Also…

You claim to have an income that disqualifies you from receiving assistance, but conspicuously absent from your sob story is any explanation of what measures you’ve taken to reduce spending in your budget to try to accommodate increased spending for these medical expenses. I would wager you’re paying an exorbitant mortgage on a house that’s way more than you need, all the while driving your children to and from their private school events in new cars with outrageous monthly payments. Maybe it’s just that I’m a cynic, but I would count on winning that wager.

I can’t say I have a lot of sympathy, you’re rude and insulting to fellow commenters on this thread, and it just seems to me that you’re looking for someone to listen to you cry “woe is me.”

You’re in a tough spot due to illness, I get it… I even feel a bit bad about it on your behalf. I’m not heartless, and I can even condone a certain amount of self pity.

What I don’t get, and what I cannot condone is this attitude you seem to have that Chase bears any responsiblity for your predicament. You keep trying to shift the blame to Chase, but it’s not their fault. Yeah, you’re ill, and it sucks because it’s expensive, but it’s not Chase’s fault.

Let’s review the facts:
* Chase did not make you ill.
* Chase did not set the price of your medications.
* Chase did not make you accept the terms and conditions of use on the line of credit they extended to you (you accepted those terms voluntarily).
* Chase did not make you pay for your medication using the line of credit (you chose to use the credit to make the purchase).

So what did Chase do? They offered you a tool to help you manage your finances. Now, like any other tool, this one comes with usage guidelines (the terms and conditions of the line of credit). It can be dangerous if mishandled, but you were warned ahead of time about the consequences were of using this tool in certain ways. They laid out the rules in front of you when you got the card, and you agreed to play by those rules.

I’m going to weave analogy here by way of a short story, so stick with me:
I lend you a power saw to help you build a deck for your home. I warn you about the dangers of using power tools, especially that using them during thunderstorms is a bad idea. You thank me for my advice and go off to work on your deck. Later that afternoon, the sky clouds over, and you continue working despite the danger. The rain starts to fall, and you keep working. Suddenly, your home is stuck by lightning, and for some reason, the current travels down the cord of the power saw, electrocuting you.

Is it my fault that you were electrocuted?

Can we see the parallels? You’re building a deck (taking medication for an illness). I make available to you a tool to help you build the deck (credit cards can be used to pay for medicine). I warn you about the dangers of power tools and thunderstorms (Chase warns you, via the terms and conditions on the line of credit, that if you use that credit in a certain way, you’ll pay interest). You make the choice to ignore my advice and continue working in a thunderstorm (you continue to purchase the medicine even though you cannot afford it, using credit). You’re stuck by lightning, and are electrocuted (Chase expects you to live up to the terms and conditions that you agreed to, and pay the interest due on the account).

You entered into a business arrangement (a contract) with Chase, and they’re expecting you to live up to your side of that arrangement. How would you like it if someone with whom you had entered into a contract with started complaining about the “burdens” placed on them by the contract, and were talking about breaking the terms of that contract? You probably wouldn’t be pleased. You’d probably consult a lawyer and consider suing that person for breach of contract. Why should it be any different when the shoe is on the other foot?

*sighs*
I’m going to stop now because explaining this is only making me more upset. Apologies to Trent for taking up so much space in the comments explaining something that should be common sense.

And for international travel, you usually get a *better* exchange rate with a good credit card than you would with exchanging cash.

I could divorce my husband and get on Medicaid instead of paying $400/month premium for a $2000-deductible policy. That would solve a lot of problems, but this strikes me as fraud.

Thanks for the lead on healthwell! I really appreciate it.

P.S. I would far, far rather stiff Chase and its 30% interest than my doctors and pharmacy!

One thing I found out when someone I know was faced with $1000 every 3 weeks in co-insurance alone is that there are organizations out there who help with out-of-pocket costs for people with chronic diseases who cannot afford these costs. Look up healthwell foundation, for example, they did help someone I know. Their income/asset requirements include people with middle class income e.g. 50K or so – I don’t know the details but you can check it out. If your disease isn’t on the list, you may find other organizations like this – just google for your disease and help with out of pocket costs. There may be help out there for your situation, you just may not know about it. This is a bit off topic, but I figured that if you’ve never heard of it this information may be of use to you or someone else with a similar problem.

