Something that I was told, since I was a kid, and that I always believed in is that "money are not for free". You need to work if you want some of them. So when I saw this flier in my bank today I didn't really believe it ... $50 for free if you open a new no fee credit card account ...
... of course I didn't believe it. But the Bank Teller told me there was no trick. You just need to spend some money with it in the first billing cycle. After that you can forget about the card. Just don't close the account, otherwise it will hurt your credit history. $50 are not going to change my life. But if they are there I can offer some beer to my friends in the weekend. So I decided to go for it. And now I just hope not to have any surprise. All this made also think that you can't really understand what this country is all about if you don't understand how credit cards work here. Back in Europe people is using credit card or debit cards in the same way, at least this is the way I did. I probably preferred to use the credit card to have the "points", that I could convert in gifts or "airline miles". Here it is all dan other ball park. I still remember a colleague explaining why here credit cards don't have any annual fee. He tried to explain something I couldn't understand "Credit Card companies will make money on your debts". People is living on credit cards debts. And credit card companies are living on people debts. I still remember how shocked I was when I moved here to US the first time and I saw all these ads about debt recovery. I didn't even think that a family could live on debts. But here is it is normal. And I believe this trend is moving to Europe as well. At least to Italy, for what I heard from my parents and friends. So, if you you will be patient in few years they will offer you also a no fee credit card with $50 bonus entry. Just watch out not to overspend with it ... :D
... of course I didn't believe it. But the Bank Teller told me there was no trick. You just need to spend some money with it in the first billing cycle. After that you can forget about the card. Just don't close the account, otherwise it will hurt your credit history. $50 are not going to change my life. But if they are there I can offer some beer to my friends in the weekend. So I decided to go for it. And now I just hope not to have any surprise. All this made also think that you can't really understand what this country is all about if you don't understand how credit cards work here. Back in Europe people is using credit card or debit cards in the same way, at least this is the way I did. I probably preferred to use the credit card to have the "points", that I could convert in gifts or "airline miles". Here it is all dan other ball park. I still remember a colleague explaining why here credit cards don't have any annual fee. He tried to explain something I couldn't understand "Credit Card companies will make money on your debts". People is living on credit cards debts. And credit card companies are living on people debts. I still remember how shocked I was when I moved here to US the first time and I saw all these ads about debt recovery. I didn't even think that a family could live on debts. But here is it is normal. And I believe this trend is moving to Europe as well. At least to Italy, for what I heard from my parents and friends. So, if you you will be patient in few years they will offer you also a no fee credit card with $50 bonus entry. Just watch out not to overspend with it ... :D
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