Why Is My Bank Teller Trying to Sell Me a Credit Card I Don’t Want?

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• I recently got a replacement for my only credit card, which is for emergencies only.
  They now have the Obama mandated computer chip in them. The card went right in the safe, where it will sit, while I keep using the other card without the chip.
  I called the credit union to find out why I got this, that's how I found out it was an Obama mandate. I said I would just destroy the chip and was told the card won't work. The old card expires 3 months before the new one, so I'll just keep it. When I can't make a transaction without the chipped card is when I get rid of it.

• The credit card is an ugly poison.

  I just had to get the door handle of my car fixed. Six-hundred friggin' dollars!

  How is a price like this possible? Because we live in a society that has "brilliantly" fixed the phrase "I can't afford that." It used to be that when you said, "I can't afford that," you MEANT it, and you didn't buy it - you COULDN'T buy it. But now we have the very modern statement "I can't afford that... but what the heck! I'll buy it anyway! 'Cause, y'know, you only live once!"

  Because people can now buy what they can't afford, prices reflect this. "Hey! Charge six hundred dollars for a two-dollar part and ten minutes of labor! They'll grumble, but they'll pay it!"

  This is an evil society.

  • KRae -

    Credit cards driving the supply and demand equation, therefore prices?

    Brilliant observation. It's a very difficult thing to nail down. At best, one can make a correlation between the expansion of credit card use and prices. But there are so many other variables in the supply/demand equation that the correlation would most likely be mathematically weak to meaningless.

    It reminds me of something Thomas Sowell wrote. The topic was "no one can afford to live on a single income". He posed the idea that the at least part of the reason that prices are so high for real estate (obviously not so much in Sandpoint ID or Lincoln NE as in northern NJ, VA/MD around DC, SF, LA), IS specifically because there are so many two income families.

    Sellers will charge what the market will bear. And if there's a house in a highly desirable area, a two income family can outbid a single income one. That causes a ripple effect of placing pressure on the single income families to add a second income just to keep up. Then you end up with a spiraling effect of demand for more stuff and bigger houses to put it all in and the prices that "the market will bear".

    And as tempted as I am to go off on a 2500 word rant at the mere mention of XP etc, I won't. I just had to switch due to hardware problems. XP was the best OS MS ever made. So they "improve" it. Also I have the "improved" versions of an autocad program, and the pdf creator. Why is it that "improvement" must necessarily include a gazillion things that I don't need, the addition of which makes it more of a procedure to get to and use the stuff I do need, and nothing works as well due to bugs?

    Are they fixing the bugs? Probably not. Most likely, they are working on the new updated improved version, with, of course, a whole new set of bugs.

    Do these people sit down in a conference room somewhere and the meeting starts with "how do we make the program slower? We need to add more needless steps!"

    In re: PJ O'Rourke - I tell people, if you're going to read one political book, read Parliament of Whores. No one book will better encapsulate what is going on, and with such a level of humor.

  • You got it wrong RKae. We are not an evil society, we have become a stupid society. Apple comes out with some new gadget, like this wristwatch thing, and fools are running out to buy it. Microsoft has us by the nuggets, every few years we are forced to buy a new "puter because our old one is no longer "supported". I know, I had to buy a new one because XP is no longer supported by anyone.

    We have to pay ridiculous gasoline prices even though we are the worlds leader in gas exports. All because of idiotic emission control regulations, which vary from state to state, that the rest of the world could care less about. The voters are getting what they ask for, they keep electing the same old fools to go to Washingtoon to take care of our business.

    Quoting P.J O'Rourke: We are a parliament of whores, and the whores are us.

• Here's how I handle all those pesky front-line workers, whether they be in retail stores/banks/ or even restaurants:

  Them: "Would you like to open a [name of store] account (or join our rewards club) and save 20% today?"
  Me: "No, thank you. But nice try at the 'upsell.'"
  Them: "okay" (transaction continues unabated--I pay for what I buy; they get my money; I walk out with my merchandise).

  Oh the humanity, Mother Jones. How can anyone handle that kind of pressure? Thanks for showing me the error of my ways. I was being harassed to the point of emotional distress and did not even know it. (Damned microagrssionists) I suppose I should write an article and submit it to you. I could call it "A (Mental) Rape at Kohls (or Applebees or Chase Bank)"

• Somebody is trying to sell you something???

  Oh, the humanity!

  I noticed that on your website, there's a link "advertise". Hmmm. You mean you're letting people try to sell me something I might not want?

  • Ha, win.

• I know it is Mother Jones.. so a grain of salt.. I don't use banks. I have been a credit union member for over 40 years..Banks suck.The one time I had a mortgage with one (back in the 80's when Carter was fumbling around in his effort to destroy America, and the bank went under. Just prior to them closing I left a fully loaded diaper in their night drop box. That was after they called my loan and tried to take my house. They did that to everyone. They did not get the house, just a diaper.. :)

• How awful. Why don't you just say no and keep your Federal scrip in your mattress?