- When you begin this journey,
you're going to have so many people telling you
that it's just not possible to live without debt,
and especially without a credit card.
Friends are going to tell you that.
Family's going to tell you that.
Commercials are going to tell you that.
But let me give you some truth about credit cards.
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There are currently 459 million credit cards
in circulation today
and only 327 million people living in America!
That's like 132 million extra cards
that are not assigned to a person,
but they're floating around.
But they are assigned to people,
because the average person carries four credit cards.
68% of people who use their credit cards said
they use it on things that they need.
But the most common type of credit card
are the ones they sell you at retail stores.
Yes, 41% of people have store specific credit cards.
And last I checked, not many emergencies can happen
where J.Crew swoops in and solves your problems.
Maybe a fashion emergency, but no other—
no other emergency.
Store credit cards, actually you guys,
they are the worst you can get.
Their interest rates are nearly double
of traditional credit cards.
So let's just assume that you accumulate $1,000 of debt
on a store credit card.
This is actually way lower of a balance
than the average American,
but it's just a nice round number.
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt.
And let's say you pay two times the minimum payment
every month on your balance.
For a store credit card with a 25% interest rate,
it's going to take you 27 months
and cost you $307 in interest to pay off that balance.
So let's say you signed up
for that credit card when they said,
"Would you like to save 15% on your purchase today?"
And you said, yes!
And let's assume that you spent
that whole $1,000 we talked about earlier
when you signed up for that store credit card,
which is pretty unlikely,
but let's just say you did.
That 15% saves you $150.
But you end up spending $307 in interest.
Guys, let it sink in.
It's just math, people.
And then you look at the facts and the profits
from places like Macy's.
Macy's credit cards make up nearly 40% of their businesses.
And stores like Kohl's and Macy's,
they actually pay their employees
for each credit card application they get.
It doesn't even matter if the application is approved.
The employees get a commission
for just getting someone to sign up for a credit card.
And some stores even threaten
to take away hours from employees
who are not signing up enough people for credit cards.
It's a huge problem.
And you guys, I know a lot of people
who sign up for credit cards with really good intentions.
They do it for the points,
because they think they can pay it off every month,
but it's just not the reality.
Only 45% of people
pay off their credit card balances every month.
And there's $784 billion
in outstanding credit card debt out there.
Half of Americans are not paying off their credit card bill.
So the bottom line is:
Credit cards are not going to help you build wealth—
they're actually going to steal it.
Because again, I said it earlier,
at the top of this episode, but it's true.
So many people say, "Well I'm going to get a credit card
to build my credit, so that I can buy a house."
But you actually don't need a credit score to buy a house.
It is possible.
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