I stumbled upon a great article about credit cards detailing out 50 interesting facts.

I thought I’d summarize the interesting facts:

Wonder why minimum payments are so low? It allows consumer to carry more debt while keeping to the same low minimum payment. You can give someone with the ability to pay $100 per month a credit limit as high as $5,000 if they only had to pay 2% a month. If the minimum payment were 5%, they could only have a credit limit of $2,000. The lower the minimum payment, the deeper in debt someone could be in.

This is no surprise…. this is a typical tactic to keep consumers in debt.

Visa actually stands Visa International Service Association.

I actually found this interesting because VISA is an acronym that contains Visa in it…. so it keeps going on and on. I mean imagine the following conversation:

Person #1: “What does Visa stand for?”

Person #2: “Visa International Service Association”

Person #1: “What does the Visa in Visa International Service Association stand for?”

Person #2: “Visa International Service Association.”

Person #1: “What does Visa in Visa International Service Association International Service Assocation stand for?”

Person #2: “I hate you, you are fat, and you are ugly”

This is a true story by the way (and by true, I meant fictional)

Under the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, and Discover Card, vendors may not require a minimum purchase amount. Under AMEX, it’s more of a hint that the vendor shouldn’t put up any barriers to use but AMEX also has a discrimination rule, so if there is no minimum amount for MC/Visa, there cannot be a minimum amount for AMEX. (Consumerist has all the relevant merchant agreements consolidated)

Under the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, and Discover Card, vendors may not charge a surcharge for using the card (the anti-discrimination rules still apply for AMEX). In some states, it is actually illegal to charge a surcharge for credit card purchases. This rule does not apply to government agencies.

On the flip side, offering a discount for cash payment (over credit card payment) is permitted by all of the card companies (looooophole!).

Talk about pointless rule! this means it’s all about semantics regarding charging you for using a credit card.

Minors, those under the age of 18, are not obligated to pay back any charges to their credit cards (unless a parent co-signs, but then its the parent who is on the hook) because they are not allowed to enter into a binding contract.

If there are any sub-18 year olds reading this blog who actually own a credit card not co-signed by a parent (very rare!) then it’s time to go shopping. I hear this iPod Touch thing is pretty sexy!

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