Back to credit cards. Certainly there are people who got in debt because of medical bills. This is unfortunate. But the issue of this thread is why we need credit at all, and it seems to me that your situation is the exact explanation why. If you hadn’t have access to credit, how would you pay for it? As to the posts about self-control – obviously this doesn’t apply to people like you. But people who get into credit card debt because of medical issues aren’t the majority; otherwise, you’d have to assume over half of credit card users are sick which isn’t the case. Most of those in credit card debt got there because of overspending.

So you’re going to use the banks as a scapegoat again because your medication is unaffordable? Did Bank of America or JP Morgan Chase (or whichever banking institution carries your line of credit) make you sick? Did they force you pay for that medication on credit? I’m positive that the answer is no. If you got into debt because you used credit to pay medical expenses, that’s sad, but it certainly is not the fault of the bank that issued your credit card.

You are responsible for looking for solutions to your problems because you cannot reasonably expect anyone else to do so. If your medication is too expensive, you are responsible for consulting your doctor to see if there are available generic alternatives. If your medication is still too expensive, you are responsible for looking into public programs available at federal, state, and local levels for providing you with assistance. Failing that, you are still responsible for seeking out avenues of assistance from care groups in your community, including local churches.

Did you notice what word I kept repeating over and over? RESPONSIBLE! If you got into credit card debt because of a medical condition, you made the poor choice of using credit to pay for something that you could not afford. Should banks and lending institutions just forgo their profit (which is an obligation they have to their shareholders) because you made a bad decision?

Just accept the fact that you made poor choices and quit trying to shift the blame to others.

Additionally, many of his arguments are misleading or simply false! As are many of the comments that I think are trying to support the use of credit cards.

In my opinion Samantha has it right…the use of credit cards should make all of us stop and think, WHY DO I NEED ONE? My advice to this young lady is to avoid credit cards like the plague they are!

What plague…$930 billion in credit card debt, record bankruptcies, and a belief system that we “need” credit cards!

I am 45 years old and have not “owned” a credit card for the past 10 years, and have not used one for the past 13 years. I don’t have a clue what my credit rating is and don’t care.

1. I tried to call a friend in the insurance business before I left a comment but could not get a hold of him. I have a hard time believing that NO credit rating will penalize Samantha. I agree with Gerry and Doug, find another insurance company. I have personally compared our rates to friends and we are more than competitive.

2. I love Marks perspective, “You HAVE to get in (”good”) debt in order to be seen as reliable and trustworthy in the US society?” How can anyone living in the U.S. say YES to his question, but that is essentially what is being argued.

Trents comment is NOT accurate or true!! There are millions of great jobs that do not require a good credit rating, so to tie them (credit rating and employment options)together is just false and misleading.

More employers are looking at credit history, but my experience is that it does not play into hiring all too frequently. I worked for an organization that used credit checks and criminal investigations and in 4 years we never refused employment on basis of credit history but several times as a result of criminal history.

As a hiring Manager with some 100 people reporting to me…I could care less about their credit report! I wanted smart, creative, talented people working for me…not someone that could balance their checkbook. Would a poor credit rating hurt if you were a Financial Controller…maybe, but how it correlates to a Graphic Designer escapes me. Moreover, if you have 2 candidates of equal ability a better credit score is not the tie breaker!

3. Credit cards do offer protection that cash does not afford. I do not understand how you need Identity Theft protection if you pay cash? Maybe people get ripped off a lot more than I do, but again, going out and getting a credit card to provide fraud protection seems a bit of overkill.

Additionally, your renters or homeowners policy might provide some protection, and you can get a rider for CHEAP that will cover almost any event.

Lastly, get a debit/check card from Visa and you are afforded ALL of the protection to help detect, prevent, and resolve fraud, etc. Check your TOS or call Visa! So, you can easily solve this issue AND PAY CASH!

One more point on debit cards…besides not having a credit card for the past 10 years, for the past year I have spent traveling through Latin America while operating several online businesses. I DO EVERYTHING WITH DEBIT CARDS!!

4. I am not only excluded from renting if I have a poor credit rating…but also if I have NO credit rating? If this is true then shame on us! But the same philosophy applies, go find another landlord because you CAN’T argue that EVERY landlord operates this way. I have not rented in the U.S. for more than 20 years so can’t speak from experience, a credit report means nothing in Latin America :) I will have an opportunity to see in October how Phoenix Arizona landlords approach this…I can tell you that I have NO doubt that I will be able to find a very nice 3bm for my family without a credit card.

