You complain that you never signed up for the card and it's some horrible violation, but guess what? They sent you the card for this reason: At some point you gave your name and address to a website or company and then agreed to let them sell that information. You know the "terms and agreements" none of us ever read? A lot of those say that they reserve the right to sell the information we've given them. THAT is how Netspend got your name and address. Essentially YOU are the one who did it. But, you either aren't intelligent enough to figure that out or you have nothing better to complain about. Really, I think it's stupid that you're trying to give a legit, good company a bad name. The only complaint this company ever gets is that "oh no they sent me a card with my name on it!" No other complaints have actually been filed anywhere. They have an "A" BBB rating and have for many years. Hell, half the people who have commented here, like myself, have been using one of their cards for years and have had no problems. Learn about something before you write an article accusing a good company of doing something wrong when they never did. It's ridiculous. I'm a writer, I write for a top marketing company as well as a magazine and a literary organization and if I wrote and posted something like this I'd lose my job. It's not good information, it's not researched at all, it's bad mouthing a company for no reason with no proof of any wrong-doing. This is literally exactly what you should not do in a forum like this. I really hope you're not a real writer anywhere if this is the kind of thing you do.
I did choose to negatively affect my credit in order to get out of debt. When the credit counselors recommended bankruptcy since our income was less than 25% of what it was after we both lost our jobs and finally found new employment.
YES! We did just that! We became debt free as I couldn't sleep well with the sword of debt hanging over our heads. I had little problem buying a house after we were debt free. We remand debt free except for the house. What a WONDERFUL feeling it is!
My husband and I are saving for a house this next year. Being very young, we are both trying to build are credit history. I think I would rather leave my credit alone and save longer for my house than decreasing our credit scores
I would much rather be debt free and willing to ding my credit to get there. If you become debt free you will most likely not be in need of credit cards because you should have the money to buy the things you need. Being debt free will also allow you to repair your credit more quickly rather than running on the hamster wheel of debt.
There's another fantastic website/blog called theheavypurse.com that does a great job of breaking down ways to talk to kids about finance. The author recommends teaching children to allocate their funds using a Save, Spend, or Share technique.
I would absolutely ding my credit. In fact, I'm going to. Even with my debt load (almost 20k) I have a really good credit score right now. But I realized that all the credit score is doing for me is letting me acquire more debt, which I don't need. So I am planning to take the hit and get out of debt once and for all. I can work on getting my score high again, but it's not necessary for anything I plan to do in my future, so I don't need to focus on it right now. Being in debt, however, keeps me from achieving my long term goals, so that's what I need to fix.
I would ding my credit score to get out of debt. Cash flow in the near term is king, and debt is a huge drain on cash flow. Credit scores can be repaired over time (or, you know, you could relocate outside of the U.S....).
This is really a difficult question when we live in a country that is so "credit driven". Without good credit it can be hard to rent an apartment, get a loan for a house or a car, and in some cases you may not even be hired for a job. At the same time, the freedom and security of being debt free is priceless. For debt creates stress, worry, and sometimes debt can place you in a life situation where you can end up without things you need, like a home to live in if at any time you become unemployed, lose your income, or have unexpected expenses like a medical emergency. In an ideal world based on old fashion trust, being debt free would be my choice. We live in America, so I think if we can find a healthy balance, our chances of financial survival will be better.
It depends on how much debt you have and if you need to use your credit score anytime soon. The debt will increase if you don't do something about it and cost you in the long run so get rid of the debt even if it damages your credit. Once you're out of debt you can start to rebuild your credit.
Well, that would largely depend on how big the ding is. I can probably withstand a 50 point hit, maybe even up near 100, and still have "good" credit, but I would love being out of debt more than having a nice score. The problem is we want to buy another house literally as soon as we can sell ours at any sort of profit, and my credit would have to be ready for that.
If I could know for certain the amount of time for which my credit would be "dinged," I might (2 - 3 years, maybe). But since your credit score seems to affect everything down to how much renter's insurance I pay, I'd still have to think hard about it.
Timely that Google announced/released "Helpouts" yesterday, which allows you to sell your expertise in a variety of subjects to others. (Or, on the flipside, buy help from experts.)
For me, it depends on the type of debt I'd be paying off, and how likely it would be that I would need to apply for loans again soon. It all just is up in the air!
Excellent Post, I definitely agree with believing and your halfway there. For years I avoided doing anything about my finances but once I took that all important first step I started to grow in confidence very quickly. I was able to read 10 personal finance books within a few months. I started to budget, I started to save, I started to invest and improve myself at every opportunity. This is a great post, I've shared it and bookmarked it. Thanks.
I would definitely ding my debt and get rid of it. Before I do I would fix my mortgage rate as far as I can and then once I've paid off the debt I would work on improving my credit score. I am actually doing this as we speak, I have fixed my Mortgage Rate with Santander for 4.74% over 3 years and paid my debt after they offered me a substantial discount (50%). I'm now using high interest credit cards to rebuild my credit and after three months I can already see an improvement, hopefully after three years I should be where I was previously or even better. Great article, thanks for sharing.
Yes, definitely. Having the dept means your credit is probabaly already poor, and not having to continue to pay it off gives you the opportunity to work to improve it for the long haul.
Ok, now I take exception to some of these. There's a fine line between frugal and cheap!
