Easy credit far too easily & invariably changes into unmanageable debt for those who don't get to enjoy the benefits !
Easy is always far too easy a word in matters finance. It'd be much wiser to focus on general affordability & balancing money earned by way of value for effort.

Hi Indy, I agree "easy" credit is a trap that many fall into. There is a multitude of credit options on offer to the unsuspecting, such as cards, store credit, after pay, personal loans and even the notorious payday loans. If not with very high interest to begin with, there is a sting in the form of high fees and charges, like with so called no interest terms, generally one default will see high interest cut in immediately. Its surprising how those on low incomes can obtain credit so easily.

How is this; I could not believe it; A relative a while back, not too smart, wanted a $500 loan, from a pawnbroker/loan shark. First dumb thing, he puts up his motor bike worth say $5 grand as security for $500, leaving it with the pawnbroker. He has 2 months to pay back $1500, or the bike is defaulted. He paid the $1500. This guy has no idea about finance, just ignorant when it comes to that kind of thing.

Talk about recession,

Today is Wednesday, September 30, 2020

If you're having a bad day, remember that today
in 1976 Ronald Wayne sold his 10% stake in Apple
for $800. Now it's worth $58,065,210,000

Paul1405,
I have a friend who is paying off old credit cards with new ones. I recall when he was in Credit card debt to the tune of $40,000.- & they still gave him a new card with a limit of $25,000.- ??
I had to wait till I was 58 before the Bank loaned me 50 grand to buy a 90 grand block of land while I had 50 Grand in savings.
As I had always paid for what I wanted I had no credit history & it was way more difficult to to get a Bank loan for me than it was for people to buy a new car who owed more than what I asked for to buy property.
Something's definitely gone wrong in the financial sector.

Paul,

I remember a TV program once when credit card repayments were being discussed - some financial wizard had advised CC companies NOT to ask for substantial monthly repayments, only for monthly payments just above the accruing interest for that month. That way, the sucker would stay in hock to the company and never get out of debt to it.

And of course, so many bright sparks think, "I know ! I'll get another credit card." And then clock that one up to the limit as well, to get it on the minimal repayment treadmill, along with the others.

Do that with, say, four credit cards, with a combined limit of, say, sixty thousand, and you could be paying substantial monthly amounts of a thousand dollars, i.e. paying nothing but interest (and 'charges'), with nothing extra to show for it. A bit like a hamster on a treadmill, except that the hamster gets fed occasionally.

Joe

I tried to find my credit score a while back, & it appears I don't have one either individual.

I last borrowed money 29 years ago, bridging finance to buy this place, while I sold some other stuff. I converted the last of it to a mortgage, & hung onto a 20 acre block on 3 titles. It was a good decision as just 2 years later I was offered twice what I had been asking for it. Good result, but it could have gone the other way just as easily. I kept it as a fall back option, in case I didn't like the new job, not as an investment. That more than cleared the debt.

Credit is fine, & obviously necessary when setting your self up, but to my mind, only a fool borrows money for anything but a profit making business venture, once into middle age. If you want to upgrade your lounge, car or house after that, do it with money you have, not with money you must borrow.

I only did this because I had been head hunted, with an offer just too good to refuse, to come down from Wide Bay to run a group of companies on the Gold Coast. Without some very good reason you have to be a fool to take on debt, particularly depreciating assets, when you don't have at least a quarter of a century to pay it off.