Samantha…learn to live without debt! While the MAJORITY will tell you it can’t be done, or if used wisely credit cards are a good thing, or some other silly argument – the majority are wrong! Listen to yourself and trust in yourself, I can assure you that a life without debt is an amazing journey.

But, say you had gotten a car loan from us, paid monthly for 3-4 months and then paid the loan off entirely, we would drop you down on the consideration list. As my boss said, paying a lump sum did not mean you had it on hand or saved it to pay your bills. It could be a bonus from work or a gift from family. This did not give a good history of your month to month payment history.

We were not like banks and have other forms of income. If you did not pay on time monthly, we could not pay our bills on time and monthly.

Which is why, when we were in cc debt of over $34k, I had a very high credit score. Even if I borrowed from one card to pay another, I made my monthly payments on time. Therefore, I got all the good cc offers. At the time, financial sites said if you could get your credit down to 14% you were ahead of the game. Well, I had received 3 offers for 9% interest on transfers, until they were “paid off.” Later that went down to 4.5% on another card & I was able to combine all my debt on one cc. On that transaction I made a mistake and had the bulk at 4.5% and the last $1k at 16.5%. But, the average still worked out to less than 6%. Then, the last 3 years I got the transfers for 0% interest for 1 year. It was hard work, but I got it done.

Now I have 2 cc’s and I use them on practically everything I buy and pay them off on line each month. I didn’t set it up to be automatic, because the amounts are different each time and I want to check the charges before I tell them to take my money. I usually check within 2 days of the closing date and then set up the payment for 3 days before due date. Works great.

“You can do everything you need to do with a DEBIT CARD”

I’m not sure that’s correct. Can you book a hotel room with a debit card? Order a book of Amazon.com? Rent a car? Earn cashback benefits?

“Credit card companies use seductive and sneaky tactics to get their card holders into debt because that’s how they make their profit.”

No, that’s incorrect. I think you might be confused about how credit cards work.

The credit card companies don’t make a nickel off interest. They don’t care whether you’re in debt or not. You’re thinking of the BANKS. The banks are the ones who lend you the money and who charge the interest.

The credit card companies make their money off transaction fees they charge merchants. That’s it. They don’t set the interest rates, nor do they collect the fees, interest, or anything else. They provide the network infrastructure, the reward programs, and other logistical framework, but they don’t set the interest rate for your card.

If you default on your Visa, you’ll get a letter from the bank, not Visa. Visa doesn’t care if you miss a payment. They just care that the merchant pays the 3% fee if you used your Visa to buy your groceries.

For years I used credit cards wisely, paying them off every month and taking advantage of rewards programs. Then I started playing the balance transfer game because it seemed like I was making money off them. In the end, I owed over $20,000 and had to file for bankruptcy.

Credit card companies use seductive and sneaky tactics to get their card holders into debt because that’s how they make their profit. They loathe customers who pay their balance every month, actually referring to them as deadbeats. I would no sooner get another credit card than I would walk into a casino with my life savings or buy a pack of cigarettes just to see if I like the taste.

Life takes Visa? No, Visa takes life!

A good credit report says: ‘this person always pays their bills every month. They are responsible and can manage their money’.
That is important information to have, even if it can be often flawed as someone who is getting into debt but keeping up their minimum payments will presumably still look good.

Remember to get a good credit rating you don’t need to get into debt. If you are paranoid, you could actually pay a small amount in advance, so the credit card is in credit, then spend an equally small amount. The credit scores only notice ‘late payment’ versus ‘on time’ payment. The amounts are irrelevant.

They do use lines of credit. Every time they can borrow money for less than they would earn with the same amount of money in their investments they rather borrow the money than to liquefy already invested money.

It’s easier for companies like MS or Cisco to keep a stable amount of liquid money, but even they try to keep it as small as possible to keep the RoI as big as possible (money kept liquid usually doesn’t generate much money).
Since they sell many small things to many people, generating a more constant stream of income. Other companies (even completely healthy ones) which rely on few customers paying huge sums for long-term projects on the other hand often need to borrow money until the customers pay the money. That’s why the biggest part of the global credit market is short-term loans to healthy companies, especially small companies.

Borrowing money is done for different reasons by rich people and companies compared to us “small people”.