well how do you use your credit cards um i use them carefully i guess um yeah i uh i usually don't i usually use them to consolidate billing um-hum uh for convenience sakes but i usually just pay them off at the end of the month yeah especially what i do i don't i don't avoid the finance charges uh as high as they are yeah i don't uh ridiculously high don't you know i don't let them carry over you know i uh um-hum i've been lucky i guess i haven't had a bill big enough where i couldn't pay them off at the end of the month but i i try to try to live within a budget you know and so well so i keep that in mind i just don't you know i guess it takes self-restraint when you have a credit card to know that that there's really you really have to pay these things off yeah plus a lot more plus a lot more you know and you got to realize that there's only this much money in the bank and if you're going to live you know yeah well if you're not going to try to you know say well i'll pay it off sometime in the future yeah for so many years i was so deep in debt on credit cards and i finally dug my way out of them and that was enough to teach me you know you just i can do without them um-hum right some people have a rip theirs up just because they can't you know they can't resist them yeah i got rid of a lot of them especially the ones where i paid fees right uh i kept the ones that were free right and basically the same thing i use them if i'm running short of cash and there's something i want or sale a sale or um-hum when i travel i use them right i use them to float sometimes if it's near the end of the month and you know and you know i don't have a check coming in a few days yeah yeah yeah it's about i'll go ahead and and charge it knowing that the money will be there yeah that's what i do by the time the bill comes yeah if there's running into a cash short or something there's some things some purchases i make that i will do always on credit card just so i have a record of them just like when i take all my cats down to the vet i always pay that on credit card uh-huh right you know we go out to eat a lot of times yeah i don't like to carry a lot of cash with me hum-um i have so i just carry my credit card and and for things like that yeah as long as i know you know that i'm i'm not over doing it yeah it's a and yeah i have i have what i have two credit cards that's all i use i'm always getting stuff in the mail all the time yeah yeah i you are a preferred such and such and you are yeah you're you're already approved then it's back you're already approved to get i i uh for the longest time i i'd gotten rid of my gas credit cards and then all of a sudden i started getting a flurry of these things so i i did i have picked up three gas credit cards in the last couple months oh but uh sometimes they just send them to you and say here have a credit card yeah i have that one oh do you yeah yeah i just ripped i just cut it up and threw it away but you know oh you should have used it you wouldn't have been liable for the payment is that right yeah huh i didn't know that they yeah they send you card that that you didn't want that you didn't apply for it's yours is that right yeah huh of course they could always stick something in the credit bureau that's right that's right they could they can make your life miserable if they want to sure yeah i had a i had a tough battle with Exxon several years ago is that right uh and i i tore up their card and sent it to them and now i've got another one we don't have too many Exxon stations out this way oh really what do you got out there uh we've got lots of Mobil Mobils yeah Mobils are big and we have a few Exxon we've got some other ones like Citgo yeah yeah is a is a one yeah well i don't think i don't think we've got a Citgo here in Raleigh no matter of fact i know we don't yeah got some Shell stations um a few Texaco stations we have several convenience stores that sell Citgo gas but they're not Citgo stations i guess uh-huh right the biggies around here are Exxon Texaco and um well gosh that's about it BP i guess and there's another local one i can't i can't remember what there's some few Sinclair stations gosh i haven't seen a Sinclair station in years yeah the few they're the green dinosaurs are yeah their their gosh there used to when i was a when i was a kid there was a Sinclair station about three blocks away that's where i used to go to pump up my tires and get my flats fixed and all of that logo yeah there's not that many down here that you know once once in a while you'll see one yeah i guess they're still in business just barely i guess yeah yeah well just you ever you ever gotten in trouble with your credit card where they they've charged charged you for something you didn't didn't no uh i i've nope i've never had that didn't purchase i i did have a problem with American Express one time about ten years ago when i first got started in a business um yeah i have uh-huh they got my name of course um-hum and i said yeah this will be handy because i can use this for all my business expenses so i used it went on a went on a trip and used it got the bill and paid it about