Seriously- pay off your credits cards!
Filed under: Avalon's Money Thread, Banks, Cost of living, Economics, General Budgeting, interest rates
From Credit Cards on Cracked.com
You will find a very good explanation of who this works on the website. Although this refers to the US, its a cautionary take in any country. I believe in the UK the minimum payment has to cover the interest and charges, and your statement should now tell you how long it will take to clear the card if you just make minimum payments, but that does assume that stop spending. And not many people do that!
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KiwiBank Analysts – need to switch thier brains on.
Kiwibank asked their “analyst” to look again at our application for a Credit Card. Which if you think about it is a bit silly as he is hardly going to be admitting to be an idiot.
But the same analyst has said no – because yes – he is still an idiot – and can’t grasp that there’s actually a lot more at stake than a bloody credit card.
The thing which makes me want to scream with frustration is that its actually people like this who caused the collapse of the banking system and the recession in the first place – because they insist that money behaves in a vacuum.
You see money is just a number.
- X amount of debt is too much
- Y amount of debt isn’t enough.
Analysts and Economists tend to forget that it’s Human Beings who spend money, or don’t spend it, and do it in the main for emotional reasons. Analysts don’t tend to look at any other factor. This guy is only interested in the amount of debt. He doesn’t give a toss about excess income, savings, assets, or amount of debt paid off. He looks at one number in isolation and decides whether you are worthy or not.
They also tend to forget that when you piss us off – we can have very long memories, and bad customer service now will be remembered for a very long time.
Its also hugely frustrating that while we obviously can afford a credit card, never having missed a payment in our lives – we can’t get a new one, and yet people who have no hope of being able to pay off the balances will get offered them by the bucket load. And if anyone thinks that’s not the real reason we have been turned down – you could be dreaming.
The fact is people like us don’t actually make money for the banks on our credit cards, because we don’t pay interest. Credit cards only work for the banks if you don’t pay them off. The damage that has been done across the western world by banks insisting on giving credit cards (and mortgages) to people who cannot pay off the balance is staggering.
It should be said that I have been dealing with a very patient and understanding man at Kiwibank (the Analyst wont “front up” to a mere “customer”). It’s a pity that the humans aren’t in charge.
So, thats BNZ and Kiwibank who will never see a cent of our money.
The list of banks who haven’t right royally hacked us off yet is getting smaller. 
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Banks – why are they all run by idiots?
Following on from the post about trying to get a Kiwibank GoFly card – we got turned down.
Why?
Because we have a lot of lending.
No shit Sherlock – that’s because we own a lot of property – which even with a recession is worth a lot more than the lending on it. Apparently the 30,000 in credit card limits is also a concern – completely ignoring that we have always paid all the balances off in full.
This is what happens when you put a bloody “analyst” in charge – common sense has no place in their limited thinking.
So because this dumb “analyst” can’t think for himself – Kiwibank joins the list of banks that do not “match our criteria”, and will be told where to stick their accounts when things change and they are once again desperate for increased market share.
So ASB still comes out way on top – and even though I may not like some of the things they do – they are still by far the best bank in New Zealand.
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Applying for a new credit card.
Well, it was easy enough to apply – just fill in an online form at Kiwibank.
If only.
So first off – why on earth would I want a new credit card? I’m not a fan of them, and yet I already have three. The problem is the major rip-off that is most reward schemes in New Zealand. The misleading “Flybuys” that so many people go to great lengths to accumulate will only let you actually transfer points into Air New Zealand Airdollars if you own a BNZ global plus credit card. As we had to give ours up – due to BNZ allowing other people to use our credit card details with impunity, and then getting shitty with us when we dared to object to their incompetence –we are no longer able to use “Fly”buys to – well – fly anywhere. (And the other things you can buy with them are a waste of time anyway.)
However we did quite well with our ASB cards. ASB run a rewards program, which costs $10 ever six months, for each person on each card (so with 3 joint cards that’s $60 every 6 months). Because all our spending goes on Credit cards – we were making enough points for that to be worth it.
Except ASB, in the way that only banks can be stupid enough to do – keep altering the scheme to make it less attractive. First – they stopped allowing you to use your points to pay your bank fees – which is something I thought was brilliant. (I really don’t want a bleedin’ toaster – but a cut in bank fees is worth real money). Then, just recently – they have decided that we can no longer change our True Rewards in Airpoints Dollars at Air New Zealand. So we have arranged with our manager that next time our TR fees becomes payable – we are removing it for two of the cards as we don’t do enough business on them to make it worth the cost.
Step in Kiwibank.
They are now offering a GoFly Credit card – where for every $150 spent you get $1 in Airpoints dollars. With a platinum card – you get $1 for every $90 spent.
Magic.
And the best bit – although the card fees are slightly higher – you don’t pay extra to join the reward scheme (they can set up an Airdollars account for free – saving the $50 that Air New Zealand want to scam you for). So we are going to pay a whole dollar more ever 6 months on our fees. I think I can live with that.
Really – the only downside was the application process. I filled in the online form, but it won’t let you apply for joint accounts online. So I applied in Hubby’s name (as he is the one with the income), and then phoned to add some details to let them know this would be a replacement card rather than an application for extra credit. Only Kiwibank at this point need Hubby’s Permission to speak to me.
WHAT???
I’ve just applied for a credit card for him – and now he needs to give permission? Because it’s HIS account – not a joint account. Well – can we make it a joint account I asked – since that’s what we really want in the first place? No – not without his permission.
Thankfully Hubby was here – so I threw the phone at him and asked acidly if he would give Kiwibank “permission” to speak to such a lowlife as myself. When he stopped laughing – we managed to get the account application converted to a joint one – where now I am considered eligible to be spoken to.
Sheesh – banks. Hate them all.
We should know by the end of the week if Kiwibank consider us worthy to have an account with them. If they have any brains they will – because we are looking at alternative banks for our mortgages all the time – and this is a way of showing us that they are a bank worth doing business with. It never ceases to amaze me how much the New Zealand banks see their customers and potential customers as if they are something they have just stepped in – rather than the source of their much needed income.
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