Thursday, January 25, 2007

I Must Be Popular

I get a lot of mail.
Someone at Citi-Bank and someone else at Capitol One must really like me.
I'm pre-approved. Big credit line. A new offer almost everyday. So I'm thinking I should just buy a new car and put it on one of those cards. Lets see, $30,000 for 3 years at 26.5%
I checked out the amortization. $1216 per month for 3 years. Total interest of $13,801. Interest as percentage of principal is 46%.
So yes, maybe if I write and politely ask them, they might consider NOT SENDING ME ANYMORE LETTERS. yelling like Sam Kennison here: HAVE I EVER RETURNED ONE OF YOUR THOUSANDS OF LETTERS. WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WOULD FOREGO RETIREMENT JUST TO USE ONE OF YOUR CREDIT CARDS???
I think they must all be women at these banks. Men are used to rejection and would have given up after oh say the first 6ooo tries with no success. I'm okay now
On a different subject this picture explains the biggest difference between women and men.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cliff,

I get those same credit card offers. They try to disguise them on occasion, too. Like that's going to fool us!

Your comment reminded me of this:

WHY MEN HAVE BETTER FRIENDS

Friendship Between Women:

A woman didn't come home one night. The next day she told her husband that she had slept over at a friend's house. The man called his wife's 10 best friends. None of them knew about it.

Friendship between Men:

A man didn't come home one night. The next day he told his wife that he had slept over at a friend's house. The woman called her husband's 10 best friends. Eight of them confirmed that he had slept over, and two claimed that he was still there.

EV said...

I actually read a post where the writer noted that she was in serious debt because of the "opportunistic" credit card companies. While that logic escaped me, I agree, all that junk mail is maddening to say nothing about an identity theft risk. Grrrr - I'm with you, Cliff.

Cute cartoon. :)

Anonymous said...

When I get those offers I take a piece of it that doesn't have our name on, insert it into the prepaid envelope and send it back to them. They have to pay the postage and I have gotten rid of junk mail.
I recently went on a list to opt out of all credit card offers, so no one can send any to us for at least 5 years.

Anonymous said...

Loved the cartoon Cliff.

Ralph said...

Cliff
All those people trying to make your life easier AND you won't let them! I've been getting a lot of checks in the mail lately - you know the ones 'just cash this for your instant $48,000 loan' another one for a $100,000 I can borrow.
Now it might just be me but loan and borrow are far different than have. Same with your credit card friends - or is it fiends.
Ralph

Anonymous said...

Our church (SSs and Life Groups) is going through a financial counseling series. Pretty good. I'm going to print off your blog and pass it around on Sunday. It's real good, Cliff.

I once wrote back and said, "100,000? Sure, go ahead and deposit it directly into my checking account." No response, of course, except for 4,752 more solicitations.

By the way, the man who invented the "minimum payment" is an enemy of your soul--not to mention your wallet.

Anonymous said...

When I get those things I shred them. I don't even open them, just toss them in the shred pile.

Cheyenne probably has the right idea!

As for the link you provided about men and women....what exactly are you trying to tell us, huh???

Jamie Dawn said...

My KIDS get those now! Especially my 18 year old daughter. I think if you have a bank account, even if it doesn't have much in it, they somehow get your name and address.

The Man machine only has one button, an on and off button.
How boring and under-equipped for the life tasks at hand!
We women know that life requires A LOT of buttons that do A LOT of things that are ALL extremely important.

It is also our job to tell men when to turn their button on and when to turn it off.

We have a lot of responsibility!

Anonymous said...

Cliff, you can go to OptOutPrescreen.com to opt-out of those pre-approved letters. It is very successful. Note that to opt-out for life, you have to send in a signed paper, but you can opt out for a few years entirely online.

And great photo.

Anonymous said...

I refuse to get sucked in by all those offers, whether they arrive by snail mail or email, but many do. I was only discussing similar matters to this over lunch yesterday. Even after all the warnings and advice, people still enter the big trap-door!

Cliff said...

Yes Jamie D, you women have a lot of buttons and they all have to be set just right or it's a no go.

Jamie Dawn said...

I'm glad you understand how it is.
We women are intricate beings and oh, so delightful!
We get the joy of having babies, taking care of our family, shopping 'til we drop, and men get to control the remote.
Life is gooood!

Jim said...

Hey Cliff, there is an 800 number to call to opt out. Mrs. Jim and I opted out and we don't get them any more.
We do get them from friends of the companies we have flier miles with. Their cards aren't free either but they do earn miles.
..

Raggedy said...

Just an on and off switch eh? Well guess who has to turn you on? THE WOMAN! Not this woman but your woman..
Capital One sends my hubby one letter a day! No joke. They send me two per day!
If we could use those mailings for toilet paper we would never have to buy any.
This has been going on for a YEAR! If you find a way to make them stop clue me in will ya?
Have a fabulous weekend.
Hugssssss

Dan said...

They're just trying to give you some credit.

Rhodent said...

Good post, Cliff. Those credit card solicitations drive me crazy. I always worry about someone stealing them from my mailbox, filling them out and sending them in, and using them in my name. It has happened in our area on numerous occasions. At least you don't get too many casually driving by on a daily basis!

The other thing that gets me is when they keep trying to raise my credit limits! Who on earth would need a $10,000.00+ credit limit on a card? I mean, if you need to buy something that expensive, take out a small loan or something... the interest would be much better... or try SAVING for what you want!

I was glad to have the credit line when I got stuck with the lawyers fees for the divorce, but at some point you have to stop and think about your ability to pay the charges you've incurred. I am trying to stay in pay-off-the-card-and-put-more-into-savings mode.

By the way, I wonder what Marilyn thinks of your little picture. I'll bet that switch is in the off position!

True_Floridian Momma said...

We hate credit cards around our house here!!

I love the picture, btw, a friend of ours gave a copy to us as a wedding gift when we first got married. It stayed on the refrig. for almost 4 yrs.....hubby FINALLY got it, so we took it down...LOL

Raggedy said...

You changed that post! I know you did. I would have noticed Sam in there earlier. I have all his tapes and vids and some rare behind and off set stuff of him. I still miss him.
Hugsssssssssssss

Cliff said...

Nope Raggedy, haven't changed it yet. Yes I too liked him. A bit off the wall, but so am I.

eyes_only4him said...

oh Sam Kinison, he was one unique man..I can just see him yelling that..very funny..

i get those too, i filled out one of thier things and put Boos name on it, and a made up soc number, just to see if they would give her one...within 3 weeks i got a card in the mail with her name on it.

she has a 50,000 line of credit from citi bank...thats my baby.

Anonymous said...

When I was in college the roomies and I got the house dog a credit card by sending off for information about a Soloflex in his name (Conrad Poos). Love that list sharing!