...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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...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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...Should Americans use credit cards? 8/29/10 University Composition and Communication II Lowrie Fawley Axia College of University of Phoenix Why would a person want to induce stress, have financial burdens, and pay more out-of-pocket expense just for using a credit card? There is no need to strap your self into the continuous game that credit card companies like to play. This is why it is best to not use credit cards for any reason what so ever. According to a study published in the journal Social Science and Medicine (February 2000), found that people with a higher level of debt were more likely to have higher stress levels than that of someone who had lower levels of debt. What this means is that people with the money to spend will spend it and not worry about the consequences until a later date. The stress hits after receiving their statement and often leads to depression related to not having the money to pay or having to pay out more money in interest fees. When you worry about money, it affects every aspect of your life. From doing daily chores to even going to work, it can place a burden on your family and quality of life. Furthermore, if you do not manage the stress correctly, you may end up with chronic depression, anxiety attacks, or even contemplate suicide. This stress is most common in students and graduates whom have a higher debt ratio than any other person. Having credit cards fills your life with even more strain as you have to worry about paying the...
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... COM 156 Week 1 DQs Review the information provided on pp. 51–53. Explain the initial steps of writing an essay. Identify how your audience, purpose, and content will influence your approach. Explain the time management strategies you will use when writing a successful academic paper. What techniques discussed in your US/101 course may help you manage your time when writing a paper? The ultimate success or failure of a paper may often be traced back to the planning stages. What might you do to provide yourself with the best opportunity to succeed when writing your college papers? COM 156 Week 1 Assignment Challenges of a Paper When sitting down to write a paper I must face up to a number of challenges. Beating distracting is extremely hard for me because I have two small children. When I’m handed an assignment, it can be difficult for me to find a period of time where I can sit down and work, uninterrupted, without my kids distracting me or requiring attention. Deciding what to write about is another challenge I regularly face. COM 156 Week 1 Video Transcript – Writing Process As an instructor, you could be forgiven for thinking that I wouldn’t wait until the very last second to create a lecture. Although I should know better, I still do this and so do most people. However, if you have a paper, lecture or plan to create you really shouldn’t wait until just before it’s due date to get started. You can make your own life easier by giving yourself plenty of time...
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...Why Americans Should Not Use Credit Cards My thesis will be covering why I think that American’s should not use credit cards and the consequences that come along with being in such an industry. It will be covering the regulation’s benefits many companies have and the don’ts on having them and what will come along with accepting them. I will talk about hidden fees along with annual fees and all the fine print that everyone seems to not read. I will also touch basis on the way how one can stay out of debt in the paying process even though everyone wants a credit card some should not have one due to mismanaging of their incoming funds period. Writing on how my views on the credit card industry and why it is targeting the venerable and the young college students and people they know need credit and give it to them at a APR that is out of this world keeping them bound and in debt to them. My views on the credit card industry are that if they know that a person has more outgo then income then they should not extend the credit. Some people are so desperate and they know it that they will give them the credit but it will cost them just as much for the credit than the credit itself. My view from my stand point of view because I been there is that as long as you pay on time regardless if it’s the minimum they will keep extending credit to you so you can stay in debt to them and by the time you have paid one thing off you could have bought three of the same thing. In my thesis...
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...VIDEO CASE 7 MASTERCARD: GOING UPSCALE Check, cash, or credit card? How many times have you heard that question and replied “credit card” without even thinking about it? When you do think about it, however, credit cards are a relatively new phenomenon. Yet when it comes time to pay, it seems we’re more likely to use the credit card (and to have several of them) than checks or cash. Indeed, some writers have even suggested that, in the not so distant future, we will all operate with “plastic money” all the time. MasterCard had its beginnings in 1966, when a group of banks joined together to form the Interbank Card Association (ICA). The ICA was founded by an association of banks rather than by a single dominant bank. Member committees ran the association by establishing rules for authorization, clearing, and settlement as well as marketing, security, and legal matters. In 1968, ICA went “global” by forming an association with Banco Nacional in Mexico and later with Eurocard in Europe. Since then, MasterCard has expanded around the world—even into the communist world of the 1980s when it entered the People’s Republic of China in 1987 and Russia in 1988. By 1993, China was the second largest country in terms of MasterCard sales volume. Today, MasterCard is affiliated with more than 23,000 financial institutions around the world and has nearly 370 million credit and debit cards in use . These cards are accepted at more than 13 million locations worldwide. Gross...
