Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Originally Posted By: Artie505
Just noticed that the cards listed are "for those with excellent credit".

…and the definition of "excellent" credit is a credit score of..

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It has been a good while since I had family members in banking, but at one time your habit of never running balances would flag you as a "deadbeat". The banks and credit card companies make by far the largest portion of their profit from the interest charges on unpaid balances and they are not in any hurry to issue a credit card to deadbeats.

Those deadbeats were preordained when cards such as my (purple) American Express CHARGE card were discontinued in favor of credit cards - I wasn't alone in being perfectly happy having to pay my entire balance monthly. - and I resent being called a deadbeat by people at least some of whom I'm sure are running their own lives without running credit card balances. mad

I'll give your bankers this, though: those who don't run balances and wait until the last day to pay their current charges are freeloaders. (I pay my current charges within minutes after they come due on my screen, and my payment has invariably been processed before I'm notified of my statement's availability.)

A note on credit scores: your absolute number doesn't necessarily determine you're creditworthiness; it depends more on the components of your score, including what types of balances you've run, and as such, my score - around 780 the last time I saw it - which is based solely on monthly payments of a few hundred dollars on just one card wouldn't be worth very much were I to apply for a mortgage, possibly even an auto loan.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire