Jean Chatzky Quotes

Credit is an 'I love debt' score.

If you put a purchase on a charge card, you're paying it off forever. You have to know how to pay it off before you go deeply in debt.

Our business is to have great credit and to use it little.

You must be sure - and I mean absolutely positive - that you have the willpower to pay off those credit cards and not use them again.

You can pretty much trace when the big individual indebtedness kicked in, and it was when the credit card became generally available.

If you have even a smidgen of doubt that you'll be able to stay away from racking up additional debt, don't do it.

If you have credit card debt and credit card companies continue to close down the cards, what are you going to do? What are you going to do if they raise your interest rates to 32 percent? That's five times higher than what your kid is going to pay in interest on a student loan. Get rid of your credit card debt.

We should be looking at putting a limit on the interest that can be charged on things like store cards.You don't want to end up with totally draconian credit controls but you want some common sense. We want cooling-off periods for store cards so people can't take them out and go straight to the counter and buy things.

My advice is to treat [credit cards] like what they are: little plastic grenades that must be handled very carefully.

You fall a bit behind on a credit card bill, your interest rate soars, your minimum payment rises, and you start falling more and more behind every month. You don't see an end. But you don't want to file bankruptcy either. What you can do - and should do - is negotiate.

Credit is a matter so subtle in its essence, that, as it may be obtained almost without reason, so, without reason, may it be made to melt away.

The answer to too much debt is not more debt; it is less debt.

Ours is an economy that depends on the availability of credit at affordable interest rates.

I am afraid the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that the banks can and do create money. And they who control the credit of the nation direct the policy of Governments and hold in the hollow of their hand the destiny of the people

We all have to resist the temptation to finance growth with increased debt yet again.

Immigrants use debt intelligently. They understand the difference between active debt: creating a business, or something to make business better, and dead debt: buying that new sports car or the 60 inch television. Those things don't lead to the good life. They delay getting it.

What you want to watch are the lenders, not the borrowers. The borrowers will always be willing to take a great deal for themselves. It's up to the lenders to show restraint, and when they lose it, watch out.

An improving credit landscape means fewer loans are delinquent - and fewer people are needed to service these loans.

Be careful when you take on debt. If you take on debt personally, make sure it is small. If you take on large debt, make sure someone else is paying for it.

Good debt is a powerful tool, but bad debt can kill you.

Debt is not caused by spending, it is caused by buying things that you don't pay for. Or, it's caused by cutting revenues that you don't offset ... by cuts in spending.

But credit card debt is unsecured debt, which means if you get in trouble and cannot pay off your credit card, you can discharge it in bankruptcy. What are they going do to you? If you're in a financial position to just methodically pay off both credit card and student loans, pay them all.

If you are, consolidating at a lower interest rate can help you pay off your debt faster. But if there's even a small chance that you'll spiral back into debt, it's not for you.

He that sells upon Credit expects to lose 5 per Cent. By bad Debts; therefore he charges, on all he sells upon Credit, an Advance that shall make up that Deficiency.

Absolutely pay off your credit card debt, because a child can always get a loan to go to school, possibly a scholarship, a grant.