Quote:
Originally Posted by boosami
My charge cards have no pre-set limit, so I don't have to worry about limitations. That means I can put a $60,000 downpayment on my card, get the points for it, and pay it off immediately. I use them for daily spending and also for paying my taxes and other big ticket expenses. You can get credit cards that have "no pre-set limit" also, but they really have a cap on the high spending--my Visa Signature SAYS it has no limit but there is still an amount I am not allowed to go above without overlimit fees.
As far as benefits, my Diners Club (charge) offers similar and slightly better benefits as my Amex (charge) and my Visa Signature elite (credit). What stands out though is the customer service. The DC has virtually no hold time for concierge service and other telephone services. There is a smaller user base for charge cards, and Amex and DC both have separate telephone numbers and staff for taking care of charge card customers, so it seems to me to be faster and more personalized.
As far as I'm concerned, charge cards and credit cards have completely different purposes. Charge cards give me flexibility of 30-60 days to pay off the balance with money I ALREADY have, and credit cards are for extending credit for money I DON'T have.
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That's an important difference that I knew about, but never really appreciated until last year.
We have 2 cards, Chase Mastercard and Citi Visa. The credit limit on the MC and VISA were 10K each. Anyway we always pay off the cards each month so never thought about the limit because we never needed it....
Until last year when we bought a house, and so of course we needed to get new stuff: New carpet 7K, high-end custom work for the mastercloset and 2 other closets, 15K (yes, it was a splurge, but worth every cent!), furniture 8K. We had the money in the bank but wanted to use our credit cards for the cash back. When I called Citibank and Chase to increase our credit limit, they both turned us down. Even with my gross salary of well over 200K.
In the end, we had to break down the payments into chunks of over a 4 month period last summer and immediately paid off the cards.
About 3 months ago, Citi Visa actually decreased our limit down to $7,500 (from 10K) because our actual use is below the approved limit. I never called them to complain -- I just don't use Citi Visa anymore. Then about 2 months ago we got a pre-approved application from Visa Black Card. Go figure. We turned it down since we did not need another card.
Recently got a Costco Amex which we use only for Costco purchases. Not sure if this is a charge or a credit card. Only thing I don't like about Costco Amex is the cash back is only redeemable at Costco stores.
Anyway, this was off the OP topic.
Not sure why we don't have more charge card options vs other parts of the world. But I think wblake is most likely right. Charge cards are not as popular with consumers in the US since you
have to pay them off every month. Hence the economic mess in which we currently find ourselves.