News
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
view the rest of the comments
I have never had a credit card. I have no plans to get one. I have no idea what my credit rating is either. And until I have to know, I don't care. I am not in any debt though.
You should probably still find out your credit score/rating though, especially since it's free. Identity theft is a real issue, like someone opening a line of credit in your name and fucking up your rating when you actually need it for something (buying a car or house, or anything that requires a credit check).
Ok, that is a fair argument. I will look into it. Thank you.
Another case for getting a credit card is the rewards and protection. I always pay on time and never have to pay interest, so I only gain from cashback rewards and don’t lose anything by using a credit card. Banks are also very strict with fraud (it’s their money you spend before paying it off after all), and they will side with you if your card gets used to pay for something you did not authorize. Lastly, it’s becoming a hassle to pay cash nowadays with most establishments going cashless.
As long as you always pay it off on time, there aren’t much downsides to maintaining a credit card, regardless if you care about your credit score/rating or not.
You can also put a freeze on your credit via the big three credit agencies. That would prevent someone from opening ip a credit card or taking out a loan in your name.
You're right, but it's a shame the system is designed to punish people who don't have an interest in participating at this time. Fraud should be the responsibility of the credit card companies not the users.
I was like you and got screwed by it. That's the unfortunate part of the system for us. Credit rating isn't rating of trustworthiness, it's a rating of likely-to-take-debt/trustworthiness. Never having credit is often "worse" than bad credit. If you ever do try and take out a loan for a car or a house, you will have fewer and more expensive borrowing options.
The play for people like us is to open exactly 2 sources of credit, use one as autopay for static bills, and automatically pay it every month. Use the other for dynamic expenses, but monitor and pay it off in full whenever it reaches 30% utilization, or 25 days, whichever comes sooner.
One can get the benefits of credit without actually accruing debt. The way you use your cash/debit, you already don't spend money you don't have. Just continue to not spend money you don't have, but get the benefits of the system. Be a "deadbeat" as they call us. Us deadbeats actively cost the system money by never carrying balances that accrue interest.
when you "have to know" is the worst time to find out that it's not good.
Possibly, but it has not been a problem in my life so far, so either it's good enough that no one cares when it's come up or I'll be in trouble one day, I guess.
yes that is indeed how you create future problems for yourself.
Ignoring it is a sure fire way to let someone else make it a problem for you.
Maybe, but it's worked for 46 years now.
Same. Unless you're buying a house or a new car I haven't run into any issues.
I use my credit card for every purchase I make and get 1.5% cash back. I pay off my balance every month in full to avoid any interest. That 1.5% can add up pretty quickly and it’s basically free money.
If you lose your job though that free money dries up lightning fast
It's free only if you have the ability to fully pay off your card every month, otherwise it is not free due to interest, yes.
And everything costs 5-10%% than it would without all the cash back and other rewards programs.
Tricky part here is that an easy way of building credit is by use of a credit card. If you can’t buy a house in cash, then obtaining a good mortgage becomes difficult. I’d recommend the happy medium being one of those preloaded credit cards where you pay $1000 up front or what ever and just use that for day to days… being out of debt like you are, though, is one of the most liberating things one can ask for
If you treat them like a debit card, there aren't any of these issues. I have a credit card that I use for all everyday expenses. Every month it's paid off so it never acrues interest. My credit score is great and the card offers some other benefits too.
If I lose my job the risk I have would only ever amount to one month of spending, which is easily covered by my emergency fund.
Thing is, by the time you have to know, you'll need to have a history of good credit.
I have one credit card. It's fully paid off every month automatically, because I spend less than I make.