...Running Head: Americans Should Not Use Credit Cards 1 Americans Should Not Use Credit Cards Christopher McDonald COM/156 Donna Madison-Bell, MS Running Head: Americans Should Not Use Credit Cards 2 With more Americans in financial trouble than ever before and personal debt at an all-time high, most Americans should shun credit card use. Americans are having trouble paying for their credit card purchases and they are taking on more debt than is fiscally sound based on their income. Many people are being mislead by the appealing advertising tactics of credit card companies and most don’t understand or receive the information they need to make intelligent use of their credit cards or make important personal finance decisions. In addition, today’s economy has left many people unemployed or underemployed. To compensate for their lack of income, many people are using their credit cards to pay for basic items like food and gasoline. Because they lack a substantial income, they then can’t pay the credit card companies. Still other people might lack the will power to resist buying items that they can’t afford. Instead of rationalizing that they do not have the cash for the purchase, they use a credit card and worry about it at a later date. Americans now have more personal debt and financial struggles than ever before in the nation’s history, in part because of irresponsible use of credit. A 2007 article in the magazine Mother Jones stated that Americans owe a staggering...
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...many advantages of possessing credit cards, most Americans should not use them; because they do not use them properly to where they become liable or subject to overwhelming debt, which could damage their credit history. Personal credit card debt has doubled in the past four years and personal bankruptcies are at the highest ever, and still more Americans are spending money that they do not have. Credit cards allow and encourage individuals to buy more than budgeted, and this is obviously a situation, which is best to avoid. Knowing when it is a bad idea to use a credit card can help you to avoid adding debt to your credit card. It is no doubt that the use of credit cards have eased the rate in which people obtain goods and services, but the use of credit cards have done more damage to the finances of Americans credit card users than good. Credit cards have become a problem for most American credit card users and there are even cases that some Americans have committed suicide because of the heavy debts he or she owes the credit card companies. Should Americans continue using credit cards? The answer is definitely no as the detriment that comes with using credit cards outweighs the benefits. Credit cards are a huge convenience in everyday life, yet most people are irresponsible when using them. The convenience of possessing credit cards increase the risk of overspending because people can convince themselves to spend more than what they have. In addition, they allow people...
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...Most Americans should not use credit cards Scott Lester COM/156 February 27 2011 Suzanne Delger Most Americans should not use credit cards 796,500,000,000. This is an incredibly astounding number, what do you suppose it represents? It is clearly too large even for the world population which currently sits at 6.4 billion people. This number is in fact the total U.S. revolving debt, 98% of which is made up of credit card debt, as of November 2010 according to the Federal Reserve’s report(2010) on consumer credit. There is no doubt that America is in the middle of a recession, historically speaking one of the worst ever, and credit cards are being widely overused and abused making the situation worse instead of better. There are certain things that people depend on, the basic essentials such as food and shelter. People very rarely realize one of the most important factors that we all depend on throughout our daily lives is our earning power. It is our earning power that gives us our homes, cars, food, water, and our dreams and our goals. Sadly though, this is not enough for Americans, when the earning power is not enough to give us the things we all want and demand right now, what do we do? Of course we mortgage our earning power and our future with credit cards. The administrative office of the U.S. courts lists an astounding total of 1.5 million bankruptcy cases were processed between June 2009 and June 2010. With that 73.4 % of those bankruptcies were a direct...
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...Have you ever wondered if there is something out there that can allow you to buy the things that you need or want while offering you many benefits? There is! Credit cards and most Americans should use them. It is estimated that 80% of American households have at least one credit card (Fast facts about credit card debt, 2006, para 10.) There are many types of credit cards, allowing anyone to choose the one best suited for his or her needs. Although there are some disadvantages to using credit cards, the advantages outweigh them by far. Most important, using credit cards can help to build credit history, which will allow the user to gain more credit and maintain a good credit score. Many types of credit cards offer perks or rewards and different interest rates (APR). One type of card is a major credit card such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. Each of these may offer rewards or perks such as frequent flyer miles, points for merchandise, travel, car rentals, or cash back. Another type of card is a store or gas station credit card; this type of card is issued by a particular store or gas station. These cards usually come with some sort of a rewards program, helping your dollar go further. For example after spending a certain amount of money, you receive a 10% discount coupon toward a future purchase. Many credit cards offer low interest rates to new members, on balance transfers and to members who keep their account in good standing. However, missing...