three weeks later i get this nasty letter from them saying you haven't paid you're overdue pay it right so i ignored it assuming that the things had crossed in the mail about two weeks after that i get a phone call right from someone saying say you are really overdue you need to pay this thing and i said what are you talking about i've already paid you and by that time the bank statement had come in and i had the canceled check uh-huh uh-huh so they said okay we'll take care of it two weeks later i get another nasty letter threatening legal action so i sent them a letter with a copy of the canceled check and their card cut up into about a hundred pieces i said here is your card here is the copy of my canceled check never send me anything else and never heard from them uh-huh somebody blew it but i just yeah i just you know i ain't got time to mess mess around with them right too many people want my money out there i don't have to pay somebody to take it right do you have the Discover card no i don't i i kept wanting i kept thinking about getting it but i just don't use the things enough to justify getting it either either do i they they i don't know i don't know how anybody can fall into this you get cash back and buy into that because um-hum all they're giving you back is a little bit of the interest you paid in that's right that's that's right you're paying you're paying a higher interest rate so they can rebate you two percent of it yeah their interest right their interest rate's twenty two percent um-hum higher than any other ones and then they said that we'll give you back some of your money hum that's right yeah right and in the meantime for that entire year they've got the use of that money uh like right uh yeah it's it it's a rip-off oh it is i there's so but a lot of people think it's wonderful i guess said they're they're doing well everything i've read they've been getting a more market share i guess they're they're advertising and promotions and well uh America's Americans are suckers yeah i guess so yeah i don't know they don't know how to sit there and look at the interest rate and say well this one is only sixteen percent and this one's twenty two hum yeah um-hum yeah i have a on my credit cards i have a grace period if i pay it off within when the bill comes i i don't have to owe any interest yeah i yeah right that's and uh i've only got i've only got two uh two cards now i've got a Bank of Scotland Visa and a Citibank MasterCard right um-hum and and that's it i mean i i don't need anything else now um-hum yeah once in a while uh my i have an American Express they have this a buyer protection thing um-hum where you they extend the warranty yeah so uh they both can be nice around Christmas time and stuff if you're going to buy a TV or uh or uh electronic yeah yeah something something like that then my roommate really believes in American Express he's got the green card or the gold card and the the Optima card and and everything huh he just he just thinks they're terrific uh-huh and i sit there and say yeah look what you pay for that every year he pays for that yeah a couple hundred bucks probably for that like high end card yeah gosh well if you have the money i guess yeah yeah i'm i'm thinking myself get what you pay for huh really yeah you know he's he's impressed because they send you this nice statement every i guess it's every year they itemize all your purchases and they break it down in little categories for you and all that uh yeah it's a nice report but is it worth you know is it worth sixty bucks a year for that little for that report right don't be crazy yeah uh when i was over in England i picked i picked up that uh Bank of Scotland Visa card and i i don't know hardly i don't ever use it except when i want to play the currency market um that's that's when it becomes handy because if i know that you know if the if the uh if the pound is high i can buy more dollar things um-hum for what i'm getting and then if if i think the rate's going to drop then i pay them back in less dollars right right right and it it's worked out most of the times i'm i'm usually pretty good on calling the the currency market uh-huh yeah a lot of people do that for a living i guess yeah trade trade money yeah i i did it when i lived over there i did it quite often uh-huh um and i really i really had a racket going because uh my paycheck was being uh electronically deposited here in the states and the bank that i banked with i could write them a check on an American bank and they would give me instant credit for it so uh-huh and and i and over and over the course of a year i i figured out how long it took them to clear that check and the and the shortest period of time was eight days so generally about eight days before payday depending on what the currency markets were doing i would go up and start buying i'd i'd start cashing in my checks for pounds hum right and then by the time the other check went through it the it the rate was either down or up depending on what i was doing and it it was great i mean i i could made a little extra money there huh yeah and i mean one day you know i might be able to get