Here is an interesting article from the Columbus Dispatch. I hope you’ll take a few minutes and read it, but I thought I’d point out a few things that I found interesting frightening. According to Consumer Reports

–Americans will charge 63.6 BILLION dollars on their credit cards during the holiday season

–23% of those charges will not be paid of until MARCH!

–Americans AVERAGE over $9000 dollars in credit card debt

If you are in debt, and you are ready to get out, then this is the site for you. I encourage you to spend some time, read some of the posts that you find her, and consider getting out of debt… TODAY. First step? Stop using your credit cards! Do you REALLY want to write a check in March for a Barbie you purchased in December which was then lost by the first of February?!?

• 0 Comments

I was looking at Google News a few minutes ago, and I came across this article, over at Forbes.Com

http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/
ap/2006/12/19/ap3268775.html

I am not going to reprint the article, b/c I don’t want to run into “copyright” issues. But, I do want you to read the article and scroll down the the very, very bottom section. Please note the following from a Mr. Dodd, who is a financial analyst for Morgan, Keegan, & Company, Inc.,

“Roughly 50 cents of every dollar spent in the U.S. is charged on a credit card…”

That’s right. According to Mr. Dodd, 50 PERCENT of the money spent in the United States of America goes through the hands of one of the credit card agencies. FIFTY PERCENT!!!

Boy, this makes me sleep easier. Here I was, worried that by talking someone into getting out of debt, I might be hurting the credit card companies. Whew! Now I can relax.

Please. For the love of all things good and holy, wake up and get rid of your plastic. Don’t you realize that the FEES that credit card companies charge are being paid by the consumer! The more you charge, the more fees get paid, the bigger the companies become, the more entrenched they become in our society, the more power they have, the more fees they can charge… etc. etc. etc.

Credit card companies charge merchants a fee to use their service. This fee can range from about 2 to 3 percent, depending on the credit card. That means that credit card companies are receiving at least 2 percent from at least 50 percent of every single purchase in the United States of America. Just sit still for one second and think about how much money that is…

Wow.

Hope you like your credit card rewards. Man, they are AWESOME!

• 0 Comments

If you use Cingular as your cellular service provider, I have bad news and good news. First, your per text message charge is going to go up from .10 per message to .15 per message. The good news? Because this change constitutes a change in their service, you may be able to get out of your current contract without paying any termination fees! The new charge will hit customers on Januay 21, 2007, and you will have 30 days from that date to terminate your contract with Cingular. For much more information, please see the following resources:

The Consumerist
FatWallet Forums

• 0 Comments

I like to save money. But, there are times when I actually like to spend money. Okay, okay. “Like to spend,” is a bit much. There are times when I choose to spend money, on stuff that I want. Like today. I wanted a new MP3 Player, made by Sansa. So I clicked around, and found this pretty sweet deal. 8GB, Brand New, sold by Amazon. If you have a need for a last minute Christmas idea, check this out: $149.00 SHIPPED! (There are other great deals on the Sansa line of players, so click around!)

For more stocking stuff, check out my personalized Amazon store.

• 0 Comments

I’ll be hosting the Carnival of Debt Reduction, for back-to-back weeks, on Tuesday, December 26 and Tuesday, January 2nd. The first Carnival will be hosted HERE at the main, No Credit Needed blog, and the second Carnival will be hosted over at the No Credit Needed Network site. So, if you want to be included in the LAST Carnival of Debt Reduction for 2006 and the FIRST Carnival of Debt Reduction for 2007, NCN is the PLACE TO BE. Click here to submit your article via the Blog Carnival Site.

• 0 Comments