June 28, 2024 • 21 mins
What if choosing the right credit card could transform your financial life? On this episode of the Observation Station, I'm Tommy Heitz, guiding you through the compelling stories of two financial titans: American Express and Visa. We'll explore their origins, acceptance rates globally, and how their fee structures impact where and how often you can use them. We'll also spotlight the extraordinary perks of the Amex Platinum card, from superior customer service to unmatched travel benefits. Hear firsthand how Amex came to my rescue when a travel mishap threatened to ruin my plans, and discover which card might be the perfect fit for your financial lifestyle.
But that's not all! We’ll also tackle the critical issues of credit card debt and impulse buying. With insights into how cards like Visa, Amex, and Chase Sapphire Reserve cater to different spending habits, you'll learn how to harness their benefits while avoiding high-interest traps and "buy now, pay later" schemes. To wrap it up, I’ll share an inspiring pep talk, reminding you to stay positive and resilient as you face life's challenges. Tune in for an episode packed with valuable insights and motivation, designed to help you make informed financial decisions and uplift your spirits as you head into the weekend.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Do you ever lift your head up from your phone, look
around and think to yourself myGod, everything is weird.
Well, we do A lot.
This is the Observation Station, A unique, entertaining and
hilarious podcast.
If we observe it, we talk aboutit.
(00:24):
Anything and everything,Anything and everything,
Anything and everything.
Let's get weird and let's havesome fun.
This is the Observation Stationand now your host, Tommy
Heights.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Hey, hey, hey, welcome back.
It's going to be anotherepisode of the Observation
Station.
Today's topic is going to beAmerican Express versus Visa, so
two of the biggest credit cardlenders in the whole entire
planet.
So the breakdown today is goingto be all the different things
(01:07):
that the Amex and the Visa bringto the table as a whole, maybe
a little bit of the originstories, kind of just taking you
back to where these cardsstarted.
So just to sit back here, relax.
It's been a while since I putout an episode, wanted to just
come back here and say that Ineed to have it where more and
(01:31):
more episodes are just veryfluent in the topics, to have it
where it's digestible.
Sometimes I like to go on rants, so that's another thing that I
want to have where it justbecomes more of a fluid
conversation into the microphoneand it's easy listen for people
(01:53):
to just digest the information.
Have fun, laugh a little bit.
We're just chilling, it's not aproblem.
It's Friday, a nice day outsidehere in sunny South Florida.
It was raining a little bithere before.
After those floods that we justhad a few weeks ago started to
have like PTSD to say, if it'sgoing to rain too much.
(02:16):
Where are your cars at parked?
Because if anybody had seen thevideos, I mean, the floods were
just like it's like biblical.
I think it was 20 inches ofrain in 48 hours or something
like that.
So not a good time to have yourvehicles stranded in the middle
(02:37):
of the road.
So yeah, let's get into it.
Today it's going to be a littlebit of breaking down what it is
to have these two cards, how itis perceived, at least from a
domestic standpoint and aninternational standpoint.
So let's start off with Visa.
(02:57):
Visa is pretty much acceptedanywhere, and the whole thing
about Visa I like to have when Itake overseas is it's not only
accepted domestically butinternationally.
There's never really a problem.
Amex is, uh, not the caseunless you're in major
metropolitan cities like london,berlin, things of that nature.
(03:21):
And even if not everybodyaccepts American Express, I
learned when I got older it'slike why do some of these gas
stations not accept AmericanExpress?
Well, it comes down to the feethat the credit card processing
is a little bit more than Visa.
So that's a reason why somepeople don't overall accept
(03:46):
American Express.
But the thing is it's been awhile since I've been in a gas
station where it has a cardboardmakeshift sign on it that says
you need to be spending at least$5 for credit card purchases,
or a 5% fee or something's orwhatever fee on there.
It's like, first off, this isillegal.
(04:08):
But uh, I mean, look, everyevery day.
Credit card use is so muchbetter overall than having a
debit card.
I'll tell you exactly why thisis great.
When you use a debit card,you're at risk for the card to
be used and and it's like, oh mygosh, that's kind of straight
(04:29):
from the bank itself money, thecredit card.
