I Don't Understand Why We Need Credit Cards
So we did a Dogwalk on how the Western Education system was designed like a 100 years ago or so and somehow we got on the topic of credit cards.
Credit cards have been one of those things that irks me forever because they never made any sense to me. People in my life would always tell me since I was like in college that I need to "build up my credit". They tell you that you need a credit score over 800. They say that you should use your credit card on things like groceries and your phone bill to build up that credit so you can buy a house some day.
Why the fuck would I pay with an IOU when I have the cash on me now? It just feels like a scam to me. Always has. Always will.
This is the argument that people routinely make and have sent me in DMs
This is the common reply, but this makes ZERO sense. Oh because I have a history of paying my credit card bill used for groceries every month on time you're going to able to trust me enough to give me a $400,000 mortgage? Fuck outta here. The banks could have a ton of different ways. Bank statement, tax history, a down payment, employment verification, pay stubs, etc. Proof that you can pay the mortgage as opposed to proof that you have paid for the groceries.
And people have been buying home with mortgages forever. "It's A Wonderful Life" came out in 1946 and that plot involved home loans. Credit Scores have only existed since 1989. Younger than millennials, but we "need" a good credit score to get a loan. Then the credit card companies are allowed to charge people with low scores higher interest rates. Google says that the highest credit card interest rate is 36% right now. I'd call that loan sharking. How is a person ever supposed to pay off a credit card debt with that type of interest rate? It keeps them poor and in bad credit. America has over $1TRILLION in credit card debt for the first time ever
How is that good for anyone except the banks? These are genuine questions. I don't understand why credit cards have become so vital and so detrimental at the same time. I kind of think that there should be a cap on interest rates. If you can't make a profit on like 15% and the processing fees from retailers then I don't know what to tell you. That is my rant of the day. Come back tomorrow when I talk about Trudeau. In the meantime click the video and subscribe. We are almost at 100k.
