Credit. As Americans, we consider it our birthright. One credit card is good. Two are better. What about a wallet full? You need to establish your credit early. Get a credit card when you are in college. Making sure that by doing so…you can secure, you guessed it…more credit. After all, it is the only way to ensure that you can live above your means. The average American household carries a credit card balance of $14,750! Considering the median household income in the US is around $46,000, it doesn’t take an accountant to realize that this balance is not likely to be paid off anytime soon.
John and I happen to be very conservative about the use of credit. We never carry a balance from month to month. Instead, we use our credit cards like cash. So our credit rating is off the charts (in a good way). Of course, in the US, that means that everyone wants to give us more credit that we won’t use. Limitless credit.
‘Please’, the banks say, ‘we want you to get into debt…it’s how we make money. And if you have friends who may also want to live beyond their means,, please feel free to get an additional card for them.’
And, I think about one in every 10 of the credit card solicitations that we get every month is actually includes our dog…
So, after getting our first US credit card statements with charges from Australia, and noticing how the ‘foreign currency’ charges rack up, we decided we needed Australian credit cards.
So, since we have a mortgage in the US with Citibank, we started there. We were summarily turned down for a Visa card. TURNED DOWN!!! Something about we’re not sure what, but clearly, they did not want us to live beyond our means.
So, next I called American Express. I’ve been a ‘member’ since 1982, and due to my business travel and the fact that we use our cards for all household expenses, we have close to 2 million awards points (that we have never redeemed). We have a Platinum card in the US. I figured I had some clout.
‘Oh, do you want to switch your current account to an Australian one? I can do that for you.’
‘No thank you, I would like to keep it and open up an additional Australian account.’
‘Oh, I see. (the vibe on the other end of the phone clearly indicated that wanting multiple credit cards is a definite warning sign of a credit criminal) Well, you’ll have to reapply for our card. It will take about 60 days for approval, if you qualify.’
HUH? Apparently membership doesn’t have as many privileges as I thought.
Now this is getting ridiculous.
As we licked our wounds and tried to get over the indignation, we remembered this story:
Years ago, John and I got our first boat with electronics—GPS, radar, the whole enchilada. Suddenly, we felt a bit invincible against the elements. Then one day, John recommended that we go for a sail. I looked out the window. The fog was so thick that we couldn’t see across the bay. It was then that I sat John down and explained to him that perhaps we weren’t on the same page on this one…that there were two schools of thought. In my mind, the electronics were not there to allow you to get INTO trouble, but rather they were there to get you OUT of trouble, should you happen upon it.
So, let’s just say we got over our shock by realizing that the philosophy about credit in Australia is that it’s about not letting you get into trouble. Use your credit cards to live within your means.
But we still needed a credit card!
So we pulled out all the stops and used our connections to get a friend of a friend who works at a bank to help us. But alas, I was out of town, so only John could get one, as they do not issue cards here sight unseen.
And now, every time we get our mail shipment from the US, we wistfully open the ‘you have been pre-approved for a new (insert card name here)’ letters and dream of reckless spending…
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