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...Launching the Credit Card in Asia Pacific (A) Case Study, BEP 430 Marketing 20030059 Dong-ock Kim1, 20030071 Min-geuk Kim2, 20040054 Keehyung Kim3, 20040535 Yohan Jo4, 20076006 Huang Qiuling5, 20076035 Dorjsuren Bayarmaa6 Marketing Team A1 2 3 4 5 6 erst_licht99@hotmail.com1, kmg0702@hanmail.net2, keehyoung@gmail.com3, zukjimote@gmail.com4, sharlin_huangqiuling@hotmail.com5, gordok_88@yahoo.com6 Professor: Wonjoon Kim Date submitted: May 18, 2007 TO: Rana Talwar, head of Citibank’s Asia Pacific Consumer Bank, Citibank FROM: Dong-ock Kim, Min-geuk Kim, Keehyung Kim, Yohan Jo, Huang Qiuling, Dorjsuren Bayarmaa RE: Citibank: Launching the Credit Card in Asia Pacific (A) DATE: May 18, 2007 As you know, rapid growth of Asia-Pacific economy was incredible in several years. It could be a good chance for Citibank’s growth, so Citibank has started to branch banking business since 1978. Actually, performance of Asia-Pacific branches is not bad. In 1988, Citibank earned $69.7 million, but Citibank does not satisfy with its performance. Citibank’s goal is $100 million until 1990. For this goal, Citibank launched the most innovative service such as telephone banking service. And now, Citibank is planning to launch a new product credit card. Acquiring card customers means that Citibank has more opportunities to crosssell product line: Auto Loans, Ready Credit, Deposits, and Mortgage Power, Citibank’s core products. But many of Citibank headquarters have doubts about the...
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...Credit card corporations and banks are wealthier than ever before, while at the same time as the majority of American citizens are getting themselves into additional debt. Citizens who are in a tight spot find their selves needing credit cards. Today’s society is continuously struggling to get rid of debt, although while attempting to eliminate debt we sometimes generate extra debt. The one foremost trouble we all encounter dealing with credit cards is debt. Credit card corporations are not looking out for your concerns and willing to help. There is no positive side to credit card use. You will spend more if you use credit cards. Even by paying the bills on time, you are not beating the system! However, most families do not pay on time. The average family today carries $8,000 in credit card debt according to the American Bankers' Association. (David Ramsey, 2009) The one thing I dislike about credit card corporations istheir always-raising interest rates. Minimum payments just are not enough to cover the finance charges. You do not want toutilize credit cards because you will create a spending routine that is awful, in addition, you will bring upon yourself debt that can have an effect on your credit score ratings or become a victim of identity theft. To use a credit card correctly, you must make purchases you are able to pay off upon is getting your monthly bill, but some Americans do not. A large amount of people lack discipline and are liable to abuse credit cards...
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...4. Assess the external threats affecting American Express and the opportunities available to the corporation. Give your opinion on how the corporation should deal with the most serious threats and opportunities. One of the external threats affecting American Express is due to technology trends. For instance, prior to technology, American was the most dominated credit card company in the credit cards sector. However, Penetration of alternative payment platforms has been gaining popularity in the recent years. These alternative payment platforms include aggregators such as PayPal, wireless payment technologies, including using mobile telephone networks to carry out transactions. According American Express Company (2014), “the system has changed to system sinked to payment cards, and bank transfer models increasing penetration with other alternative payment platforms could check growth for the company.” Therefore, the portability provided by Smartphones and tablets and evolving consumer behavior with social networking, is rapidly changing the way people interact with each other and transact business all around the world. Another major threat that might affect Amex is due to political factor. For instance, according to Ireland and Hoskisson (2013), “Congress passed Dodd-Frank, which the US President Barack Obama signed into law in July 2010”. Therefore, Dodd-Frank could limit Amex’s income earned through interchange fees. As a result of these new laws, customers may be incentivized...
