Wow, Sucky AND Stupid

[draco664]

I used to work at the callcentre for a major bank in Oz, to pay my way through university. It was mostly ok, the people you worked with were great, but the kind of idiots who'd call made you wonder for the future of humanity.

One Friday, I got a call from a young lady who'd just got her first credit card.

IL: Idiot lady
D: Draco

D: Welcome to yourbank, my name is Draco, how can I help?
IL: When does my credit card reset?
D: <blinks> I'm sorry, I must have misunderstood your question.
IL: I want to know when my card resets.
D: Um, I'm not sure what you mean.
IL: <Getting angry, because it's my fault she can't explain things properly> When can I use my card again?
D: <Still not getting it> Um, can I have the card number.

At this point, I figured I could work out what the hell she wanted by looking at the card records. It was interesting reading. Card had been issued the day before. There had been two transactions since. $500 cash withdrawal on the Thursday at a big shopping centre, an identical one on Friday.

She'd obviously taken the card, gone and withdrawn the maximum amount of cash she could get out at the time, and blown it all on shoes or something.

IL: Well?
D: I'm looking at your card now. You've reached your $1000 credit limit. The card is not stopped though, you can use it once you repay it.
IL: <Long pause> Repay?
D: Yes, once you've paid back part of the balance, you can use it again.
IL: I have to pay the money back?
D: <Blinks> Yeeeeeessss.
IL: No one told me!


The rest of the call was basically variations on the following themes

Denial, burst into tears, beg for help, yell for not being helpful, denial, repeat.

IL actually thought that the bank had given her a credit card with a thousand bucks for her to spend as she thought fit because she was a 'good customer'. A good customer with a grand total of 72 cents in her savings account.

The best of the call was when I told her that since she had withdrawn cash, she'd be charged interest from day one, where if she'd used the card to pay for purchases, she'd have had the first 55 days interest free. That set off another wave of tears that I surfed smugly until the end of the call.

Trying not to laugh *hurts*.

Draco

[ebonyknight]

Unfortunately, this isn't as uncommon as it sounds.

When my cousin immigrated from England (to go to college), he didn't realize he had to repay it either. Got him into a lot of credit card debt.

A friend of mine got into the exact same kind of trouble at school. His credit is shot.

Me, I thought it was common sense that no one gives anything for free, but apparently it isn't as common as one would hope.

I always walked past those tables at school giving away the shirts and everything. I had one card (still do as a matter of fact) and thought that was plenty.

Sometimes people really do need the "this is hot" warning on coffee.

[sarahj]

This is hilarious!

[AKWalMartCartGuy]

don't you know, giving people money is the best way to make profit

[HawaiianShirts]

It's so hard not to laugh at those people. They've gotten themselves into a horrible mess, and I know I should be feeling sympathy for them, but it is their own willful ignorance (because they didn't take the time to read the contract that goes along with the card and simply assumed they knew how one worked) that got them into that mess, which deserves at least some measure of derisive laughter.

It's like my friend who got AOL dial-up (back when their offers were mostly XXX minutes a month for a regular charge, then additional charges for additional minutes) in an area where there were no local access numbers. Yes, he paid for AOL by the minute and his long-distance by the minute. $900 total in one month. On a Denny's dishwasher's wage.


When I worked in the call centers taking apps for American Express, I lost track of how many people would say, "You mean I have to pay it back?" So I'd explain the nature of credit cards. Some would then understand and finish the app. Others would stop me, saying they didn't want it if it was going to cost them money. One lady even tried to argue with me that a credit card worked like a gift card, just like the girl in the OP seems to have thought.

I think my favorite one, though, was this. (Note that this guy came through on a line for American Express business chargecards--the kind that are only available to business owners to use primarily for business purposes, have no interest rate or spending limit but MUST be paid off IN FULL every month.)

Guy: Yeah, I need to apply for a credit card that I can use to pay off my student loans. What's the highest card you guys offer? Ten, twenty thousand?

First of all, you have definitely called on the number for the wrong kind of card. Second, why would you want an 11-20% APR loan to pay off a 5-12% APR loan? And third, what kind of student loan company lets you pay them with a credit card?

