Comments on: We Don’t Need No Stinking Consistency

By: D Schneider

D Schneider — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 17:00:42 +0000

Quote: "Anyone who uses their credit card to charge monthly expenses is a financial idiot. If you can't afford to pay cash"

Actually it can be very adventageous to you credit rating to do just that. The catch of course is to make sure that you pay off the balance each month, which is what a majority of people fail to do.

By: porchwise

porchwise — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 02:15:02 +0000

I carry an ATM debit card and there are no fees to use it anywhere. I do have a credit card but only because you need one to rent a car, make reservations, etc. Anyone who uses their credit card to charge monthly expenses is a financial idiot. If you can’t afford to pay cash, you can’t afford it (mortgages and bank financed vehicles aside).

By: Brad Warbiany

Brad Warbiany — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 21:32:25 +0000

Mr. L,
I'm not sure where you live (and when I was in CA I never saw this). But here in Georgia there are quite a few businesses (some gas stations, a few liquor stores) that give discounts for cash purchases. I had never even thought about the fact that they're doing this to reduce fees imposed by credit card companies, but I think I might have to start using cash a little more at the places which offer this...

By: Lenny

Lenny — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 18:06:00 +0000

If there were a suspicion of price fixing, colusion or other anti-trust activity then it should be stated that way and the "punishment" can fit the crime.

It strikes me that they're taking the (politically) easy way out by asking congress to trump the industry's price fixing (and previous governmental price fixing) with new improved congressional price fixing. It's the easy way out because politicians are suckers for a chance to claim that they are "lowering costs for consumers"

And the end result is layer upon layer of regulations that were enacted ostensibly to benefit consumers but end up increasing costs in many unindended ways - which leads to a new effort to mandate new and different cost controls.

By: Mr. L

Mr. L — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 01:08:54 +0000

What’s inconsistent here? Sure, petitioning the government to cap these fees is theoretically inconsistent…if the field wasn’t already heavily distorted through regulation in the first place. As you pointed out in the earlier entry, merchants aren’t allowed to pass the costs of the charge to the customers that use it, and regulations controlling who can process transactions have pushed up the fee — I seem to recall Wal-Mart was trying to do its own processing a few weeks back, estimating that they could cut their fees in half just by cutting one of the intermediaries.