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...Lora Smith COM/156 ASSIGNMENT-Thesis statement Using a credit card leads most Americans into debt. My thesis will be covering why I think that American’s should not use credit cards and the consequences that come along with being in such an industry. It will be covering the regulation’s benefits many companies have and the don’ts on having them and what will come along with accepting them. I will talk about hidden fees along with annual fees and all the fine print that everyone seems to not read. I will also touch basis on how one can stay out of debt in the paying process even though everyone wants a credit card some should not have one due to mismanaging of their incoming funds period. Writing on how my views on the credit card industry and why it is targeting the venerable and the young college students and people they know need credit and give it to them at a APR that is out of this world keeping them bound and in debt to them. My views on the credit card industry is that if they know that a person has more outgo then income then they should not extend the credit. Some people are so desperate and they know it that they will give them the credit but it will cost them just as much for the credit than the credit itself. My view from my stand point of view because I been there is that as long as you pay on time regardless if it’s the minimum they will keep extending credit to you so you can stay in debt to them and by the time you have paid one thing...
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...Bank of America Corporation is an American multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets. As of 2010, Bank of America is the fifth-largest company in the United States by total revenue, and the third-largest non-oil company in the U.S. (after Walmart and General Electric). In 2010, Forbes listed Bank of America as the third biggest company in the world. Despite its success Bank of America is facing some issues with entering the Chinese credit card market. Some problems Bank of America is facing is, the strong sense of values to cultural beliefs among the Chinese customers, some card issuers show little loyalty to their primary cards, and are unprofitable to the market. There are various steps Bank of America should take in order to remain a segment leader. The first step Bank of America should take is to gain the support of the government by getting the Chinese people to understand the benefits of having credit a card. They should do surveys showing why Chinese customers not interested in credit card usage. They should also become very well acquainted with other banks that have already entered China to see how they became successful. The second process is to develop an infrastructure to have more atm’s and banks so they are easily accessible for the Chinese customers. Have more atm’s in place where Chinese customers can access them for example...
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...OF CASH Is cash on its way out? Americans carry cash less and less, often due partly to new technology and a desire for convenience. The way we pay for things has changed immensely over the past century, we now use cards, computers, and even mobile phones to pay for everything from our morning coffee to a taxi cab. Yes, technology is changing drastically, but what does it have to do with "the death of cash?" In this research paper I will define what is meant by "the death of cash," how studies show this may take place, and reasons why it may or may not be a good idea. Cash has been on the decline for a while. Bills, health insurance, rent and most day to day necessities are most likely not being paid by cash, ever since the making of credit/debit cards and the invention of e-payments.The way we bank is changing everyday thanks to online technology and smartphones. Most banks now allow you to transfer money and pay bills online. Some have systems that allow you to deposit funds with just a picture. And some allow you to swipe your phone over a reader in order to pay a cashier.As people become more comfortable paying with credit cards and electronic payment options, cash will become less important, hints the quote, "the death of cash." The Death of Cash article talks about an up and coming Company by the name of Square. Square is, as it says on their website, the easiest way to get paid, and to pay. Some of Square's products are the Square Card Reader, Square Register and the...
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...final paper Credit Cards: People should not use Credit Cards: Axia College When you want to a credit card you will be obligated to give your personnel information. You may be request to give information on your work history, how long you live at the address you have , are you a citizen of the United States. All of the information go through customer service to check if you are qualified. Credit Cards that you get will have your own personnel name on it and no one can claim it if, stolen. There are some good advantages and band advantages of having a Credit Card. Some people use them for entertainment reason, going shopping and to pay bills. Most people get these credit cards and misuse them and then they wonder what happen when the bill come in. They went over the amount and there go your credit record going bad. Using these Credit cards can get you in big trouble if you don’t watch out how you spend. Once you have been provide these cards make sure you put them in a safe place. If you are not using them at the time of purchasing the items you need. There are used for emergencies, business and to buy a house. Over spending is one of the disadvantages of the card and you will be getting a interest rate on whatever you spend. You get a bill every month showing what you have spent. Credit cards will cause bankruptcy if, you don’t watch out how you use them. When you spend on these cards be caution of how much you would be using. It’s like a debt card some of them...