If there's a fraud, there'sinsurance.
I mean, if you have a goodcredit card, like a Sapphire
Reserve, something that you paya pretty decent annual fee, if
you're paying over $200 for theannual fee, you'll get pretty
(04:53):
good service.
There's not a reason for me tobe taking the American Express
off my list because of all thedifferent perks that it brings
to the table.
There's a lot of travel perks,especially for travel, travel
insurance.
It's all baked into the card.
If you book with the amexplatinum, some people say, is it
really worth 695 dollars a year, as it is currently?
(05:15):
Absolutely, if you travel, andI would say if you travel at
least like five times a year onan airplane yes, five times a
year at least.
It's totally worth it.
Here's exactly why the Amex thecustomer service is second to
none when you have the Platinum.
(05:36):
I don't know what it's like tohave the Black Card, also known
as the Centurion Card.
I have no idea.
It's got to be some other level.
But what I can tell you is fromfirst-hand experience.
One time I was flying to awedding and everything was
booked through the Amex card, sofrom there you had it.
(05:57):
Where there was an issue, I hadone flight to the airport,
because it was a small airport.
I was flying into Aspen Airportwhere the flight was so delayed
and it was the last flight toAspen that I had an entire day
that I had to stay in Houston,which was a connecting flight.
(06:19):
I had no plans on staying inHouston, so the Amex.
When I got finally to the hotel, I had to explain to them what
happened.
Everything was booked throughthe portal, so there's a record
of all the different things thatI booked.
It shows the delays of theflight so they can correlate as
a representative to say oh well,yeah, this definitely did
(06:41):
happen.
It's something I'm going toneed to rectify as a platinum
member.
So they conference in where Idon't have to handle this.
It's nice, where you just kindof sit back and relax.
It's kind of like having atravel lawyer in a certain sense
, and they deal with the frontdesk, explain the issue and
da-da-da-da-da, and who knowswhat they can do.
(07:03):
They could probably have itwhere they can retract a
transaction based on some kindof contract stuff.
Who knows?
I'm not reading that far in thefine print, but it ended up,
long story short, where the ladyhad told me everything's taken
care of, your room has been.
Your room charge will berefunded.
(07:24):
Da-da-da-da-da, because shejust explained kind of just some
corporate stuff.
But I thought to myself oh myGod, thank you so much.
And then you see an emailcoming back your room has been
refunded for one night.
Da-da-da-da-da, just someformal letter here.
(07:44):
It's pretty nice to have itwhere it just comes about.
That service when you'retraveling comes in handy.
Comes about, that service whenyou're traveling comes in handy.
Especially Amex.
If you have a round trip thatyou paid for, say that and the
thing is it was just a one-waytrip so I kind of got it screwed
on this one.
But if you have a round trip,say, you have a problem and
(08:08):
you're traveling, say, to aninternational country it's a
little bit better to explain andthere's a problem so that you
can't leave the airport, there'san issue with whatever it is
the plane, da-da-da-da.
Amex gives you a credit to go toa hotel or whatever it is.
It's like $500 for the night,something like that, and they
(08:32):
can do that for like threenights.
Or you have to prove whathappened.
There's like a delay past likesix hours or something like that
.
So the bottom line you're justgetting so many more perks.
It's like having a shield whenyou're traveling.
The sapphire reserve is nice.
There's definitely a lot ofperks to that.
The lounges, actually with theSapphire they're building more
(08:54):
and more and more, becauseeverybody is competing for
lounge access of like which onethey can get into and the status
, the Platinum bar.
None is much, much, much betterwhen it comes to that.
But the Sapphire really doeshelp you out with a lot of
different things.
I haven't used it for carrentals, but it's like primary
(09:21):
insurance with the Sapphire,with the Amex it's like
secondary insurance, so thatmeans that it hits your
insurance first and then it goesto the secondary, so I don't
really know how that is.
God forbid.
I haven't had to make anyinsurance claim yet in my life,
so take it as you will.
But to revert back there, I mean, look, the Visa and Amex.
(09:43):
The difference too.
