.

I guess they don’t want someone who doesn’t carry balances as a customer, owe well…

I’m currently carrying a balance on a CC for the second time in my life. The first time, was when I was straight out of college (yes OUT, after college). That was the period from when I graduated and was no longer eligeble to work on campus and before I got the first pay check (actually about the 3rd) from my new job. There were day to day things like groceries, rent still had to be paid, security deposit on new apartment, moving expenses, stuff for the new apartment…so that was then.

Right now I’m carrying a balance again. This one is because of choice though. The CC I’m using has a 7.9% APR. Although I could just pay it off from my savings account (5.05%), it would nearly deplete my savings. You never know when you need *cash* (i.e. need to write a check or transfer some money) when a CC just won’t do. If I’m caught with my pants down and need something like that, then I’d have to incur huge cash advance charges.

I’ll pay this off in one billing period however, but this was a personal choice: savings over credit card balance.

Regarding using credit cards for when stuff happens, I prefer and emergency fund. Problem with a credit card is depending on the emergency, you might not be able to pay it back and end up carrying a balance. Better to stash the cash and use it instead.

As for not carrying balances for fun, I’ll back you up there, I’d rather get a root canal. Never ever again.

Regarding throwing money away, you’re correct I did. I’m concerned now because I got smart (”de-idiotized”). I had an earth shattering event occur in my life that caused me to look at a great many things differently, and thus here I am blogging about what I learned. Blogging in hopes that other people can read my story and not make the mistakes I made.

- The glblguy, a recovering idiot

I’m not sure where you live, but around my parts money doesn’t grow on trees. When money is needed (or wanted), sometimes is is cheaper to rent it than it is to divert it, and faster to rent it than earn it. The decision to rent money can be distilled to pure economics and be well reasoned.

In my case, I was carrying a balance at 2.9% interest in order to earn 4.5% in a high yield savings account, netting me an after tax profit of .34%. I carried a balance, so by your definition I’m an idiot…or perhaps your sweeping generalization is somewhat less accurate than it is offensive?