Congratulations - We did it!

[Zeke]

Late fees and the ridiculous interest rates they charge people.

THIS!!!

[jonnyboy]

I used to work for a credit card company, one year we wrote off 105 million in fraud and disputes. 5 million for charity is nothing to sneeze at, but is a small percentage of the funds Chase is raking in annually. For whatever reason Chase did this giveaway (facebook youth crowd cred....tax write off etc), lots of the groups that got money would have had to go through the grant writing process or put many hours into fundraising for this kind of money....this Chase Community thing was quick and easy. Hard to beleive it only took about 1400 votes to be in the running for money.

[AZFan]

Congrats to all.

Now maybe next time we could help the open class corps? COUGH COUGH

I searched for all drum corps (and variations) and voted everyone i could find.

[Cardman]

you do know you can have a credit card and the benefits it affords and still not have any debt, right. It is a simple matter of not spending past your means. I use my credit card all the time and earn reward points which I can use for purchasing items or for airfare, but here's the secret. I pay the card total balance each month so I never incur any interest charges and I carry no debt on the card. And since the card has no annual fee it costs me nothing for the convenience and I still receive all the benefits.

Credit cards are not evil, using them stupidly is the problem

That's what everyone says. "I pay the total balance every month." If you can continue to do this indefinitely, more power to you. However, something is going to happen (Murphy will pay a visit unexpectedly) and there goes this month's credit card payment... My point is that there is absolutely no need to have a credit card. I always have cash or a debit card (which is accepted EVERYWHERE lol) so I don't need credit. I am in charge of my personal finances and I'm not a slave to any creditor. Oh and ANY debt is bad (yes, even your home mortgage, though this is the last thing to pay off in the Dave Ramsey system, at least.)

It's a different way of thinking, I know. You should check out www.daveramsey.com and see what it's all about. It will change your life for the better. Sorry to go on about this, but I am passionate about this. It is really sad how many people are in debt and they just throw their money away each month. I encourage you to give Dave Ramsey's system a shot. Just my two cents.

Edited July 15, 2010 by Cardman