When you go, take a card like aVisa, there's almost zero
problem of having it where amerchant, even in small foreign
stores, accept, and it justmakes life a lot easier.
There's almost no point ofhaving the Amex Platinum or Gold
(10:05):
or whatever Amex as it is as amatter of fact, when you're
traveling, besides having itjust in your room, because when
you go to the airport, you needto show it for international
travel lounges so that you canget in for free.
So, visa, the way that theseguys started, if I read it
correct, is that they werelending money out there and they
(10:29):
were trying to have it wherethey started their own lending
business.
It's an interesting story howVisa started.
It's like a multi,multi-trillion dollar company at
this point, if I was correctand read.
Think about the amount of timesthat they get paid.
Every time the card swipes anycredit card card company,
(10:52):
anytime that card swipes, theyget paid, and if you are late,
also the late fees.
That's just like icing on topfor these companies.
So that's why they give theseperks that are so enticing,
because they're thinking okayfor the major population of
consumer debt that's out there,people are just going to be
spending and not having it wherethey're paying it off, because
(11:14):
if you're not paying it off,there's no points that are
coming off to you.
Plus, they get to get your latefee penalties, which, honestly,
is like the biggest waste ofmoney for people.
So many people have consumerdebt.
That is so unnecessary,especially.
One of the biggest things iscoffee.
(11:34):
If you go out there sometimes aguilty pleasure, but it's
really not even spending money.
The only way I really go, forthe most part, is because I got
a gift card.
So it's not like I'm spendingmoney unless it's like $4 or $5
over what like a $10 gift card.
So I'm just, you know, spendfour bucks on the card.
So neither here nor there,though some people that they go
(11:57):
drive all the way to like aStarbucks sit in the line there
to pay for that and you'rethinking to yourself oh my God,
if these people have debt onwhatever card they're using,
this coffee doesn't cost $7.50.
This thing is like ending upbeing like a $29 coffee by the
time these guys pay it off.
God forbid and think about itlike this $29 just one day.
(12:20):
If these people are repeatingthis and just running the tab up
, I'd like to at least take itto see who has a credit card
that they just spend and spendand spend and spend.
They keep opening up lines and,uh, there's people that are
just like that because they saythat they're addicted to
shopping or something like that.
(12:41):
At this point, when you go outthere spending on cards, um,
there's.
I felt like there was so muchmore fun things to be buying as
a kid, like when I was a kid,the KB Toys.
If anybody remembers that store.
There was like super soakerswhere they're like the water
balloon fights.
(13:01):
Oh my God, those were thecoolest.
If you remember water balloonfights back in the day, it was
the best.
There was the super soakers,the.
What other stuff?
Man?
The water balloons.
You know what we would used todo?
Take a, that was funny.
(13:21):
We would put cold water, justthrow it at people and man, it
would be terrible because itwould be like the coldest ice
water, like woo.
So, but you know, buying stuffnow having it where my first
card was a Visa of Freedom.
So the nice thing about that iswhere a lot of categories are
(13:46):
5% for a few months, like gas,or 5% buying at Walmart, which I
almost refrained from wantingto go into.
That's like a Navy SEALoperation You're in and you're
out so quick because the stuffyou see around there like oh my
God, god, did I make it this far?
That I what you know, I'm nottrying to down walmart, it
(14:07):
depends what town it's in, butfor the general walmart
population they don't have pagesonline about people of walmart
for nothing.
So and those people that checkmy receipt there, the people
that they excuse, this isn'tcostco.
I just walk past, I just say hiand just walk past.
(14:28):
I'm like, are you serious,please?
You're not checking my receipt.
This is theft prevention.
It used to be called a greeter.
There's no greeter anymorethere.
That's theft prevention.
So but the consumer debt it'sgetting pretty bad.
I just want to see what it'sgoing to be like at the end of
(14:50):
the year here, because if it'sthis bad at the middle, a little
bit past the middle of the yearnow, it's going to be July at
the end of the week here andit's going to be interesting.
A lot of things probably aregoing to be going on sale for
Christmas, because it's going tobe where not many people are
(15:11):
going to be able to afford it.
