Credit Cards

Now let me start off by saying that there's little I hate more than credit cards. They're evil devices invented by evil people. There should be laws against high interest rates, and regulations that require a company to stop interest rates altogether as soon as a card holder is gaining debt faster than he's paying it off, and such regulations should entail death by firing squad when ignored by a company.

That being said, credit cards are a necessary evil, and I, being of responsible nature these days (shut up I am!) am looking to get one. I don't need to borrow money. I only intend to use the credit card when I know for sure that I do or will have enough money to pay it back before interest accumulates, and pay it off online ASAP. What would I use it for? Well, online purchases mostly.  The problem is, I don't have a damn clue what I'm doing. So if my "firing squad" comment hasn't ticked you off already, I'd really appreciate some help in this matter from some of the older members of the site.

Here be my questions:
-What is "APR"? Is this just the interest rate? If not, what exactly is it?
-How often is interest added to the amount you owe? In other words, is it weekly, monthly, or yearly? (Probably not the last one.)
-I'm not a student yet (taking a year off before going to college) and my income is much less than $15000 a year. (Dad and I are living off retirement right now, although I'm applying for jobs.) Is there a credit card with a decent interest rate for somebody like me?
-Is there a card out there for somebody like me, that has cash back rewards?
-Preferably one that lets me put custom imagery on. I want to affix a religious symbol to the card, in case the evil temptation makes me almost buy something I can't afford.
-And one that lets me pay online.
-Those of you who have cards, what companies do you go with or recommend?
-Anything else I should know?

Thankies. 

I want to affix a religious symbol to the card, in case the evil temptation makes me almost buy something I can't afford.

I'm sorry but that's just hilarious. Anyways...

• http://creditcards.lovetoknow.com/What_Is_APR
• Depends on your bank and card. I'd assume monthly though.
• If you don't have a job and are not in college yet, you are probably put down as unemployed. I don't think there's any specific cards for unemployed people, and the rates will likely be variably higher. Not much you can do here though except for do your research and compare rates plus advantages.
• See above.
• I'm pretty sure most banks and companies will let you do so easily enough, though I think they charge a small fee for it. I don't really know, I just have a regular card, so I might be wrong.
• Most do let you pay online.
• I personally have a PNC bank account and use Visa, and I've never had a problem with them at all.
• Don't give out your card numbers. Common sense.

Not sure if this helps at all.

I think I get APR now, thanks. I checked Visa and they may have a card for me, or may not. Depends if they get hung up over income or not. Are any credit cards going to make me register for a new bank account with something?

Most credit cards are going to be hung up on income, they want to be sure they'll get their money back.  I have had 8 different credit cards, and never had to open a bank account.  So I'll say I don't think so to that last question. 

I really don't want to have to get a credit card if I don't have to. I'd rather just make my own money and pay of my bills with my own money.

Is this naive of me?

I really don't want to have to get a credit card if I don't have to. I'd rather just make my own money and pay of my bills with my own money.

Is this naive of me?

A little. You're going to need a credit card at the point you want to own property, a firsthand vehicle and a few other things. Plus they are life savers in emergencies. You can sure ride it hard and go a long time without owning one, because I agree with Animefan they are evil, evil rectangles of plastic and the people behind their processes need to be dragged to town square, drawn and quartered in a huge pile of salt but life goes on.

You need to prove you even have credit. You can do things with good credit scores. Like anski said cars, then houses, loans and many other things. Just get a credit card and don't be dumb. They're not that evil unless you don't know what you're doing. Don't use it unless you need to and keep the balance at zero. You'll never pay interest. Duh.

Banks are great! The rich get richer and the poor get poorer!

Credit is essential as you grow older for all of the reasons already stated.  But good credit is more essential.  The lower your credit score the higher your interest rates and fees.  I've been on both ends of that spectrum and I like the high side better. 

If you get a credit card DO NOT KEEP IT ON YOU.  I can't stress that enough.  If it is on your person, unless you have the will of god you'll use it eventually when you shouldn't have.  Use only in emergencies, or when you can pay the balance.  The longer you let it carry, the worse off you are.  (Like I said, been on both ends of that spectrum)

Animefan, you shouldn't honestly worry about a credit card right now. A -lot- of online places take debt and paypal. If you're looking at one single of your otaku wapanese sites that only take credit card, ask yourself, is it worth a lifetime of pain?

