USPSA-Shooter

Phishing scam? You get a recording calling you offering to lower your credit card rates to as low as 6%. Press 1 to speak to a rep. So, for the hell of it, I pressed 1. The guy asked if I had pressed 1 to speak about my credit cards??? -LOL, why else are we talking here bud?- The info I could get out of him was they didn't represent any bank, they represented Visa and Master Card. -Yeah right.- I thanked him and hung up after he wanted to discuss my accounts... If this isn't a CC scam, I don't know what is.

Not in a 1:1 fashion. The deduction for operating expenses is a fraction of the actual expenses. but there is some offset...if a merchant can't make a profit from credit card transactions then it should not accept credit cards. or is it that a merchant just wants to more fully line his/her pockets with my money>? What is the purpose of a retail business? A)Fulfill your desires or B)Make money If you answered A, you selected how they go about achieving the correct answer, which is B. Yes, the merchant wants to make as much as possible from each transaction. Why wouldn't they? What you want is a retail charity. Perhaps you should start one and see how that goes...

Not in anyone's wildest imaginations would there be a 5% drop of in sales(that was thrown out as an example), but if there were, a drop off in sales that brought in no profits or losses would be welcome. Many businesses have found by really crunching the numbers they have many customers that cost more than they bring in. That is what they say about these customers, and while many here disagree, or rationalize it, it is the merchants who run their business, so I am thinking they may know better. You want to keep profitable customers happy, and if possible make unprofitable customers profitable ones, but blindly keeping all customers happy is not usually the best thing. Some customers are just not worth having, even rich ones. The main thing is they will have a choice, and even though some may make a wrong choice I think they should be able to make it, like they do with every other cost. A real possibility is that banks will want to keep the small transaction customer, and will change the fee structure to be more accommodating. This possibility does not seem to be accepted here because everyone is presently focusing on their outrage, but banks want us to go for our cards without thinking, anything that changes that dynamic will get a response from them. It seems to me they will be better off lowering these fees a bit. It likely will bring in more revenue. They will respond to the market(after some posturing) the way it will be, not the way it is now. Let's look at a franchised convenience store. Take a pack of smokes as an example. The retail, with 6% sales tax, is $5.94. CC fees take 2-3%, right off the top. Franchise fees are 5% of the pretax number. State minimum mark up is only 6%. Should we discuss a gallon or two of gas for the lawn mower, with a profit of $.09/gallon? Small credit card sales suck. You can try to convince retailers otherwise, but it's the truth. You can say it's a cost of doing business, but the small slice of the pie that pays for that (known as profit) gets smaller every year. aren't expenses an offset to taxes on profits? Expenses are an offset to profits.

Not in anyone's wildest imaginations would there be a 5% drop of in sales(that was thrown out as an example), but if there were, a drop off in sales that brought in no profits or losses would be welcome. Many businesses have found by really crunching the numbers they have many customers that cost more than they bring in. That is what they say about these customers, and while many here disagree, or rationalize it, it is the merchants who run their business, so I am thinking they may know better. You want to keep profitable customers happy, and if possible make unprofitable customers profitable ones, but blindly keeping all customers happy is not usually the best thing. Some customers are just not worth having, even rich ones. The main thing is they will have a choice, and even though some may make a wrong choice I think they should be able to make it, like they do with every other cost. A real possibility is that banks will want to keep the small transaction customer, and will change the fee structure to be more accommodating. This possibility does not seem to be accepted here because everyone is presently focusing on their outrage, but banks want us to go for our cards without thinking, anything that changes that dynamic will get a response from them. It seems to me they will be better off lowering these fees a bit. It likely will bring in more revenue. They will respond to the market(after some posturing) the way it will be, not the way it is now. Let's look at a franchised convenience store. Take a pack of smokes as an example. The retail, with 6% sales tax, is $5.94. CC fees take 2-3%, right off the top. Franchise fees are 5% of the pretax number. State minimum mark up is only 6%. Should we discuss a gallon or two of gas for the lawn mower, with a profit of $.09/gallon? Small credit card sales suck. You can try to convince retailers otherwise, but it's the truth. You can say it's a cost of doing business, but the small slice of the pie that pays for that (known as profit) gets smaller every year.