Even at the credit card linesright now, the APRs are going to
be going up, up, up, up up.
Interest will be nuts.
They'll be barred from havingto open any access to lines.
So I mean, look, it is what itis with people.
(15:32):
It's their own choice.
It's the United States here.
People have their own free willhow to use the cards.
A lot of times, also with theVisa, if you get a no credit
card fee card, they're great tohave it where it's uh, starts
off your report, like forequifax.
That's what I would say is thebest thing is to get a, a chase
(15:56):
card or whatever it is.
I I refrain from using WellsFargo, even though Wells Fargo,
william Fargo, was part of the.
I think it was part of someaspect in the founding of
American Express.
So there's a lot of things outthere.
(16:16):
In retrospect, where consumerdebt, you think to yourself why
do you spend this money?
Okay, well, it's an impulse buy.
A lot of times.
Introspect, where consumer debt, you think to yourself why do
you spend this money?
Okay, well, it's an impulse buya lot of times, so that impulse
buy the credit cards, no mattervisa, american express.
They love impulse buys becauseit's just like every single
thing that you swipe the, thecompany has to spend two percent
(16:39):
or like three and a% on Amex,that it doesn't matter what you
buy.
That's why they love, love,love for you to keep spending.
It doesn't matter which cardyou have.
The consequences are real.
It's just me observing andseeing what it is that people
think this is just like funnymoney when the like what is it
(17:01):
Like a firm or something likethat the pay later, buy now.
Like what is it like a firm orsomething like that, the pay
later, buy now, pay later.
What a great way to getsomebody where the pain isn't
right now and it's just put offfor like 24 months or something
like that.
My God, the people that do thatstuff.
That's another thing where, ifyou really think about it, it's
(17:21):
just interest on interest oninterest, because if you put
that, I don't know how thatwould work.
I mean, if you would put it ona credit card, you're already in
debt paying the interest onthat which, who knows?
Maybe virtually 30% interestper month carrying over, plus
whatever the interest is on thepay later.
That you haven't done thatbalance.
Think about the stuff that youbuy, like sneakers.
(17:43):
If you buy sneakers on a creditline where you're paying
installments on sneakers, please, I mean you need to get your
head straight.
This is screwed up so well.
I just want to have it where.
Look the whole part of Visaversus Amex.
(18:06):
It's not saying you know who'sbetter, who's worse.
Everything is a tool.
It's just like money.
One is good in one place, oneis good in another, like the
Amex gold.
Perfect for grocery stores andrestaurants, where the platinum
is pretty much solely good ontravel, almost only anything
(18:29):
that's travel related.
So the sapphire reserve is goodfor travel and dining, so
everything is.
It's just like saying those arejust the, the cards that I'm
carrying.
It's not something where I'msaying that people are going to
be paying high annual fees forthose cards.
The whole thing is watch whatyou're swiping on.
This is a public statement.
(18:50):
Do not have it where impulsebuys get you Right now.
It's a time to figure out.
Keep your credit score high.
Don't be buying stuff that youdon't need.
It doesn't matter who it is.
It could be a Chime credit card.
Who knows what?
It is Apple Pay with a securedcard that you have to call
(19:12):
somebody and they have to notedown why you're purchasing a $10
pack of socks or something.
So get it together everybody.
Look, observation Station ishere just to tell you what I see
, not what anybody else sees.
It's just something that I'mjust letting the world know
right now.
Do what you need to do.
(19:34):
If you're going into debt, knowit's consciously your decision.
No matter what it is, it's yourchoice.
So all right.
Well, with that being said, thenext episode is going to be what
to do about feeling stuck inlife.
Just going to be going over thefeeling like you're stuck in a
(19:57):
rut, things that aren'tprogressing, stagnant.
You just feel like what are youdoing with your life?
Is it going to be progressingor is it just going to be
staying there for the rest ofyour life?
There's a peak and you've hitthe valleys and there's no going
up from there.
It's Friday.
Don't be that depressing, butit's just kind of having it
(20:18):
where it's.
Just you've got to makeyourself fly.
Don't hold your wings back.
Let yourself fly.
