No holds barred: The Great Credit Card Debate
Posted
Jan 10 2008, 07:59 PM
by
Karen Datko
Earlier today we almost bought blogger Ana's line that she needs "Investing for Complete and Utter Idiots." That is until we came across The Great Credit Card Debate between Ana, of DebtFree-Revolution fame, and Madison of My Dollar Plan. If you need a solid education about the slick ways of credit card companies, read Ana's first post in the debate. You'll learn all about double-cycle billing, rate jacking and universal default, plus the "move-the-due-date game." Little Ms. Clueless she's not. And neither is Madison, who counters with "25 reasons to love credit cards."
Madison raises some good points, including fraud protection, cash back and other rewards. Hey, you can even post bail with a credit card. She also notes that you can avoid some of the credit card companies' tricks by always paying on time and never carrying a balance. Madison also likes credit cards for another reason: She has 89 accounts and engages in what's known as credit card arbitrage. We do not recommend this.
So who won the debate? Ana and Madison declared the winner to be Lynnae of Being Frugal, who cut up her credit cards -- her photographs of this little project are very amusing -- after getting them out of the freezer. She did it after one of the companies made uncalled-for changes to her account, promised to fix them and didn't.
