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Path: utzoo!decvax!tektronix!uw-beaver!cornell!vax135!petsd!peora!jer
From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos)
Newsgroups: net.consumers,net.invest
Subject: Re: Free VISA & Mastercard
Message-ID: <1122@peora.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Jun-85 08:28:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: peora.1122
Posted: Fri Jun 21 08:28:01 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Jun-85 19:34:20 EDT
References: <1805@ut-ngp.UUCP> <1478@utah-gr.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Perkin-Elmer SDC, Orlando, Fl.
Lines: 39
Xref: tektronix net.consumers:02588 net.invest:00737 

> I have been resisting AMEX, too.  I recently found a reason to have one,
> however.  I was trying to guarantee a hotel reservation ...

AMEX is a different kind of card from Visa or MasterCard; it is a "charge
card", whereas the other 2 are "credit cards".  You have to pay the full
amount of the AMEX bill at the end of the month.

Personally, I am philosophically opposed to the use of credit cards (for
obscure reasons having to do with economics which are debatable, and which
I don't want to debate here).  However, after I graduated from college and
began work, I found that in the "real world" one is "guilty until proven
innocent" as far as the necessary business transactions of life are
concerned (I had great difficulty opening a savings account here in Florida,
since the banks required a Florida driver's license and a credit card;
apartments assume if you don't have a credit card it means you can't pay
their rent; etc), and thus reluctantly obtained a charge card.  I got the
American Express because it involves no real notion of credit, since you are
required to pay all of it at the end of the month.

(This philosophical opposition goes back to something Shakespeare said
once.  You know...

	Never a borrower, nor a lender be.
	Never forget.  Stay out of debt.
	If you take this good advice from me,
	You will always be free.
	There's just one other thing
	You ought to do...
	To thine own self be true.

[No, Shakespeare didn't really put it that way... that's from Gilligan's
Island.])
-- 
Shyy-Anzr:  J. Eric Roskos
UUCP:       ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jer
US Mail:    MS 795; Perkin-Elmer SDC;
	    2486 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809-7642

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