| The Game of Life Literally Takes Visa |
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shirsc2
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| The Game of Life Literally Takes Visa |
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Have you heard about the new version of the board game of "Life"? Visa and Hasbro have teamed up and instead of using cash in the game, players are given a Visa card to make all their purchases.
The Game of Life Literally Takes Visa
Looks like the credit card companies are now marketing towards children. Seems like a smart move by them to try to get kids used to credit cards at an early age to profit from them later in life.
What are your thoughts?
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Mon Mar 19, 2007 7:03 pm |
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Kiaser
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I don't see anything wrong with it. Credit card companies market a product, simple as that. Credit card companies aren't evil and their business practices and terms are the same terms you or I would come up with if we started the idea of a credit card. As for putting it in the board game Life, it's just another way to market your product.
The negative image credit card companies have are manufacturered solely by idiots. Credit cards are meant to be able to purchase things before your next paycheck, to obtain rewards from purchases, or to give you a way to purchase something for an emergency despite having the money yet.
They are NOT meant to buy things that you would not be able to pay off with your next paycheck, and unfortunately this is the way people treat it. But it's not the credti card companies fault, it's the user of the card who is an irresponsible idiot and shouldn't be allowed to handle any forms of money in the first place.
I always have money to buy whatever I need. However, I use a credit card for ALL my purchases. I do this because I can pay it in full come statement time and I never obtain any interest charges or fees that way. I also earn 1% or more on my purchases and rack up quite a bit of cash back each year (enough to pay for a vacation or two). I also enjoy being able to pay one total at the end of the month for all my little purchases and bills by just paying the credit card total. It's also nice that if someone overcharges me, doesn't deliver on the goods/service, or some type of fraud goes on that I can dispute the charge. I also like the fact that by just charging a few dollars on each credit card a month and paying it off gives me a nice long track records of responsible paying ability on my credit report and it helps me score.
Credit cards can be useful for everyone, both rich and poor. Don't let anyone ever tell you to "throw them away" or "stay away from them".
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Mon Mar 19, 2007 11:18 pm |
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shirsc2
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quote:
Originally posted by Kiaser
I always have money to buy whatever I need. However, I use a credit card for ALL my purchases. I do this because I can pay it in full come statement time and I never obtain any interest charges or fees that way. I also earn 1% or more on my purchases and rack up quite a bit of cash back each year (enough to pay for a vacation or two). I also enjoy being able to pay one total at the end of the month for all my little purchases and bills by just paying the credit card total. It's also nice that if someone overcharges me, doesn't deliver on the goods/service, or some type of fraud goes on that I can dispute the charge. I also like the fact that by just charging a few dollars on each credit card a month and paying it off gives me a nice long track records of responsible paying ability on my credit report and it helps me score.
Kiaser,
I agree with you to some extent. However, credit card companies do not like people like you and me as their customers. They wat people who can't pay their bills on time and are already struggling to make their minimum payments. The credit card companies are not concerned for our well being. I'm sure their motivation behind the game is not to "teach" kids about using credit cards responsibly. If everyone paid their bills on time, they would make no money.
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Tue Mar 20, 2007 1:05 pm |
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Kiaser
Senior Member
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quote:
Originally posted by shirsc2
I agree with you to some extent. However, credit card companies do not like people like you and me as their customers. They wat people who can't pay their bills on time and are already struggling to make their minimum payments. The credit card companies are not concerned for our well being. I'm sure their motivation behind the game is not to "teach" kids about using credit cards responsibly. If everyone paid their bills on time, they would make no money.
I'm a merchant who accepts credit cards. I have to pay a minimum monthly fee to Discover, American Express, and VISA/Mastercard which adds up to about $30-$40 a month. Also, I have to pay a minimum fee per credit card transacation of $0.25. THEN I have to give up 1.87%-3% of the total charge I receive from a customer to the credit card companies. This is all from my little computer company in Plano, TX that brings in only about $400k a year (all money, not profits). While we get maybe two or three credit card transacations a day, a large merchant (like a Wal-Mart store) will get thousands. I am one merchant, in one town in America with relatively low credit card transacations and I probably paid somewhere around $12,000 in credit card merchant charges last year. Now multiply that by the hundreds of thousands of merchants throughout the world (and then multiply that amount by more since we do so little transacations). Trust me, they get their money.
Also, think of it from the credit card companies side. If you were gonna offer a credit card to someone, and foot the money for their spending until they decide if/when to pay you back, and have the risk of them not paying you back and leaving you with no way to collect other than credit reporting, would you have rules in place as they do? I would, in fact I'd probably add on some bone breaking clause in the contracts. Of course they aren't concerned for our well being, they are selling a product that has nothing to do with mental or physical health. Their only concern is to be able to market that product and make the stock holders happy. They do, however, offer things to us for some protection (the ability to dispute charges, no liability for fraudulent charges, etc).
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Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:46 pm |
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