This isn't a life that wasgiven to you just to have it
where, moping with your hands inyour pocket and the head down.
No, put your head up.
It's going to be tough outthere.
You're going to get kicked,punched.
(20:39):
Whatever it is it easy.
And you know, next episode isjust going to be some self
reflection happening between thelistener and myself.
Hope to see you there.
Glad to have you here, at leastright now.
Have to be grateful foreverybody that tunes in.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Have a great weekend, guys alright, bye, bye, all
(21:17):
right, bye-bye, that would helptoo.
See you next time on theObservation Station.
Do you ever lift your head up from your phone, look
around and think to yourself myGod, everything is weird.
Well, we do A lot.
This is the Observation Station, A unique, entertaining and
hilarious podcast.
If we observe it, we talk aboutit.
(00:24):
Anything and everything,Anything and everything,
Anything and everything.
Let's get weird and let's havesome fun.
This is the Observation Stationand now your host, Tommy
Heights.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Hey, hey, hey, welcome back.
It's going to be anotherepisode of the Observation
Station.
Today's topic is going to beAmerican Express versus Visa, so
two of the biggest credit cardlenders in the whole entire
planet.
So the breakdown today is goingto be all the different things
(01:07):
that the Amex and the Visa bringto the table as a whole, maybe
a little bit of the originstories, kind of just taking you
back to where these cardsstarted.
So just to sit back here, relax.
It's been a while since I putout an episode, wanted to just
come back here and say that Ineed to have it where more and
(01:31):
more episodes are just veryfluent in the topics, to have it
where it's digestible.
Sometimes I like to go on rants, so that's another thing that I
want to have where it justbecomes more of a fluid
conversation into the microphoneand it's easy listen for people
(01:53):
to just digest the information.
Have fun, laugh a little bit.
We're just chilling, it's not aproblem.
It's Friday, a nice day outsidehere in sunny South Florida.
It was raining a little bithere before.
After those floods that we justhad a few weeks ago started to
have like PTSD to say, if it'sgoing to rain too much.
(02:16):
Where are your cars at parked?
Because if anybody had seen thevideos, I mean, the floods were
just like it's like biblical.
I think it was 20 inches ofrain in 48 hours or something
like that.
So not a good time to have yourvehicles stranded in the middle
(02:37):
of the road.
So yeah, let's get into it.
Today it's going to be a littlebit of breaking down what it is
to have these two cards, how itis perceived, at least from a
domestic standpoint and aninternational standpoint.
So let's start off with Visa.
(02:57):
Visa is pretty much acceptedanywhere, and the whole thing
about Visa I like to have when Itake overseas is it's not only
accepted domestically butinternationally.
There's never really a problem.
Amex is, uh, not the caseunless you're in major
metropolitan cities like london,berlin, things of that nature.
(03:21):
And even if not everybodyaccepts American Express, I
learned when I got older it'slike why do some of these gas
stations not accept AmericanExpress?
Well, it comes down to the feethat the credit card processing
is a little bit more than Visa.
So that's a reason why somepeople don't overall accept
(03:46):
American Express.
But the thing is it's been awhile since I've been in a gas
station where it has a cardboardmakeshift sign on it that says
you need to be spending at least$5 for credit card purchases,
or a 5% fee or something's orwhatever fee on there.
It's like, first off, this isillegal.
(04:08):
But uh, I mean, look, everyevery day.
Credit card use is so muchbetter overall than having a
debit card.
I'll tell you exactly why thisis great.
When you use a debit card,you're at risk for the card to
be used and and it's like, oh mygosh, that's kind of straight
(04:29):
from the bank itself money, thecredit card.
If there's a fraud, there'sinsurance.
I mean, if you have a goodcredit card, like a Sapphire
Reserve, something that you paya pretty decent annual fee, if
you're paying over $200 for theannual fee, you'll get pretty
(04:53):
good service.
There's not a reason for me tobe taking the American Express
off my list because of all thedifferent perks that it brings
to the table.
There's a lot of travel perks,especially for travel, travel
insurance.
It's all baked into the card.
If you book with the amexplatinum, some people say, is it
really worth 695 dollars a year, as it is currently?
