Give Me Back My Five Bucks

Ugg. I can't find my Visa card. I know it's here somewhere. I remember throwing it in my purse or in a pocket or something, and thinking to myself that I must remember that I put it there, and not in my wallet! And now I can't find it. It's been about 3 days.

Damnit! Nevermind, I found it in the pocket of my hoodie. The hoodie that I've worn every single day since I misplaced my Visa. I'm a dork. :)

On another note, I grabbed a tea, and then went out for dinner with my old high school friend tonight. I spent $20, but it was worth it. I haven't seen or talked to her in about 5 years, and it was like nothing had changed. We are totally on the same page with everything. She also finds it difficult to live in Vancouver, and even though she's been here for about 1.5 years, she hasn't made many friends. So needless to say, we're happy to have reconnected. In fact, we're going to see the Sex and the City movie next Tuesday night. Which is good, because J refused to take me to see it. :)

I'm really, really happy that I saw her again. I feel a lot less lonely now that I have 2 friends here in Vancouver (besides J), and this is the second day that I haven't cried over missing him (out of the 6 days he's been gone). It's not a nice feeling, being pseudo-single ... but keeping myself busy with friends doesn't make it seem so bad.

I got to thinking late last night while I was in bed about available credit. A sexy topic, I know. I didn't do any research into it, but how much available credit do most people have? Am I on average with everyone else?

And is it better to have more available credit to your name? I always thought that having too much available credit would make your credit score go down, because there was a greater chance that you could go into debt. But now that I think about it, I might be wrong. I don't really know. Because if I'm wrong, and it's better to have more available credit, then I might think about doing something. But I'm pretty sure that I'm right.

My available credit breaks down like this:

• $4,500 - CIBC Visa dividends card (main card, 1% cash back)
• $3,700 - PC Financial Mastercard (secondary card, grocery rewards)
• $1,100 - TD Canada Trust Visa dividends card (1% cash back, never use)
• $500 - Sears store card (never use)
• $7,000 - TD Canada Trust LOC (co-signed by my mom when I was 19, never use)
  TOTAL = $16,800

Luckily, through hard work over the past 1.5 years, my credit-to-debt ratio is zero ... but I remember a time where I was basically 100% maxed out. It makes me cringe that I could have ever lived like that.

And that $16,800 of available credit could be so much more. But I've made a conscious effort to never apply for store credit, and I'm really pleased with my 2 main credit cards. This year, I got just under $200 back with my Visa card, and I've gotten free groceries from the Real Canadian Superstore (PC Financial) at least 3 times. Not bad, just for using their stupid cards, and then paying them off every 2 weeks.

I have been thinking of getting an air miles credit card though, because if I put all my purchases on my credit card anyway, it just makes sense. I'd much rather get airfare paid for, than $150-200 cash back from my Visa card every year. I'll have to do some research into it. I don't really want to get a card with an annual fee, but if the air miles rewards are good enough, maybe I should look into it.

I find it interesting that other PF bloggers have been calling up their CC companies and asking for a lower interest rate. Before I started blogging, I had no idea you could even do that! Does it work like that in Canada too? I don’t carry a balance on my credit cards, but for some reason I have a major urge to call up my CC companies and ask for lower interest rates. Am I crazy? I mean, why should I even bother? What I should have done was call them up while I was still in debt, but since I’m an idiot, the thought never crossed my mind until now.

I just got my statement for my cash-back Visa card. So far this year I've earned $36.99, which is pretty good considering it's free money. It's too bad I won't see that cash until the end of the year!

I currently have 5 credit cards:

• 1% cash-back Visa card ($4500 limit)
• Mastercard with grocery rewards ($2000 limit)
  
• Visa card ($1100 limit)
• Sears store card ($500 limit)
• A&B Sound store card ($7000 limit - co signed by my dad)

There was an interesting article on the internet that I read a few days ago. I can't recall which blog I read it on, but it was talking about why people need more than one credit card. Is it because the first few cards got maxed out? Is one strictly for emergencies? Did you get more to build up more credit?

My first credit card was my Sears store card. I got it all by myself when I was 19 and an employee of Sears. I wanted it because of the Sears Club points, but also just to see if I could get a credit card. There were a few years where I always carried a balance on it, but for the past 3 years, I haven't made a single purchase on it.