I am debt free It is great and will work on improving my credit score
You complain that you never signed up for the card and it's some horrible violation, but guess what? They sent you the card for this reason: At some point you gave your name and address to a website or company and then agreed to let them sell that information. You know the "terms and agreements" none of us ever read? A lot of those say that they reserve the right to sell the information we've given them. THAT is how Netspend got your name and address. Essentially YOU are the one who did it. But, you either aren't intelligent enough to figure that out or you have nothing better to complain about. Really, I think it's stupid that you're trying to give a legit, good company a bad name. The only complaint this company ever gets is that "oh no they sent me a card with my name on it!" No other complaints have actually been filed anywhere. They have an "A" BBB rating and have for many years. Hell, half the people who have commented here, like myself, have been using one of their cards for years and have had no problems. Learn about something before you write an article accusing a good company of doing something wrong when they never did. It's ridiculous. I'm a writer, I write for a top marketing company as well as a magazine and a literary organization and if I wrote and posted something like this I'd lose my job. It's not good information, it's not researched at all, it's bad mouthing a company for no reason with no proof of any wrong-doing. This is literally exactly what you should not do in a forum like this. I really hope you're not a real writer anywhere if this is the kind of thing you do.
I did choose to negatively affect my credit in order to get out of debt. When the credit counselors recommended bankruptcy since our income was less than 25% of what it was after we both lost our jobs and finally found new employment.
YES! We did just that! We became debt free as I couldn't sleep well with the sword of debt hanging over our heads. I had little problem buying a house after we were debt free. We remand debt free except for the house. What a WONDERFUL feeling it is!
I would much rather be completely out of debt. I could then work on rebuilding my credit score. Debt is the worst!
Does "ding" mean by a lot or just a small amount?
My husband and I are saving for a house this next year. Being very young, we are both trying to build are credit history. I think I would rather leave my credit alone and save longer for my house than decreasing our credit scores
I would much rather be debt free and willing to ding my credit to get there. If you become debt free you will most likely not be in need of credit cards because you should have the money to buy the things you need. Being debt free will also allow you to repair your credit more quickly rather than running on the hamster wheel of debt.
There's another fantastic website/blog called theheavypurse.com that does a great job of breaking down ways to talk to kids about finance. The author recommends teaching children to allocate their funds using a Save, Spend, or Share technique.
I would absolutely ding my credit. In fact, I'm going to. Even with my debt load (almost 20k) I have a really good credit score right now. But I realized that all the credit score is doing for me is letting me acquire more debt, which I don't need. So I am planning to take the hit and get out of debt once and for all. I can work on getting my score high again, but it's not necessary for anything I plan to do in my future, so I don't need to focus on it right now. Being in debt, however, keeps me from achieving my long term goals, so that's what I need to fix.
Yes - I'd do it if it meant I no longer had to look at those student loans! Credit can be built up again and I'm not that worried about it.
I would ding my credit score to get out of debt. Cash flow in the near term is king, and debt is a huge drain on cash flow. Credit scores can be repaired over time (or, you know, you could relocate outside of the U.S....).
This is really a difficult question when we live in a country that is so "credit driven". Without good credit it can be hard to rent an apartment, get a loan for a house or a car, and in some cases you may not even be hired for a job. At the same time, the freedom and security of being debt free is priceless. For debt creates stress, worry, and sometimes debt can place you in a life situation where you can end up without things you need, like a home to live in if at any time you become unemployed, lose your income, or have unexpected expenses like a medical emergency. In an ideal world based on old fashion trust, being debt free would be my choice. We live in America, so I think if we can find a healthy balance, our chances of financial survival will be better.
It depends on how much debt you have and if you need to use your credit score anytime soon. The debt will increase if you don't do something about it and cost you in the long run so get rid of the debt even if it damages your credit. Once you're out of debt you can start to rebuild your credit.
Well, that would largely depend on how big the ding is. I can probably withstand a 50 point hit, maybe even up near 100, and still have "good" credit, but I would love being out of debt more than having a nice score. The problem is we want to buy another house literally as soon as we can sell ours at any sort of profit, and my credit would have to be ready for that.
depends on how bad the ding is considering the debt itself can be a ding
Thankfully, I am not in debt. I just have my mortgage, which I already qualified for.
What an enlightening post! I haven't heard about a lot of these sites and making easy money is a definite plus.
If I could know for certain the amount of time for which my credit would be "dinged," I might (2 - 3 years, maybe). But since your credit score seems to affect everything down to how much renter's insurance I pay, I'd still have to think hard about it.
It seems counter productive for a personal finance website to advocate shopping to "make money"
Timely that Google announced/released "Helpouts" yesterday, which allows you to sell your expertise in a variety of subjects to others. (Or, on the flipside, buy help from experts.)
For me, it depends on the type of debt I'd be paying off, and how likely it would be that I would need to apply for loans again soon. It all just is up in the air!
Excellent Post, I definitely agree with believing and your halfway there. For years I avoided doing anything about my finances but once I took that all important first step I started to grow in confidence very quickly. I was able to read 10 personal finance books within a few months. I started to budget, I started to save, I started to invest and improve myself at every opportunity. This is a great post, I've shared it and bookmarked it. Thanks.
I would definitely ding my debt and get rid of it. Before I do I would fix my mortgage rate as far as I can and then once I've paid off the debt I would work on improving my credit score. I am actually doing this as we speak, I have fixed my Mortgage Rate with Santander for 4.74% over 3 years and paid my debt after they offered me a substantial discount (50%). I'm now using high interest credit cards to rebuild my credit and after three months I can already see an improvement, hopefully after three years I should be where I was previously or even better. Great article, thanks for sharing.
Yes, definitely. Having the dept means your credit is probabaly already poor, and not having to continue to pay it off gives you the opportunity to work to improve it for the long haul.