Hi, My wife and I decided to fix up our home in anticipation of selling it. We need a Home equity line of credit, about 15 to 18K or so. Our local bank won't touch us because of "past credit issues". We had a BK7 over 2 years ago (discharged March '06). Since then we have rebuilt our credit, mid scores are 708 and 688. Where do we look next?

Just an FYI... We have found a LOT of cards, people drop them outside at the pumps, leave them on the counter, drop them on the floor, etc. We put them under the cash drawer for a day or so, if no one claims them, we do a courtesy call to the cust service number on the back. NEVER has ANY CC asked us to mail it back, they tell us to cut it up and trash it. NEVER has any CC asked if the back was signed. Just our stores experiance...

You must be really, really bored! I was tired of all the FLAMES on the shooting page CB has a shooting page????

Don't secure an unsecured debt and please do yourself a favor and don't destroy your retirement fund. If you need to BK later, 401Ks are untouchable. You need to sitdown and write up a detailed budget. If you are going to seriously try to pay this off, you are going to have to account for every penny. The budget needs to be honest, don't write down 150.00 for food when you know darn well you need 300 to survive, etc... Keep in mind, if you get the balances reduced by any means other than paying the creditor, they are going to ding your credit. You can't get a free ride here. BK should be the last option, yes, but don't consider it the end of the world either. Life goes on after.

Your rate will be about the same as it is currnetly on a fixed rate loan......the reason being that lenders have increased rates on the "riskier" loans so that they can be sold on Wall street. So even though you are one year post BK do not expect to see a much lower rate than what you have because of your loan to value going up......I would suggest keeping your loan at an 80% loan to value to expect an improvement over your current rate, so a good solid appraisal will be needed. It also will depend on exactly where your scores are......if they are over 640 for the primary wage earner then you will be in a better position. If I understand you correctly there is a chance I could improve on the rate I pay now if we stay at 80%LTV or better. Correct? Maybe we don't need the big addition after all. Also, my wife's scores are above 640 and she's the primary. Thanks for the info.

*About 5 months ago I asked questions about refi-ing for a business venture, I never did go through with it, so if you remember my screen name, that's why.* Hi, my wife and I are 1 year and 1 week post discharge on a BK7. Filed 10/2005, discharged 03/2006. We have rebuilt credit since the BK, we have a few CC's and they are at less than 20% util, these can be paid off before the re-fi. We re-affirmed the mortgage during the BK, also reaffirmed a car lease. I have also bought a car with a Roadloans car loan last March. We have had ZERO derog's since filing. We make a combined 88-90K per year, which can be proven via check stubs. The house should appraise for around 125-135K, we owe less than 76K (had the mortgage since '96). Our current mortgage is at 8.125%, we never re-fied during the low rates. We are looking to re-fi and add an addition. We would be looking for approx. 30-35K for the addition and a new roof for the rest of the house. I would guess the amount we would need to finance would be $110,000. We pay about $860 per month for the 2 cars, combined. Our current mortgage payment is $660 per month, this includes $14 per month for PMI (owe 76K on a house that was worth 100K, more than 20% equity but less than 25% and our bank says they don't have to drop the PMI until we exceed 25%). I have read that you should be 2 years out to get a mortgage, what about re-fi's? My question is, is it possible to re-fi now and get a decent rate? Would it be better or worse than my rate now and could I get the money I need to do the addition? ETA: My Fico scores are in the low to mid 600's and my wifes are in the high 600's.

Oh, in other words, a crap lawsuit. Great. We need more of those. You know, I don't read anything or post here in a month or two, and when I do I can't find GEORGE or playthecreditgame. Then I read your sig. 1 down and 1 to go. CONGRATULATIONS Another on the IGNORE list ???????????????

It usually would be a violation of USC Title 13 - Civil Rights violations. Wow, an internet lawyer who looks down on retail employees, thank the lord you're here to save us.

Oh, in other words, a crap lawsuit. Great. We need more of those. You know, I don't read anything or post here in a month or two, and when I do I can't find GEORGE or playthecreditgame. Then I read your sig. 1 down and 1 to go. George seems to have quit. He made one last appeal to the CB retention department in the thread linked below, but it seems they didn't offer what he wanted so CB has been stuck in the SOCK DRAWER http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=224025 Well, after reading that, all I can say is...

Oh, in other words, a crap lawsuit. Great. We need more of those. You know, I don't read anything or post here in a month or two, and when I do I can't find GEORGE or playthecreditgame. Then I read your sig. 1 down and 1 to go.