THEY TAKE MY DEBT AWAY? WHOO HOO! lol. But yeah, I agree with Anski; most online places I see usually take only PayPal if not PayPal along with other sources, and those gift-card money thangs (dude, I don't even know what to call them) usually serve the function of being used for PayPal among other things.

Animefan, you shouldn't honestly worry about a credit card right now. A -lot- of online places take debt and paypal. If you're looking at one single of your otaku wapanese sites that only take credit card, ask yourself, is it worth a lifetime of pain?

You make a good point. I want a card for these reasons:
-I can only send money directly from a savings account to paypal six times in a 30 day period.
-Opening a paypal account requires a credit card registered to it. Right now my father's is, and I want an independent account.
-I could make direct withdraws as many times as I want through a checking account, but I don't qualify for one because they want to know that I'll be depositing to it frequently.
-I want to start building good credit, which I could do from a bunch of minor purchases online.
-And obviously, because I can buy wapanese stuff.
-Amazon has a lot of wapanese stuff, and doesn't take paypal.
-Nintendo doesn't take paypal, and according to reviews, official DS batteries hold a charge much longer than 3rd party ones. NOBODY ON EARTH has licensed the right to sell official DS batteries. Only Nintendo does. And they accept Master Card, Visa, or money orders. If you buy from a money order, you get a little notification at the bottom of the page that reads "Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery." I do not want to wait upwards of a month to finish Phoenix Wright!

Took me a while to remember that last one. Ah that's right. The straw that broke the camel's back on my "I want a credit card" logic. Nintendo is a multi-trillion-dollar company. Why, the, FUCK, do they not have their own paypal account yet? IT JUST. MAKES. NO. SENSE. But now that I think about it, it's been upwards of a month since I first looked into buying a new DS battery. So maybe I should just break down and send in a frickin' money order.

The thing is though, I don't know how money orders work. I don't think there's any way to track the fact that I sent money in. But credit card companies keep records, and I hear there's some way to get your money back by going through your credit card company if your item doesn't arrive. And I'm a pessimist, so I actually EXPECT Nintendo to lose track of my money order and never send me anything.

Should I just send a money order in or what?

Responding to all of your points in order.

1 - you don't have to send money to a paypal account at all, if the money is in the bank account connected to the paypal, then the money comes from the bank account.

2 - WRONG, you can use a Debit Card, a lot of them have little logos on them that tell you what kind of Credit Card they count as as well, mine pretends to be a Mastercard.

3 - I have a checking account and nobody bitches at me that I don't deposit into it too regularly, what shithole of a bank do you have in town?

4 - Do you have a job?  Are you even out of highschool?

5 - See #2

6 - See #2

7 - See #2

Also, rule of thumb, if you can't get shit done with a Debit Card because you don't have money to put into it, THEN DON'T GET A CREDIT CARD YOU STUPID FUCK.

Like Namkcor said, get a Debit Card. They are a credit card for all necessary purposes. Difference being that it takes money from the account you have instead of generating credit in which you have to pay back at a later date. (This means you have to have the money now, when you use it.)

Also, Idk how old you are, but you can't have a credit card until you're 18 anyways. soo...

Just throwing my opinion about the whole credit-card-fright
A few very important upsides:

1. Paying with it is surely faster than writing a check.
2. It enables "pay-from-a-distance"
3. Cash is great but you don't want to go to the electricity store with 1000$ in your wallet, do you?
4. Say you did but you need to pay 1050$ a credit card would really be trouble saving there.
5. You control it, it doesn't control you, just like you don't usually ask for loans you should be careful not to spend more than the money you own since that is in fact asking for a loan.
6. And if you do choose to ask for a loan, asking it from the credit companies is slightly safer than getting it from "other places".

So in conclusion, you need it, but you don't need to overuse it.
Also I don't know how it works in USA but over here if you are really scared of what you'll do to yourself (or what a thief will do if he had your card) you can limit your card so you could only spend X money per month.
So this way you are actually safe from yourself too.

That aside the fees for using the card are really not that high, most people completely overlook them. (That is assuming you have such fees)

1. Paying with it is surely faster than writing a check.
3. Cash is great but you don't want to go to the electricity store with 1000$ in your wallet, do you?

Debit card? Most banks now offer a debit card that works as a credit card for online transactions too.

1. Paying with it is surely faster than writing a check.
3. Cash is great but you don't want to go to the electricity store with 1000$ in your wallet, do you?

Debit card? Most banks now offer a debit card that works as a credit card for online transactions too.

