Capital One & The Hollowness of Credit.

We got the below letter in the mail today from my credit card company. They kindly increased our credit line (without our asking of course). I’m not complaining because as long as we don’t use it and jack it up, it helps our credit score. Crazy how you have to take on the potential for debt before you can boost your score but that’s another story for another day. The letter bothers me on multiple letters. Read below for my airing of grievances.

Numero Uno: Follow the top arrow. I hate these 3 phrases and am quite confused as to what they have to do with my finances.

- You’re ready.

- You can do it.

- Grab it while you can.

Naturally, this leads into the text near the 2nd arrow where I’m imagining they are attempting to connect those 3 phrases with what I need to do in regards to my clothing and athletic events (?).

Numero Dos: I find this whole little series of sentences troubling.

Get more. You’re ready now to hit the mall for new clothes or back-to-school items. Or how about those tickets to the big game?

Really? What is “more”? More being directly related to my new clothes? I’m not sure how new clothes, back-to-school items, or tickets for the big game would ever necessitate credit card use. I mean I know I’m conservative when it comes to credit but are you kidding me?!? And have we as a culture devolved to the point where it expected that this “sales pitch” will work on us? That we actually embrace our credit limit bump so that we can now go buy new clothes?

Anna and I were talking last week about how the generations directly in front of us will be the first to probably end their lives with credit debt, passing it on to their children. I can’t imagine that our grandparents would ever take on the amount of debt that most in our culture have. I mean I’m sure they had their mortgage and a few loans here and there. But it’s hard for me to imagine that it would be the norm rather than the exception that Brokaw’s greatest generation would approach the final years of their life and their consequent death with massive amounts of debt hanging over their head. And to think that my parent’s generation will be the first to begin the swing in the other direction and that our generation will be the first for it to be the gross majority is kind of scary.

My grandparents took on debt for necessities like housing, basic transportation, and equipment for farm and home. My parent’s generation took on debt for their children like college, education, larger homes, larger vehicles, second homes, etc.

My generation . . . we’re running up debt on O’Charley’s, clothes, and football tickets.

And somewhere there is a disconnect.