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...and excessive use of credit cards are a major economical issue in Turkey for a decade, which poses threats to the core structure of our society and the individuals’ self-esteem. News regarding the problems arising due to the inappropriate use of credit cards increases on a daily-basis, which signifies the fact that the problem shows a continually expanding trend, which is worth carrying an investigation upon. In order to overcome this problem, eight solutions were proposed. These solutions were banning the installments in shopping, copying the American model by providing collateral to the banks while getting a new credit card, requesting a guarantor per person while giving a credit card, giving maximum one credit card per person who has already debt, increasing the commission rate of the point on sale machines, educating people about the usage of credit cards and tell them its advantages and disadvantages, preparing therapy meetings by government for shopaholics and limiting cash advance credit from credit cards. The underlying research methodology of these solutions includes student surveys, internet based researching, discussions with credit card users, and discussions with personnel of banks. These proposed solutions were evaluated according to their effectiveness, feasibility, acceptability, sustainability and legality. Among these solutions three of them passed the criteria and suitable to apply. The chosen solutions can be regarded as the most effective and feasible...
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...KASTURI RANGAN Citibank: Launching the Credit Card in Asia Pacific (A) On a rainy afternoon in 1989, Rana Talwar, head of Citibank's Asia Pacific Consumer Bank, reflected upon the 11 years that had gone by since the Consumer Bank had established its consumer business in Asia. The branch banking business operations in 15 countries throughout Asia Pacific and the Middle East projected Citibank as a prestigious, consumer-oriented international bank and as the undisputed leader in most marketplaces. With earnings of $69.7 million in 1988, and a goal of $100 million in 1990, Talwar considered the launch of a new product (credit cards) as a way of growing future revenues. (See Exhibit 1 for 1988 performance.) Cards could prove to be an excellent way to overcome distribution limitations imposed on foreign banks in the Asia-Pacific region: first, by acquiring card members, by targeting customers outside its branch business and, then, by actively cross-selling other Citibank products and services to these customers. In the past, the credit card idea had met with skepticism from Citibank's New York headquarters as well as its country managers. Many in New York considered it a risky investment. Senior credit managers questioned the wisdom of issuing cards in markets with annual per capita income of $350 and also in markets with little credit experience and hardly any infrastructure. The Citibank management recognized that the economies of most Asia-Pacific countries were relatively underdeveloped...
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...to WritePoint, the automated review system that recognizes errors most commonly made by university students in academic essays. The system embeds comments into your paper and suggests possible changes in grammar and style. Please evaluate each comment carefully to ensure that the suggested change is appropriate for your paper, but remember that your instructor's preferences for style and format prevail. You will also need to review your own citations and references since WritePoint capability in this area is limited. NOTE: WritePoint comments are computer-generated writing and grammar suggestions inviting the consideration and analysis of the writer; they are not infallible statements of right/wrong, and they should not be used as grading elements. Also, at present, WritePoint cannot detect quotations or block-quotes, so comments in those areas should be ignored. Please see the other helpful writing resources in the Tutorials and Guides section of the Center for Writing Excellence. Thank you for using WritePoint. Although many Americans may believe that marketing credit cards to college students on campus is setting the student up for financial suicide. There are ["There are" is an awkward phrase if "there" is not clearly a location] many advantages to students whom obtain them. I. Obtaining credit cards helps students build credit. A. Your [Eliminate second person (you, your) in...
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...a victim yet is to monitor your credit and keeping your information safe. We talked about not only making sure your information is safe when you’re out in the public, such as only carrying one credit card when you really need it, not carrying your social security card and birth certificate just to name a few, We don’t need to have these things with us everyday. Just keep the common things you need with you every day, like your drive’s license, one credit card, just to be safe. Don’t carry your checking account if you don’t need to write a check because again someone could take that information and really start writing checks that aren’t yours and can start causing a lot of damage down the road. Another things is when you’re checking credit, make sure that you’re checking it on a regular basis. You can get one free copy of your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus each year. So if you want to check that systematically, you could pull your first one from Equifax, and then three or four months later pull the next one from Experian, and then three or four months later pull the next one from Trans Union. So keeping up to date with what’s going on is key when preventing or avoiding identity theft. Another thing you can do if you’re not using your credit, let’s say you already have your house, car, and you’re not actively seeking credit, just put a freeze on your credit. That’s one thing you can do, so if someone’s trying to get credit in your name, you get that phone...