(05:15):
Absolutely, if you travel, andI would say if you travel at
least like five times a year onan airplane yes, five times a
year at least.
It's totally worth it.
Here's exactly why the Amex thecustomer service is second to
none when you have the Platinum.
(05:36):
I don't know what it's like tohave the Black Card, also known
as the Centurion Card.
I have no idea.
It's got to be some other level.
But what I can tell you is fromfirst-hand experience.
One time I was flying to awedding and everything was
booked through the Amex card, sofrom there you had it.
(05:57):
Where there was an issue, I hadone flight to the airport,
because it was a small airport.
I was flying into Aspen Airportwhere the flight was so delayed
and it was the last flight toAspen that I had an entire day
that I had to stay in Houston,which was a connecting flight.
(06:19):
I had no plans on staying inHouston, so the Amex.
When I got finally to the hotel, I had to explain to them what
happened.
Everything was booked throughthe portal, so there's a record
of all the different things thatI booked.
It shows the delays of theflight so they can correlate as
a representative to say oh well,yeah, this definitely did
(06:41):
happen.
It's something I'm going toneed to rectify as a platinum
member.
So they conference in where Idon't have to handle this.
It's nice, where you just kindof sit back and relax.
It's kind of like having atravel lawyer in a certain sense
, and they deal with the frontdesk, explain the issue and
da-da-da-da-da, and who knowswhat they can do.
(07:03):
They could probably have itwhere they can retract a
transaction based on some kindof contract stuff.
Who knows?
I'm not reading that far in thefine print, but it ended up,
long story short, where the ladyhad told me everything's taken
care of, your room has been.
Your room charge will berefunded.
(07:24):
Da-da-da-da-da, because shejust explained kind of just some
corporate stuff.
But I thought to myself oh myGod, thank you so much.
And then you see an emailcoming back your room has been
refunded for one night.
Da-da-da-da-da, just someformal letter here.
(07:44):
It's pretty nice to have itwhere it just comes about.
That service when you'retraveling comes in handy.
Comes about, that service whenyou're traveling comes in handy.
Especially Amex.
If you have a round trip thatyou paid for, say that and the
thing is it was just a one-waytrip so I kind of got it screwed
on this one.
But if you have a round trip,say, you have a problem and
(08:08):
you're traveling, say, to aninternational country it's a
little bit better to explain andthere's a problem so that you
can't leave the airport, there'san issue with whatever it is
the plane, da-da-da-da.
Amex gives you a credit to go toa hotel or whatever it is.
It's like $500 for the night,something like that, and they
(08:32):
can do that for like threenights.
Or you have to prove whathappened.
There's like a delay past likesix hours or something like that
.
So the bottom line you're justgetting so many more perks.
It's like having a shield whenyou're traveling.
The sapphire reserve is nice.
There's definitely a lot ofperks to that.
The lounges, actually with theSapphire they're building more
(08:54):
and more and more, becauseeverybody is competing for
lounge access of like which onethey can get into and the status
, the Platinum bar.
None is much, much, much betterwhen it comes to that.
But the Sapphire really doeshelp you out with a lot of
different things.
I haven't used it for carrentals, but it's like primary
(09:21):
insurance with the Sapphire,with the Amex it's like
secondary insurance, so thatmeans that it hits your
insurance first and then it goesto the secondary, so I don't
really know how that is.
God forbid.
I haven't had to make anyinsurance claim yet in my life,
so take it as you will.
But to revert back there, I mean, look, the Visa and Amex.
(09:43):
The difference too.
When you go, take a card like aVisa, there's almost zero
problem of having it where amerchant, even in small foreign
stores, accept, and it justmakes life a lot easier.
There's almost no point ofhaving the Amex Platinum or Gold
(10:05):
or whatever Amex as it is as amatter of fact, when you're
traveling, besides having itjust in your room, because when
you go to the airport, you needto show it for international
travel lounges so that you canget in for free.
So, visa, the way that theseguys started, if I read it
correct, is that they werelending money out there and they
(10:29):
were trying to have it wherethey started their own lending
business.
