i started when i was in college you know they always offer credit cards for college students
 	
 	
 		yes
 	
 	
 		so i went ahead and and accepted every one that i was offered because i knew it would be easier to go ahead and get them and establish credit early
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 		right
 	
 	
 		so i pack i pack around a lot of them but i only use a few of them
 	
 	
 		you have a lot of discipline they make it really easy for people to uh to get credit cards especially college students
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		i have uh two daughters who who both are in college or in fact one has finished now but they both have  a lot of credit cards
 	
 	
 		and they give you such high credit limits it's it's easy to get caught up
 	
 	
 		and
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		in the minimum payment trap
 	
 	
 		uh right
 		and then they they give you uh uh the credit limit and then you're always seemingly seemingly up to that limit now i have quite a few credit cards that i'm always almost up to the limit on most of them
 		and that's that's how a lot of people get into trouble
 	
 	
 		yeah i've got i've got two that i you know that usually i'll have a a balance on
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		and then all of the others i just try to use kind of like you would an American Express card and and pay it off every month that way i feel like i'm getting you know a thirty day loan
 	
 	
 		right
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		but i don't have to worry about you know running them up too high except at Christmas then they usually go then they usually get run up pretty good
 	
 	
 		yeah well you have a lot of discipline i uh
 		i'm trying my best right now to pay off some of mine i i've paid off about four credit cards this year and uh
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		but still i have some that are  are up to the limit and especially the Visa card that you can go and get cash on  it seems like every time i'm short of cash i just go get get it from Visa
 	
 	
 		yeah
 		
 
 		now that's one that's i've never used my Visa for cash before
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		can you use it like at a bank machine or
 	
 	
 		uh
 		it well uh you can go in a bank and just hand them the Visa Card and say i want a cash advance
 		or if they've sent you a uh a number that you can use you know a a personal identification number that you can use in the uh Impact machines or whatever you you can do that
 	
 	
 		yeah
 		oh okay
 	
 	
 		because i have one that i don't have a pin number for
 		you know sometimes you have to ask them for that
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		and then i have one that uh just gave me the pin number automatically
 	
 	
 		now we got that's that's funny you said that because we got a credit card um my husband and i got credit cards in the mail one day that we hadn't even applied for
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		then a couple of weeks later we got we got pin numbers
 		and then we got a a bill saying you know uh the yearly fee it was like forty dollars and we we cut them up and sent them back because we we hadn't even applied for them and we didn't want them
 	
 	
 		right
 	
 	
 		but they they had just automatically approved us and sent them without even contacting us
 	
 	
 		oh wow
 	
 	
 		so i thought man i don't know if i trust this or not
 	
 	
 		well they they do that a lot if you have good credit and you have been paying your bills on time everybody in the world will offer you a a credit card
 	
 	
 		it's like let's see if we can get her to run up her bills
 	
 	
 		
 
 	
 	
 		but it's hard i mean it's it's tempting when you see something to say well i'll just charge it
 		and sometimes i'll do that but usually i i will try to pay everything off the next month or the ones that that usually have an outstanding balance all the time i'll i'll pay more than the minimum payment
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		just i feel i feel like even that little bit helps
 	
 	
 		right well you know the way the economy's going and inflation and the recession and all that i think we we really need to try to stay out of debt as much as possible that's
 		that's why i've i've really started to try to to pay off mine and get out of debt because
 		we never know when we might you know get laid off or something especially me i work for Texas Instruments and they've had had a lot of of uh you know layoffs lately
 	
 	
 		i know it
 		well i work for TI too
 	
 	
 		you do
 	
 	
 		and i think they're getting ready to to probably sell us out our division
 	
 	
 		where are you
 	
 	
 		in Johnson City Tennessee
 	
 	
 		Johnson City uh-huh i know they're selling out somebody in Colorado Springs
 	
 	
 		yeah
 		yeah they just they just announced that didn't they
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		so i mean it's it's kind of a bad time to be a slave to your credit cards
 	
 	
 		it it certainly is
 	
 	
 		
