Finance Gets Personal

Tonight we’re going to Buffalo Wild Wings to celebrate paying off my car.  

The loan officially bites the dust on Friday, but we’re having an early celebration so my stepson can be there (side note: my husband bought a Powerball ticket on Saturday and we were taking turns saying what we would do with the money if we won.  My 9-year-old stepson said the first thing he would do is pay off all our debt - what a genius!)

The last time my husband and I had paid-for cars, they were both over 10 years old with close to 200,000 miles on them.  Now, we own a used car that we bought in July with 75,000 miles on it, and my ‘06 that we purchased new two years ago. 

The first thing I plan to do after work on Friday is take my car for a wash and vacuum/clean the interior.  I own this car now, so I want it to look good!

The timing on paying off the car couldn’t have been better - I just reached 50,000 miles earlier this week, which means my warranty has expired (I have a long commute).  I’ll feel a lot better paying a repair bill for a car that I’m not still making payments on!

Now it’s on to my credit card.  Citibank, I’m talkin’ to you!  Just because you have a fixed 2.99% interest rate doesn’t mean you’ll be hanging on for another nine years (that’s right, nine!).

I’m sure you know someone like this:

“Credit cards are great! I use mine for everything and pay it off each month. I flew to Tahiti last March with the airline miles I earned and I get $500 cash back from my Discover card at the end of the year. I know some people can’t handle credit cards, but they can be used to your benefit if you do it right!”

Admittedly, I am not one of these people. Maybe someday I will be, but I don’t trust myself to pay everything off and not spend more than I would otherwise.

One of my coworkers is, only she takes it to a whole new level. Every few months, she will open an American Airlines or Continental credit card that offers 20,000-40,000 airline miles for signing up. She’ll make the required number of purchases with the card and keep it open long enough to get the miles. As soon as the miles are transferred to her frequent flier account…bam!, she closes the card. She then has her husband do the same thing.

After waiting a few months, she calls the credit card company and applies for the exact same card. Makes her purchases, gets the miles, closes the card. Repeat.

She now has enough miles for her and her husband to fly to the Caribbean every six months for the next three years.

Crazy? I’m not so sure. The only drawback I see is that it might affect their credit scores by opening and closing cards so often. But since only 10% of your FICO score is determined by new credit, it shouldn’t affect it too much.

It’s really tempting to open a card for both my husband and myself and use the points to fly us somewhere for our fifth anniversary next year, but I think I’ll stay away for now. I can’t believe I’m quoting Dave Ramsey here again, but, “When you play with snakes, you’ll get bitten.” And I can’t afford to take any chances.

The other night I went to Old Navy and purchased a shirt for $4.97.

Within two minutes of entering the store, I was approached by a girl with a clipboard asking if I’d like to apply for an Old Navy credit card. After I declined her offer, she quickly moved on to a Hispanic lady next to me. While I don’t think this shopper spoke English, she glanced at me and told the employee no. She must have known by the look on my face that whatever the question was, the answer was no!

Then, the guy ringing me up asked if I’d like to save 49 cents by opening an Old Navy card! I laughed and told him no.

Based on the fact that every Old Navy customer satisfaction survey asks whether you were offered an Old Navy card, and the fact that I am asked every single time, I suspected that the employees must be required to ask everyone.

So I did a little research and found the following discussion among Old Navy employees on MySpace. It seems that employees have certain goals for the number of Old Navy Cards they need to get per month, week or even per shift. What’s worse, these “goals” are more like requirements for employment, as employees are threatened with loss of hours and possible termination if they do not perform up to expectations.

While it seems to bother some of the posters, many just see it as “part of the job,” and post tips about how to talk shoppers into applying for the card.

So, is there anything we can do to get stores to stop pushing these cards on us? (Besides taking it out on the employees, obviously.)

Here are a few options:

• If you shop at Old Navy (or another annoying store) and are given a customer satisfaction survey with your receipt, be sure to mention your displeasure with their strong-armed credit-card pushing techniques when asked if you have any other comments.
• Write a letter or email the company. Here is the contact information for Old Navy:Old Navy Customer Relations
  200 Old Navy Lane
  Grove City, OH 43123-8605custserv@oldnavy.com

I know that retail credit cards are supposed to increase company loyalty among card-holders, but what about the loyalty of non-card-holders? I’m seriously considering reducing my visits.