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...information systems have been defined as “people, procedures, and a software system used to collect, analyze, and assess market information so that decision makers can use it.”(Armstrong et al., 2009, p.184). Marketing information systems (MIS) are a set of unique marketing tools that assists corporations around the world to utilize information gained from marketing research to assess their products and formulate their plans for the future. Models of consumer behaviour can influence the development of their products and services , as well as impacting decisions such as; the appropriate locations for their businesses, and development of their marketing strategies. Once companies collect the information regarding consumer behaviours and their purchasing habits, it is analyzed in order to draw conclusions and make informed business choices. The objective is to utilize this information in order to generate the largest possible revenues (Buyer to consumer). Information is gathered through interviews, customer comment forms , consumer inquires and spending patterns gathered through loyalty cards. The information is gathered and the analysis provides insight into products and services being purchased by different demographic groups (i.e., age, gender, ethnicity, etc.), and in different locations. After this is achieved, organizations can then target their marketing and advertising of the right product to the appropriate customer groups who will most likely be purchasing...
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...Money and Why Do We Need It? Lesson Plan #1b: The Many Forms of Money Lesson Plan #1c: Plastic Payment Lesson Plan #1d: Smart Cards Lesson Plan #1e: Paying On the Internet Lesson Plan #2: An Experiment in Barter Exchange Lesson Plan #3: How Do You Pay? Lesson Plan #4: How Do You Pay? The Evolution of Money Instructor’s Note: The first five lesson plans (#1a through #1e) are designed as a modular set to be used together. They consist of a series of discussions covering various parts of the video. You may use them in several ways. One is to alternate between discussions and watching segments of the video. There are three pause points on the video. The discussions are designed to fit with these points. The first lesson (#1a) fits before the video begins; lessons #1b through #1d fit well at the three pause points; and the final one (#1e) fits best at the end of the video segment. Alternatively, the video can be viewed without interruption and the discussions divided between topics to be discussed before and after viewing. No continuity will be lost if some discussions are skipped. Because much of this material may be unfamiliar to teachers, each of the lessons has an extended presentation of background information for teachers. This information, along with additional materials from the references cited in the section called “For More Information,” should help you to be an informed discussion leader. Lesson Plan #1a: Grade Level: Time Required: What Is Money and Why Do We Need...
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...crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction” ( “Primary Documents in…”). Interesting, almost 149 years later, and with many Americans in debt today, the above words, can only suggest one thing; perhaps slavery or involuntary servitude is not dead but has only taken on a more disguised form. Although the above may be true, some believe debt is not slavery but a financial hardship brought about by one's own actions. With statics showing that the American public holds the bulk of the seventeen trillion dollar, deficits (The Debt to…); and that only 32 percent of Americans actually budget (Jacobe), one can come to believe this is true. That it is the public’s fault for not budgeting. For this reason, it is necessary that we diligently research and investigate past and present evidence to educate ourselves on the national debt crisis, so that we could shed some light on the root cause. First all, we will need to understand eccentric statistics on how many Americans are actually affected by debt today. According to Michael A. Fletcher of The Washingstonpost.com, three out five workers’ mortgages, credit card balances and installment loans are outpacing the amount of money they are able to save for retirement. In addition, Bill Fay of Debt.org acknowledges, that the more than 160 million Americans with credit cards have an average of three credit cards each, and on average, each household...
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...American Express Marketing Shay Torok BSA/310 Rassoul Alizadeh 10/28/2013 American Express Marketing Shay Torok BSA/310 Rassoul Alizadeh 10/28/2013 Early Years American Express was founded in 1850 by Henry Wells and William Fargo, the founders of Wells Fargo Co. The company was first used as an express mail business in upstate New York. Quickly, American Express, also known as AmEx, began monopolizing the shipping industry and eventually moved its location to the Financial District of Manhattan. In 1882, AmEx began offering financial services such as money orders. October of 1958, AmEx started distributing charge cards, today known as credit cards. From that day forward, AmEx became a financial guru and head of the industry. Today, AmEx is the world’s largest card issuer by volume and one of the most well-known name within the financial services community. Types of Research To get where they are today, American Express would need to have excelled in marketing strategies. The main component of these marketing strategies are research. There are two main types of market research; qualitative and quantitative. Let’s take a look at qualitative research first. Qualitative research consists of gathering detailed information by interviewing individuals or utilizing focus groups and the questions asked are usually open-ended. “Open-ended interviews are composed of questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. This type of interview gives you a lot of...
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