From there, my second credit card was my Visa with the $1100 credit limit. I only got it because my friend worked at the bank, and he called me to tell me I was pre-approved for it. We got to chatting, and I eventually signed up for it. Then I wanted to buy a new computer, so my dad co-signed a store credit card for me. That was a bad thing to do, because I ended up buying a TV, a stand to go with the TV, a DVD shelf, DVDs to go on my DVD shelf, etc ... it was ugly, and it came with a 28% interest rate. I paid it off and haven't charged anything to it in about 4 years.

Those were my only credit cards up until last year, when I applied for the Visa and MC that I'm currently using. I want to cancel the 3 cards that I never use, but I won't because it'll affect my credit history since I've had those accounts open the longest.

Which leads me to a question - how many credit cards to you have? How many do you use on a regular basis?

Right now, I have $31 in my chequing account, and that's just about normal for me. I never go below about a $25 buffer, or above $50 ... I hate the thought of that much money wasting away for nothing, when it could be earning me interest in a savings account. So I keep the smallest amount possible that I'm comfortable with.

Like a few other PF bloggers out there, I'm one of those people who pays for everything with a credit card. Of course, I don't carry a balance, and I pay it off before the end of the month. Using a CC for everything requires a lot of discipline I think, because it's so much easier to lose track of my spending this way. Luckily I keep all my receipts and enter them into Quicken ASAP, so I know exactly how much I've spent before I get the statement in the mail. Plus, I think using credit cards for everything is worth it for the 1% cashback on my Visa, and free grocery points on my Mastercard (I get 10 pts. for every $1 spent. 10,000 pts = $10 in groceries). It may not seem like a lot for a rewards card, but it's money I would have never gotten had I paid with my debit card, or with cash.

Speaking of cash, I rarely ever carry that stuff. I've got $14 in my wallet right now, and that's because I took out $25 to go to a library book purge the other night (I got 10 best-seller hard cover books for only $11!!!) ... having cash makes me want to spend it, even though I hear it's supposed to make you less likely to spend because you're physically holding the money (instead of using a card).

My reasoning behind keeping so little in my chequing account is that there are very few emergencies that can't be solved by using a credit card. The only time it would be beneficial to keeping money in my chequing is to pay for our purchases at Costco, but the BF keeps money in his chequing for that (or his dad comes along and puts it all on his Amex).

So I'm interested, how much money do you keep in your chequing account to make you feel comfortable? Do you usually use cash, credit or debit to purchase things?

**EDIT** I should clarify that I don't have any bills on auto-payment, so there's not much chance of me over drafting since I update Quicken every time I spend money, write a cheque, or pay a bill. I have reminders set up in Quicken to alert me at certain times of the month when a bill is coming up, and I pay them on the next pay cheque. I thought this was the way most people do things, but as I'm reading all of your comments, apparently I'm the odd duck of the group! :)

This is strange. So I bought my computer last Sunday. A few days later I went to check my Visa online. I saw that the entire $3100+ was pending, and the available credit reflected that amount. But it hadn' t actually posted the transaction yet. That seemed normal. However, now all of that credit has been released (the CC is back to its original amount of ZERO), and I don't have any money pending. What happened? How did it go from reflecting the purchase on my card, to no sign of the purchase at all? And according to FedEx, the package has been shipped and is set to arrive on Tuesday, so my payment must have gone through (otherwise they wouldn't have shipped it) ... maybe it's too early in the morning, but I'm in total WTF-mode.

Maybe my wildest dream has really come true - there was a glitch in the system, and I'm really going to get the computer for free! Oh, wouldn't that be the greatest thing in the world? Sigh, but it's probably not true. Visa's probably just teasing me. Damn you Visa, DAMN YOU!

I got paid today (hoorah!), so I updated my totals on the sidebar. You might notice that my line of credit is still sitting at 0% paid off. I put my new computer purchase of $3,152 onto my Visa card last week, with the intention of paying it all off with my line of credit. However, the transaction has yet to post to my Visa, so it leaves me in financial limbo at the moment. As soon as it posts, I'll transfer the entire balance over. But since it hasn't for this pay cheque, I'm not going to make a huge payment to my LOC, which currently has a zero balance. So instead, I put $1,000 towards my student loan debt, and now it's over 80% paid off! w00t! In 2 weeks when I get paid again, I'll make up for it by putting $1,000 towards the line of credit debt.

My direct transfer contributions to my RRSP and my Condo Down Payment fund will happen tonight, so I"ll post the updated numbers tomorrow. Hopefully the TSX isn't such a bitch today.