It's an interesting story howVisa started.
It's like a multi,multi-trillion dollar company at
this point, if I was correctand read.
Think about the amount of timesthat they get paid.
Every time the card swipes anycredit card card company,
(10:52):
anytime that card swipes, theyget paid, and if you are late,
also the late fees.
That's just like icing on topfor these companies.
So that's why they give theseperks that are so enticing,
because they're thinking okayfor the major population of
consumer debt that's out there,people are just going to be
spending and not having it wherethey're paying it off, because
(11:14):
if you're not paying it off,there's no points that are
coming off to you.
Plus, they get to get your latefee penalties, which, honestly,
is like the biggest waste ofmoney for people.
So many people have consumerdebt.
That is so unnecessary,especially.
One of the biggest things iscoffee.
(11:34):
If you go out there sometimes aguilty pleasure, but it's
really not even spending money.
The only way I really go, forthe most part, is because I got
a gift card.
So it's not like I'm spendingmoney unless it's like $4 or $5
over what like a $10 gift card.
So I'm just, you know, spendfour bucks on the card.
So neither here nor there,though some people that they go
(11:57):
drive all the way to like aStarbucks sit in the line there
to pay for that and you'rethinking to yourself oh my God,
if these people have debt onwhatever card they're using,
this coffee doesn't cost $7.50.
This thing is like ending upbeing like a $29 coffee by the
time these guys pay it off.
God forbid and think about itlike this $29 just one day.
(12:20):
If these people are repeatingthis and just running the tab up
, I'd like to at least take itto see who has a credit card
that they just spend and spendand spend and spend.
They keep opening up lines and,uh, there's people that are
just like that because they saythat they're addicted to
shopping or something like that.
(12:41):
At this point, when you go outthere spending on cards, um,
there's.
I felt like there was so muchmore fun things to be buying as
a kid, like when I was a kid,the KB Toys.
If anybody remembers that store.
There was like super soakerswhere they're like the water
balloon fights.
(13:01):
Oh my God, those were thecoolest.
If you remember water balloonfights back in the day, it was
the best.
There was the super soakers,the.
What other stuff?
Man?
The water balloons.
You know what we would used todo?
Take a, that was funny.
(13:21):
We would put cold water, justthrow it at people and man, it
would be terrible because itwould be like the coldest ice
water, like woo.
So, but you know, buying stuffnow having it where my first
card was a Visa of Freedom.
So the nice thing about that iswhere a lot of categories are
(13:46):
5% for a few months, like gas,or 5% buying at Walmart, which I
almost refrained from wantingto go into.
That's like a Navy SEALoperation You're in and you're
out so quick because the stuffyou see around there like oh my
God, god, did I make it this far?
That I what you know, I'm nottrying to down walmart, it
(14:07):
depends what town it's in, butfor the general walmart
population they don't have pagesonline about people of walmart
for nothing.
So and those people that checkmy receipt there, the people
that they excuse, this isn'tcostco.
I just walk past, I just say hiand just walk past.
(14:28):
I'm like, are you serious,please?
You're not checking my receipt.
This is theft prevention.
It used to be called a greeter.
There's no greeter anymorethere.
That's theft prevention.
So but the consumer debt it'sgetting pretty bad.
I just want to see what it'sgoing to be like at the end of
(14:50):
the year here, because if it'sthis bad at the middle, a little
bit past the middle of the yearnow, it's going to be July at
the end of the week here andit's going to be interesting.
A lot of things probably aregoing to be going on sale for
Christmas, because it's going tobe where not many people are
(15:11):
going to be able to afford it.
Even at the credit card linesright now, the APRs are going to
be going up, up, up, up up.
Interest will be nuts.
They'll be barred from havingto open any access to lines.
So I mean, look, it is what itis with people.
(15:32):
It's their own choice.
It's the United States here.
People have their own free willhow to use the cards.
A lot of times, also with theVisa, if you get a no credit
card fee card, they're great tohave it where it's uh, starts
off your report, like forequifax.
That's what I would say is thebest thing is to get a, a chase
(15:56):
card or whatever it is.
