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Not allowing you to carry a balance makes the card less flexible, since it takes away the ability to use the card to finance items you can't afford to pay in fu

Not allowing you to carry a balance makes the card less flexible, since it takes away the ability to use the card to finance items you can't afford to pay in full right now. At least in the US, charge cards also (historically) charged higher fees to retailers, so a lot of stores wouldn't accept them.

throw0101a 8y ago
> [...] ability to use the card to finance items you can't afford to pay in full right now. Given the rates charged by many cards, I'm not sure you'd want to do that. The US has an average of 15%: * https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-cards/i/average-apr-on-credit-card/ https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-cards/i/average-apr-on-cr... * https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-credit-card-interest-rates https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-credit-card-interest-ra...
- vxNsr 8y ago
  So much this. I've never carried a balance on a card that charges interest. but I would be more open to the idea if they charged interest more inline with market loan rates. 15-35% is insane.
  - bunderbunder 8y ago
    35% seems pretty high, but I think you'd find that, far from being insane, the bottom portion of that range is right in line with what's typical for unsecured debt. You can't really compare it to mortgages or car loans, because those are both secured by a collateral. You can't really compare it to student loans because it's impossible to get out from under a student loan. Either way, the debt is less risky for the lender, so they're willing to offer it for a lower rate.
- bunderbunder 8y ago
  I've done it before. Never for truly big ticket items, but sometimes the $5 or whatever in interest to carry a small balance for a month isn't worth the extra effort it would take to free up the cash I'd need to pay it off in full without dipping below the minimum balance I like to keep in my checking account, and it's also not worth $5 to me to wait another month before replacing that busted transmission.
  - throw0101a 8y ago
    > I've done it before. It depends on the matter of scale. Some folks either don't understand how things work, or are just bad at math. That's where the problems start for people.

throw0101a 8y ago

> [...] ability to use the card to finance items you can't afford to pay in full right now. Given the rates charged by many cards, I'm not sure you'd want to do that. The US has an average of 15%: * https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-cards/i/average-apr-on-credit-card/ https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-cards/i/average-apr-on-cr... * https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-credit-card-interest-rates https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-credit-card-interest-ra...

vxNsr 8y ago
So much this. I've never carried a balance on a card that charges interest. but I would be more open to the idea if they charged interest more inline with market loan rates. 15-35% is insane.
- bunderbunder 8y ago
  35% seems pretty high, but I think you'd find that, far from being insane, the bottom portion of that range is right in line with what's typical for unsecured debt. You can't really compare it to mortgages or car loans, because those are both secured by a collateral. You can't really compare it to student loans because it's impossible to get out from under a student loan. Either way, the debt is less risky for the lender, so they're willing to offer it for a lower rate.
bunderbunder 8y ago
I've done it before. Never for truly big ticket items, but sometimes the $5 or whatever in interest to carry a small balance for a month isn't worth the extra effort it would take to free up the cash I'd need to pay it off in full without dipping below the minimum balance I like to keep in my checking account, and it's also not worth $5 to me to wait another month before replacing that busted transmission.
- throw0101a 8y ago
  > I've done it before. It depends on the matter of scale. Some folks either don't understand how things work, or are just bad at math. That's where the problems start for people.