 
 	
 	
 		i've um
 		i have worked on a part part time job um
 		where i was a collector for um
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		uh uh a jewelry company
 		people um
 		that they just had this jewelry account it was Zales Jewelry in fact and uh
 		a whole bunch of people i mean they have
 		about a thousand collectors i guess
 	
 	
 		man
 	
 	
 		and uh
 		there's just so many people that have bought jewelry which is really a luxury item and then they they just can't pay for it something something happens you know you hear so many stories listening to them like
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		uh you know they lost their job or uh they they've signed for a friend
 		you know they got it in their name but they got it for a friend and then the friend  wouldn't pay them and now they're stuck with the bill and it's ruining their credit and
 	
 	
 		ooh
 		didn't pay them
 	
 	
 		you really have to watch it this you know because yeah because every every month all of these credit cards report to the credit bureau you know automatically most most of them do
 	
 	
 		man
 		that's scary
 		i didn't realize that
 	
 	
 		yeah and if you if you're uh
 		it's bad because if you you know your bill is due on the fifteenth then you're you're not past due until the fifteenth of the next month but
 	
 	
 		yeah
 		oh okay
 	
 	
 		you know if you if you pay one day after that fifteenth you're not one day late you're thirty days late
 	
 	
 		they don't they don't recognize any time difference do they
 	
 	
 		right
 		right  and anyway we need to watch our credit reports and all that kind of
 	
 	
 		ooh that's scary
 		
 
 		that's something i never thought about getting you know checking with to see what what your credit report looked like
 	
 	
 		um-hum well you know you you can do that i believe it costs a bout ten dollars
 	
 	
 		might be worth it for peace of mind
 	
 	
 		oh yeah it is it is you might even find somebody's been reporting on you and you didn't  even know it you know you i mean you might think you're paying something on time or
 		and you by that day and you're thirty thirty days is not real bad though anyway
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		if you've got a charge off on your credit report report or something like that that's when it really gets bad or something you haven't paid in sixty days or ninety days you know
 		things like that
 	
 	
 		really
 		i think that Discover card has a good idea with you know giving you a little cash back incentive for each amount you you purchase as long as you don't go crazy trying to get cash back
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		and since they don't have the yearly fee
 	
 	
 		do they charge a lot of interest on that card i don't
 	
 	
 		i don't know i've never i haven't gotten one just because it's i i felt like with Visa and MasterCard and American Express you didn't need another one
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		i would think it wouldn't be you know much more than the eighteen or nineteen percent everyone else charges
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		so that that wouldn't be too bad
 	
 	
 		
 
 		well always watch out for somebody anybody who bills you out of Atlanta Georgia or there's a couple of other places that are able to charge us like twenty one and twenty two percent interest
 		i know i had a charge with uh Spiegel
 		and i hadn't read the uh terms of the credit agreement really and uh when i did i you know i realized that that it just looked seemed like i was never paying the balance
 	
 	
 		yeah
 		
 
 	
 	
 		off you know and i looked at the credit card agreement one day
 		and it was like twenty three percent interest
 	
 	
 		holy cow
 	
 	
 		
 
 		and that's the one bill that i hurry up hurried and paid up and and i've always watched it since then you really have to watch those interest rates
 	
 	
 		definitely that's awful
 		i mean there's no point in giving them any more money than we have to so
 	
 	
 		that's true  so anyway they can't bill you any higher than eighteen percent i think in in Texas but there there are a couple of states that can
 	
 	
 		well that's great
 	
 	
 		and one to watch out for is anybody that bills you out of Atlanta  Atlanta Georgia
 	
 	
 		i'll try to remember that one
 		oh
 	
 	
 		well
 	
 	
 		well
 		see i was trying to think if there was anything else
 	
 	
 		
 
 	
 	
 		
 
 		
 
 		um
 		so i guess the worst problem i ever had with with a credit card though was um i got a an item on my bill that i had never purchased
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		i had ordered a sofa and had filled out the paperwork but they weren't supposed to process it until they delivered it and i changed my mind but then they went ahead and charged it on my account
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 		um-hum
 		ooh
 	
 	
 		and it took me about eighteen months
 		to get that all of that mess off of my account
 	
 	
 		wow
 	
 	
 		so that's that's probably the worst thing i've ever had happen with a credit card
 	
 	
 		i wonder if they