I I refrain from using WellsFargo, even though Wells Fargo,
william Fargo, was part of the.
I think it was part of someaspect in the founding of
American Express.
So there's a lot of things outthere.
(16:16):
In retrospect, where consumerdebt, you think to yourself why
do you spend this money?
Okay, well, it's an impulse buy.
A lot of times.
Introspect, where consumer debt, you think to yourself why do
you spend this money?
Okay, well, it's an impulse buya lot of times, so that impulse
buy the credit cards, no mattervisa, american express.
They love impulse buys becauseit's just like every single
thing that you swipe the, thecompany has to spend two percent
(16:39):
or like three and a% on Amex,that it doesn't matter what you
buy.
That's why they love, love,love for you to keep spending.
It doesn't matter which cardyou have.
The consequences are real.
It's just me observing andseeing what it is that people
think this is just like funnymoney when the like what is it
(17:01):
Like a firm or something likethat the pay later, buy now.
Like what is it like a firm orsomething like that, the pay
later, buy now, pay later.
What a great way to getsomebody where the pain isn't
right now and it's just put offfor like 24 months or something
like that.
My God, the people that do thatstuff.
That's another thing where, ifyou really think about it, it's
(17:21):
just interest on interest oninterest, because if you put
that, I don't know how thatwould work.
I mean, if you would put it ona credit card, you're already in
debt paying the interest onthat which, who knows?
Maybe virtually 30% interestper month carrying over, plus
whatever the interest is on thepay later.
That you haven't done thatbalance.
Think about the stuff that youbuy, like sneakers.
(17:43):
If you buy sneakers on a creditline where you're paying
installments on sneakers, please, I mean you need to get your
head straight.
This is screwed up so well.
I just want to have it where.
Look the whole part of Visaversus Amex.
(18:06):
It's not saying you know who'sbetter, who's worse.
Everything is a tool.
It's just like money.
One is good in one place, oneis good in another, like the
Amex gold.
Perfect for grocery stores andrestaurants, where the platinum
is pretty much solely good ontravel, almost only anything
(18:29):
that's travel related.
So the sapphire reserve is goodfor travel and dining, so
everything is.
It's just like saying those arejust the, the cards that I'm
carrying.
It's not something where I'msaying that people are going to
be paying high annual fees forthose cards.
The whole thing is watch whatyou're swiping on.
This is a public statement.
(18:50):
Do not have it where impulsebuys get you Right now.
It's a time to figure out.
Keep your credit score high.
Don't be buying stuff that youdon't need.
It doesn't matter who it is.
It could be a Chime credit card.
Who knows what?
It is Apple Pay with a securedcard that you have to call
(19:12):
somebody and they have to notedown why you're purchasing a $10
pack of socks or something.
So get it together everybody.
Look, observation Station ishere just to tell you what I see
, not what anybody else sees.
It's just something that I'mjust letting the world know
right now.
Do what you need to do.
(19:34):
If you're going into debt, knowit's consciously your decision.
No matter what it is, it's yourchoice.
So all right.
Well, with that being said, thenext episode is going to be what
to do about feeling stuck inlife.
Just going to be going over thefeeling like you're stuck in a
(19:57):
rut, things that aren'tprogressing, stagnant.
You just feel like what are youdoing with your life?
Is it going to be progressingor is it just going to be
staying there for the rest ofyour life?
There's a peak and you've hitthe valleys and there's no going
up from there.
It's Friday.
Don't be that depressing, butit's just kind of having it
(20:18):
where it's.
Just you've got to makeyourself fly.
Don't hold your wings back.
Let yourself fly.
This isn't a life that wasgiven to you just to have it
where, moping with your hands inyour pocket and the head down.
No, put your head up.
It's going to be tough outthere.
You're going to get kicked,punched.
(20:39):
Whatever it is it easy.
And you know, next episode isjust going to be some self
reflection happening between thelistener and myself.
Hope to see you there.
Glad to have you here, at leastright now.
Have to be grateful foreverybody that tunes in.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Have a great weekend, guys alright, bye, bye, all
(21:17):
right, bye-bye, that would helptoo.
See you next time on theObservation Station.
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