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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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...a company by the name of Global Payments Inc., whom is a processor company for credit and debit card for Visa and MasterCard’s, and according to the wall street journal it was hit by a security breach. In the article it acknowledges that Brian Krebs, who runs a security site www.kerbsonsecurity.com, reported that his sources in the financial said the breach might involve more than 10 million compromised card numbers. Master card said in a statement they have alerted payment card issuers regarding certain MasterCard accounts that were potentially at risk, and they have also hired an independent data security organization, which is conducting a forensic review of the situation. MasterCard had also implied that it wasn’t there own system that been damaged by the security breach but it was the third party, which is Global Payment system that had been hit by it. One of Visa’s spokeswoman stated in an email “that there is no issue or impact to Visa’s systems or our processing network VisaNet. This is an issue with a third-party”. As MasterCard and Visa sent alerts to banks, Krebs reported, the card processor was compromised between Jan. 21-Feb 15, and banks are reviewing transaction in data trying to determine a common point of purchase. This is why having transaction data is very important as it helps out with tracking back to a person’s purchases and trying to determine if the information from the card was stolen and is being used somewhere else. It was also determine that full...
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...The Dangerous Consequences of Growing Inequality In today’s society the pressure of living an American dream has strained society. According to the article, The Dangerous Consequence of Growing Inequality, the author states one powerful consequence of growing inequality is erosion in the amount of free time families have. Families now have to work longer hours to make up for falling wages. Falling wages in the 1970s and 1980s were masked by the entry of a second wage earner in many households into the workforce. At the same time, temporarily and part time workers generally do not have paid vacations, and their numbers in the workforce are growing. Though advancements have been made in the work environment, many are working harder to earn the same wages to try to keep up with the changing economy. While unemployment and debt are increasing, there has been a decline with health insurance, diminishing retirement security, and the ability to earn a proper education. The U.S gap of inequality is continuously increasing with the changing economy. The article also states that, “Families continue to make up for falling wages in order to maintain a certain standard of living is by going deeper into debt.” Approximately sixty percent of all American households carry credit card balances, because they are unable to pay their full month bill. The article says that in 2004 the credit card industry claimed that the average household consumer debt was about 9,000. Yet, when the roughly...
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...vehicles pulled up, saw the signs, and left for another station. I even heard one person muttering about how inconvenient it was for them that the store could only take cash as they got back into their car. Now normally I pay for gas at the pump with a credit card even though I usually have cash on me, mainly because I do not have to deal with pre-paying and guessing how much gas I need, and I prefer to pump my gas and go about my day with a minimum of human interaction. This is a phenomena getting more and more common throughout a world where currency and coinage are quickly becoming items that people no longer carry as their primary instrument of payment and businesses would rather not accept. We all want a quantifiable measurement for what our wealth is but don’t really care if it is in actually hard currency or just expressed in the zeros and ones in the digital world. Call the money a Dollar, Euro, Pound, Deutschmark or any other name you want as long as we know, on paper, we have an amount of them is all we care about. Why have currency and checks become less and less important as a form of payment when they were once responsible for 100 percent of all payments? The answer is the rise of the credit/debit card and the advancement of technology. Some countries are more ahead in adoption of cashless options. Examples are Sweden, where physical currency makes up just 3 percent of the nation’s total supply (Newman) and our neighbor to the north, Canada, which is experimenting...
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...“Are we square?” It’s a new square-shaped gizmo that gives people a way to accept credit card payments on their iPhone, iPad, or Android. It was invented by Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, a guy who knows something about new ideas that catch on with people carrying cell phones. Prior to this, really only business owners could accept credit card payments. A standard credit card machine costs several hundred dollars, and credit card processing companies charge set-up fees and monthly fees (whether you make any charges or not), as well as high per-transaction fees to boot. That’s why ordinary folks don’t own a credit card machine. According to its Web site, the small Square device is free and plugs into the earphone jack, the downloadable app for it is free, there are no set-up or monthly fees, and the per-transaction costs are much lower. It’s secure, it E-mails the receipts, and it keeps track of all your cash and credit card transactions for you. The New York Times calls the idea “beautiful, simple, and a joy to use.” Add to that “disruptive, brilliant, and irresistible.” Disruptive? You bet. Not only is every kid with a lemonade stand--and every Tupperware lady and every cab driver and plumber--now going to be able to take credit and debit cards, big companies like department stores and chain restaurants would be crazy not to switch for the lower fees and free equipment. The credit card companies are not going to like this one bit. What it does is make it easier for...
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