is there any reason not to have a negative balance on my credit card?
 

They're going to give you a refund check after 30 days or something with a negative balance. At least Citibank does.

LAME.

Yeah I don't see the point in having your own self-made secured card. You're also reducing your cash on the (granted, extremely rare chance nowadays unless you engage in illegal activity) chance that you will need quick cash.

I don't actually want credit at all. I'm just doing it for the rewards program and because of the ridiculous way credit scores work. If I could have gotten the same card with all the same features except that it debited my checking account I would have done so.

You're also reducing your cash on the (granted, extremely rare chance nowadays unless you engage in illegal activity) chance that you will need quick cash. Let's just say that I already have more than enough liquidity already.

Because I have no possible use for it?

1. As I said, one of the two reasons I have one is so that I can do the ridiculous "building up a credit rating" thing.

2. I have absolutely no possible shortage of liquidity along any time horizon.

I'm reading how he keeps saying "I have absolutely no possible shortage of liquidity along any time horizon" and I'm like, whatever, rich ****.

He doesn't want to have credit because he's rich or some ****.

Lots of rich people live paycheck to paycheck. Plenty who aren't rich, don't.

I hope you told him off.

I still don't see the big deal.

I put absolutely everything on the CC. I pay it off every month. No fees, no interest, but thousands of dollars in rewards...

I have no use for a credit card here. Even a debit card is of dubious value since the only ATMs are right next to the bank and can't give out enough cash anyways. My credit is good everywhere in town though!

I do have a penny balance on my Paypal :/

Doesn't your bank offer a service to send you an SMS when you have a balance for payment?
This way you don't have to worry about forgetting.

Umm... why don't you set up automatic payments?

What are these "rewards"?

Basically everything is 1% cheaper than it otherwise would be.

So everything is 1% cheaper. Got it. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/tongue.gif

However, that sounds like it's really ripping off the merchant...kinda bullshit.

Think for a moment about the equilibrium solution of the system in which people have N+1 payment options: cash, and N different credit cards, each of which has monopsony power over retailers (in particular, it can force retailers not to add a markup to people using its card).

When I buy stuff worth $X, I ultimately have 0.99*$X fewer dollars. That sounds a whole lot like a 1% discount to me.

I don't care.

There's a difference there, even if it's not a difference to you. And it's a difference that makes your statement misleading. And makes your follow up discussion completely irrelevant. No.

It's not about you caring. It's about explaining it properly to HC.