prudent

It's tough seeing co-workers spending stupidly to either impress others or because they just feel they "deserve it". These people all make good money and should not be struggling. As soon as a co-worker who lives that way starts complaining to me about money problems, I say "Look, you can have anything you want. You just can't have EVERYTHING you want." One guy went on a 2-week trip to Australia, one bought a new luxury car, another moved into a bigger house, so Joe Clueless thinks he deserves to do all those things. Nope. Learned that lesson (thankfully) in my first year of college. Every night I saw people playing cards, going to the bar, playing basketball or ultimate or in the gym, whatever. So I spent almost every night doing something like that. Wasn't until the failing grades started rolling in did it occur to me that yes, every night people were doing all those things - but it wasn't the same people every night!

Our post office won't even take your card if it doesn't have the owner's signature. I've seen them turn people away who had "See ID" instead of a signature to compare to - and they won't use an ID in lieu.

This is exactly how I would handle it also. It would make an amazing impact on the guy.

You would have to check your reports to see who they pulled. "Score Needed" is just your current FICO score. Make sure you only use the FICO from the CRA that the OC pulled. It would be pointless to put your TU FICO if they pulled your EX report. Thanks for the clarification. Since I don't know who was pulled I can't add to the database.

I would have put my info for the Voice card in creditpulls (as well as other cards I have) but I don't know who they pulled or what "score needed" means. I'd be happy to put in what I know but it doesn't let you leave certain fields blank. Anyway, I got a targeted offer to open a checking account at Huntington for a $200 bonus (and some hoops to jump through). When I applied (in branch) they offered me the Voice card and a 10% rebate bonus if I opened it at the same time (total cashback = 3.3%), so I took it to be able to get 3.3% at Sams club (I chose Walmart as the cashback category for the Voice card, buy Walmart GCs there, and use the Walmart GCs at Sams). Was approved for $15,000, I believe my FICO is around 810.

From the linked article: When someone says "bragging rights", I guess that means "I spend my money to impress other people." This concept escapes me. And if you have the money to buy it, as the article points out that's just the start - it costs a lot to maintain, too. I used to have a co-worker who loved to talk about "his condo in Myrtle Beach" but I noticed he only went there a couple times a year. And at his salary I was amazed he could afford a second home, so I jumped to the conclusion it must have been a timeshare deal. That assumption turned out to be wrong, as the next year he was hanging up flyers looking for renters. I guess his agent in MB was not finding enough renters. He rarely went to the place because every week he was there was a week there was no rent. The year after that, he hung flyers advertising the place was for sale. And I learned that he had been losing money on the place every year, he was upside down, but stubbornly believed the market would bail him out eventually. But he ran out of money waiting, which was why he was still working at age 70. That vacation home killed his retirement.

I'm surprised anyone would take a credit card for silver eagles unless they are charging you more. You can get a better price paying in cash (bank wire).

Congrats!

Our company doesn't make a point to tell people they will get a hard pull as our corp cards are "cardholder liable". But when Amex balks at issuing a card because of a bad record, the company tells Amex that the company will guarantee payment and the card gets issued.

I have a MM account and a credit card, and I have the FICO score on the webpage.

That reminds me... I also have a serious issue with any company that requires you to remember your member number in order to log into their web site. WHATEVER. My tiny credit union used the member number as a login up until last year. Of course, it was only 4 digits, so it wasn't that tough. I did say it was tiny.

Only available to college students now.

Shame on employers for even pulling that stunt in the first place, but good to see the CFPB acted pretty quickly to squash it. I could imagine it would have evolved into something like the old "company store" - pay employees with a debit card that is issued by an affiliated company, and load it up with fees.

It does, but not at the megabanks. At Credit Unions and smaller banks it would count.

The NCUA has issued a notice to all Federal Credit Unions that they may not offer membership to just anyone - there must be a "common bond" as required by the Federal Credit Union Act. Link to letter: http://www.ncua.gov/Resources/Pages/LFCU2013-03.aspx Who knows whether bank lobbyists have been complaining about the inroads being made by Credit Unions. However, reading this letter it would seem to me that there will be a crackdown on letting just anyone join a CU, but I doubt there will be any requirement to boot out any current members.