I never use a debit card for anything except a bank withdraw at the drive thru window. My reasoning is a debit card is a direct pipeline to your savings/checking accounts, I try and insulate my accounts as much as possible. My credit card is from a different institution that I have no accounts with. I also use my CC for any automatic monthly payments, I don't want my trash company or phone carrier having access to my accounts.
What can happen if I refuse to pay anything against my CC debt?
- Thread starter OregonGuy
- Start date
StarSong
Awkward is my Superpower
- Location
- Los Angeles Suburbs
Dole money here typically refers to social welfare type money, i.e., unearned dollars that keep people from starving or being homeless
We distinguish those from benefits we or our employers contribute to directly, like employment insurance (colloquially known as "unemployment benefits"), Social Security, 401Ks, IRAs and pensions.
StarSong
Awkward is my Superpower
- Location
- Los Angeles Suburbs
hollydolly
SF VIP
- Location
- London England
benefits here are what are given by the DSS or government to unemployed people..or to top up wages for those on low incomes.. For the unemployed theyare knownas Dole, Unemplyment benefits, or Social Security...
We don't have 401K's in this country
State pensions are not classed as benefits.. they are earned during our workiing lives..
dilettante
Well-known Member
- Location
- Michigan
StarSong
Awkward is my Superpower
- Location
- Los Angeles Suburbs
Ah... I think I get it now. What our government calls Social Security seems akin to your State Pensions.
Different terminology, but similar baskets of money.
Benefits in the US refer to tax dollars paid into these specific funds by ourselves and our employers, i.e., we reap benefits from the money we put in during working years.
By contrast, being "on the dole" means government safety nets of welfare or topping up.
hollydolly
SF VIP
- Location
- London England
yes ..however it seems to me that almost every working person in the USA has a 401k.. ( correct me if Im wrong) but in the UK it's more a minoirty who has workplace pensions which they pay into along with a portion from the employer....rather than the majority
Wages in the Uk are generally quite low for most jobs so the average wage earner simply cannot afford to pay into a workplace pension.ri
Wages in the Uk are generally quite low for most jobs so the average wage earner simply cannot afford to pay into a workplace pension.ri
hollydolly
SF VIP
- Location
- London England
yes the first part of your post is correct,... but here in the UK it differs from the US..in that benefits can be paid to anyone regardless if they've paid into the system. IOW all of us who work pay a portion of our salary as Taxes and national Insurance.. as long as we earn over 12k per year this pays our benefits if we're sick and are on sick leave..or unemployed ...
.... however those who have never worked a day in their lives and never paid into the system even one penny are still entitled to the same benefits ..altho' called something different)... in the case of the unemployed it's called Dole, and in the case of those who have worked and earned and paid into the system it's generally knowns as benefits or , Social security.. but all 3 mean the same thing..money paid by the government to to someone who is not working.. whether they've paid into the system or not
This the major draw for so many illegal and legal immigrants to come here...they are entitled to benefits/dole... even tho' they've never worked a day in their lives here...
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This affects one's credit score, too, I believe. I checked my credit rating a few months ago. My payment history was rated as "Exceptional," but unfortunately I have a lot of CC debt because of medical issues from a couple of years ago, plus I co-signed my older daughter's student loans for graduate school, so my credit rating could use some improvement. I've been working hard to pay down the debt, but the interest rate is nearly killing me.
But payment history was one of the categories on the credit report.
Self-employed people do not have a 401K; neither do independent contractors, which is what I am. But yeah, most other FTE people have one.
Twostep
Well-known Member
- Location
- Tiny town Oklahoma, OK
You set up your individual IRAs.
Right.
Ladybj
Live, Laugh and Love
- Location
- Somewhere in the USA
If you make your minimum monthly payments, there isn't much they can do. Your interest will continue accumulating, increasing your cc and minimum monthly balance.
JustDave
Well-known Member
We have Welfare Assistance, which is not Social Security, and some forms of Social Security like SS Disability, which might be considered a "dole." No one has to pay into Welfare, and I don't think it's required for SS Disability. Almost every person I know has paid into Social Security their whole lives, and for middle income earners, it can be a big bite out of their pay too.
To collect Welfare and other non earned assistance, you have to be poor enough to qualify, and most people don't qualify. Social Security is a pension one pays into during his entire working life. I got my life long Social Security card when I was eleven. The weakness in the program is that the government never invested it in low risk securities like a workplace pension. Instead they seemed to have spent it on other projects.
gruntlabor
Well-known Member
- Location
- Last Frontier, Age 83
I understand that it's harder for them to collect if you send them, say, ten bucks a month.
Also harder for them if you can show a hardship preventing you from paying more.
Twostep
Well-known Member
- Location
- Tiny town Oklahoma, OK
This is one of the shortest explANATIONS i HAVE COME ACROSS. What is a 401k? | Cambridge Credit
An employer can offer 401k as benefit. Employee can have funds transferred before taxes are withdrawn. Employer can offer to match funding. It is all tied into limits. Penalties for withdrawal prior to age related eligibility are steep. But one can borrow against it. Basically old age saving. One bonus is the option to pay taxes when you have reached reduced income.
StarSong
Awkward is my Superpower
- Location
- Los Angeles Suburbs
That has to be infuriating.
mathjak107
Well-known Member
- Location
- bayside ,queens , ny
they can sue you and get a judgement … they can then get a court order to have your bank turn over the money awarded from whatever money hits the account
jujube
SF VIP
My first job was as a cashier at a sleazy loan company that lent money at usurous rates to people who wouldn't be able to get a loan anywhere else. Interest was compounded daily....also legal.
The laws allowed us to use everything but one cent to be applied to the interest. Only ONE CENT needed to be paid toward the principal.
Guys would come in after not paying for three -four months and slap down a hundred dollars. $99.99 would go toward the interest and one cent on their loan. We were not allowed to remind them of that until the hundred was locked in the till because, of course if we did, they'd walk right out with that hundred and wouldn't ever be back.
There was no glass between me and them and more than once a guy made it halfway over the high counter before Chet, the owner, was there with his baseball bat.
After a robbery, my dad made me quit.
The laws allowed us to use everything but one cent to be applied to the interest. Only ONE CENT needed to be paid toward the principal.
Guys would come in after not paying for three -four months and slap down a hundred dollars. $99.99 would go toward the interest and one cent on their loan. We were not allowed to remind them of that until the hundred was locked in the till because, of course if we did, they'd walk right out with that hundred and wouldn't ever be back.
There was no glass between me and them and more than once a guy made it halfway over the high counter before Chet, the owner, was there with his baseball bat.
After a robbery, my dad made me quit.
Twostep
Well-known Member
- Location
- Tiny town Oklahoma, OK
Not very much different in the US.