Grammar warning: I'm using two different (but related) words spelled "check". One refers to the slip of paper on which a waiter records the food you have eaten, the other "check" is a slip of paper ordering your bank to pay money to a third party. Unfortunately, I don't know any alternate terms for either word.
At 06:06 PM 3/24/05 +1100, Helene Gannac wrote: > I wonder how many people owe banks more than several > years of full pay in credit cards without really having noticed . . . Astounding numbers of people fail to understand what a credit card is. It isn't a way to borrow money, it's a way to put everything on one check. It's like a tavern I used to frequent. If you sit at the bar, each time you ask for something, the bartender prepares it, sets it in front of you, and takes some of the money you have placed on the bar. This is like paying cash at each store you visit. But if you sit at a table, the waiter will write your request on a pad of checks she keeps in her apron pocket (all five waiters are female), relay it to the cook or the bartender, and bring it to you when it is ready. When you are ready to leave, she adds up your check and you pay for everything you have ordered at one time. This is like using a credit card. Bank credit cards replaced store credit cards because they allow you to buy goods and services from a whole bunch of different people, add them all together, and write just one check -- or perform one electronic transfer. We used to have to choose between carrying vast quantities of cash around and writing a check for every little dabby purchase -- except in department stores, where you could buy things in different departments and pay at the end of the month. (Which exception I shouldn't have mentioned -- most young people have never seen a department store. Anchor stores are an entirely different critter even though many are descended from department stores.) Think how much faster grocery lines move, now that the customer in front of you need only sign his name, instead of fetching out a checkbook, filling in the register, writing in the name of the store and the amount, tearing up the check and starting over because your glaring and foot-tapping made him nervous and he spoiled the check . . . My jaw hit the floor the first time I heard someone complaining about "high interest rates" on credit cards. Credit cards don't charge interest because you aren't borrowing money! They assess penalties for late payment. Penalties were set high to encourage prompt payment -- and then the card companies discovered that they could earn enough on penalties that they didn't need to care whether they ever got paid. So credit-card advertising encourages the massive ignorance I see all around me, and people who understand what a card is for are considered spongers -- which doesn't stop various companies from sending me un-ordered credit cards fairly often. Probably it's cheaper to waste postage than to weed out exceptions -- a bankrupt acquaintance says that he also gets frequent letters praising his "good credit", and that he sometimes accepts such an offer in order to get an up-to-date credit report. But I really, really don't understand why I practically never run into anyone who has a clue! All sorts of advertising encourages all sorts of fantasy, but the only campaign I see people falling for is "you can borrow money with a credit card". -- J.A.B. west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A. To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