I think he was looking for grants, actually, so I tried to explain what credit cards were and that they would not be a good idea in his situation, but he told me I was useless and hung up, saying he'd call back and get someone competent.

[Emrld]

It really is amamzing how kids grow up and not understand money at all. I see it more with the ones who are spoiled and given everything than those that fight for every crust of bread.
Senior year of high school . . . girls mom had given her a signed check to purchase photos. The girl didn't know how to fill it in . . . even by just looking at it.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

I seem to remember learning how credit cards worked in, I don't know, sixth grade? You have to work really hard to not know the basic principle behind credit cards in this day and age. If through that Herculean effort you are still ignorant as to the process involved, then you shall reap what your ignorance has sewn.

Social Darwinism FTW.

[Andara Bledin]

I still don't understand why they don't have a real economics class in high schools as part of the required curriculum. That and typing are two of the most useful things I've ever taken in school. (math & Enlglish I taught myself as much as anything else)

Only my home economics class was in junior high. Where they also had us do wood shop, metal shop, and drafing (!) as part of the standard curriculum.

^-.-^

[Custard Chick]

That is just ridiculous...I cannot believe that someone can grow up in today's society and not realize how a credit card works! I just received my first credit card...At the age of 22! Because I know how a credit card works and I know I would have abused the crap out of it in college!

for the future of the human race

[Bloodsoul]

This is the exact reason I don't even want a credit card. A mere debit card is enough for me, and thankfully I know well enough not to use it often and to continually depost cash in my account. I'm a good boy! ^_^

[Tigress]

Ditto the making an economics class a requirement and drilling it into kids' heads that every penny you borrow needs to be paid back. I knew so many people in college that would spend their money on clothes and $80-300 hair styles, but would bitch about the cost of textbooks and supplies. And when those people got a credit card from the smiling plastic yuppies set up outside the student union... hoo boy.

Well, you have to learn fiscal responsibility some time. Some people just have to learn it the hard way.

[smileyeagle1021]

this is hard to believe there are people like that... I make most of my purchases on my credit card, but I make sure I already have the money before I spend it (or at the very least know that I will have enough by the end of the month). There are two reasons for that, first because I can get rewards back on my card and as long as I use it properly I will build my credit with it which will save me bank when I go for a a car loan or a home loan.
anyway, forgive me for the thread hijack, please return to laughing at the stupid questions.

[Nekojin]

I still don't understand why they don't have a real economics class in high schools as part of the required curriculum. That and typing are two of the most useful things I've ever taken in school. (math & Enlglish I taught myself as much as anything else)

Only my home economics class was in junior high. Where they also had us do wood shop, metal shop, and drafing (!) as part of the standard curriculum.

I remember that I took an Economics class in high school, but I don't remember if it was regular curriculum or an Elective. It was probably mandatory - I was dumb enough in high school that I might have ignored a class like that. But maybe not... I DID take Typing and Computer Studies in high school, and those were both electives.

My Econ class taught basic economics for day-to-day uses, including and especially how to fill out a check. Why adults don't know this is beyond me...

But then, in this day and age, checks are almost an anachronism, any more.

That reminds me of a story that I heard once of a woman who took the starter checks that the bank gives with a new checking account, bought some absurdly expensive things, and was shocked when the checks bounced and she had angry companies calling her. Her excuse? She thought the checks were gifts from the bank, to be used as she desired...

[ThePhoneGoddess]

My Econ class taught basic economics for day-to-day uses, including and especially how to fill out a check. Why adults don't know this is beyond me...

I had to take econ in highschool but it was the most boring class ever. It was taught by the football coach, and he was into the stock market, so that's what he taught. He taught all about trading stocks and market shares and all that crap. Never once were we taught anything about managing your own finances. The class was so boring it used to make my ears bleed listening to him.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

If the schools aren't going to be making basic economics and finance course mandatory, then the parents should be teaching their children what credit cards are and how they're used.

My parents are the ones who taught me about credit cards and emphasized that they are NOT free money.

Girl's now in a hole it will take years to dig out of, assuming she cannot pay her balance in full when it's due.