Works too but has it's downsides.
But I guess it's probably better if you lack self control.

the only downside to a debit card is you actually need to have money to use it.
which isn't even a downside so much as a YOU CAN'T BE STUPID.

Just went over to wiki and found a cons list for debt cards:

Spoiler for:

    * Use of a debit card is not usually limited to the existing funds in the account to which it is linked, most banks allow a certain threshold over the available bank balance which can cause overdraft fees if the customer does not depend on their own records of spending.
    * Many banks are now charging over-limit fees or non-sufficient funds fees based upon pre-authorizations, and even attempted but refused transactions by the merchant (some of which may not even be known by the client).
    * Many merchants mistakenly believe that amounts owed can be "taken" from a customer's account after a debit card (or number) has been presented, without agreement as to date, payee name, amount and currency, thus causing penalty fees for overdrafts, over-the-limit, amounts not available causing further rejections or overdrafts, and rejected transactions by some banks.
    * In some countries debit cards offer lower levels of security protection than credit cards[8]. Theft of the users PIN using skimming devices can be accomplished much easier with a PIN input than with a signature-based credit transaction. However, theft of users' PIN codes using skimming devices can be equally easily accomplished with a debit transaction PIN input, as with a credit transaction PIN input, and theft using a signature-based credit transaction is equally easy as theft using a signature-based debit transaction.
    * In many places, laws protect the consumer from fraud much less than with a credit card. While the holder of a credit card is legally responsible for only a minimal amount of a fraudulent transaction made with a credit card, which is often waived by the bank, the consumer may be held liable for hundreds of dollars, or even the entire value of fraudulent debit transactions. The consumer also has a shorter time (usually just two days) to report such fraud to the bank in order to be eligible for such a waiver with a debit card[8], whereas with a credit card, this time may be up to 60 days. A thief who obtains or clones a debit card along with its PIN may be able to clean out the consumer's bank account, and the consumer will have no recourse.

The 2 cons I actually found fitting are:
-It seems that if you get it stolen, you better be canceling it REALLY quickly, and even that might not save your ass.
-Some banks appear to allow this card to go against it's reason and withdraw more money than you have.

So when you make it, make sure that the bank covers you in case of theft and really doesn't allow you to use more than you have.
Anyhow good luck with that animefan.

so pretty much the cons are...pay attention.
gee wouldn't have to do that with a credit card!

In an argument over debit vs credit card, I don't think it could be that much of a con for a debit card to be able to overdraft.

I don't really see the point in getting a credit card, especially given the amount of debt people owe. If I was gonna have enough money to buy something at the end of the month, I'll just wait to the end of the month. That way I get to see if I actually want it.

In an argument over debit vs credit card, I don't think it could be that much of a con for a debit card to be able to overdraft.

I don't really see the point in getting a credit card, especially given the amount of debt people owe. If I was gonna have enough money to buy something at the end of the month, I'll just wait to the end of the month. That way I get to see if I actually want it.

Key problem one - waiting.
Sometimes you want to pay your bills, food, so on, I most people are in one point of their life married with kids.
In which point they buy a house.
The house honestly needs a loan, unless you don't want to leave your parents until you are 40
The bills aren't going to be paying themselves and food is something you usually want.
So while of course you don't want to go below 0, most people at some point do get there.
And sometimes when you just went under it it's far too late to think if you want X or not.
You need X because X is food or a bill that if you won't pay will simply grow larger.
So you pay for it now and for the next few months you avoid buying anything not needed, hence going back above the scary 0 line.

I am not encouraging him to get a credit card and those cons weren't against it I was pointing out he should pay attention to them as he goes get his debt card.
(Which in his case is the best solution)
But I am saying that credit cards exist for a reason and you shouldn't be afraid of them, all you have to do is use your brain, it's not hard and it's very healthy for you.

He doesn't need to pay for bills or buy a house.
He's talking about buying wapanese toys and anime online.

He doesn't need a credit card.

Your arguments for credit cards for someone who could actually use one, not for him.
I'm glad you realize they have no application to his situation at all.

He doesn't need to pay for bills or buy a house.
He's talking about buying wapanese toys and anime online.

He doesn't need a credit card.

Your arguments for credit cards for someone who could actually use one, not for him.
I'm glad you realize they have no application to his situation at all.

I never stated otherwise I was bumping in saying they shouldn't be feared of, nothing else nothing more, I do agree that in his situation debt card would be much more suitable.

:totallyofftopic:

The point of the topic was to talk about Animefan's question and situation, not random and general information about credit cards.