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In the past year, a St. Petersburg couple saved every credit card application they received. The tally: almost 200 applications promising almost $1-million in credit.
By TOM ZUCCO
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 26, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- It was a no-brainer.
Kristin Robinson knew she and her husband, Jim, got a fair number of credit card applications in the mail. They own their home, are in their mid-30s and have an excellent credit rating, so they're a magnet for those offering to lend them money.
But like most of us, they never paid attention to how many solicitations they got. If the letter indicated Visa, MasterCard or Discover, it was automatically tossed and forgotten, along with the other junk mail.
What if they saved every credit card application they got for a year, Kristin Robinson thought. How many would they get? Thirty? Fifty?
They had no idea how popular they were.
"We had seven or eight in the first week," Kristin Robinson said, sitting in front of a white mound of fan mail from Visa, MasterCard and Discover. "The box in the spare room started filling up faster than I ever thought. By the first 50, you realize you're getting a lot."
As of Dec. 20, they had received 193 applications. They wouldn't be surprised to hit 200 by the end of the year.
"It's a shame all the money the banks are spending on this," Kristin Robinson said. "Discover sent me the same letter 10 times. It's not like I missed it the first nine times."
MasterCard was the master of the mailings, with 105 letters sent to Jim or Kristin. Visa was a distant second with 35.
"You know what's really ironic?" Jim Robinson asked. "We already have two Visa cards and a MasterCard."
It was obvious from the envelopes what most of the letters were. But a few were deceptive.
"They looked like letters from the government," Jim Robinson said. "Here's one that says "Signature required, open immediately.'
"I fell for it and opened it.
"MasterCard."
It wasn't just the number of credit cards that amazed the Robinsons; it was the variety. There was Visa Platinum, Visa Platinum Plus and the card that trumps even those: the Visa Titanium.
And as the applications piled up, so did the potential buying power. The lines of credit the banks were willing to extend were astounding. By the fall, the Robinsons' total was approaching $1-million.
"We'd have this little contest to see whose credit line was higher," said Kristin Robinson. "A lot of times, mine was higher than his. And I don't have a job!"
Jim Robinson, who works as a financial planner, was fishing through the pile as his wife spoke. It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for.
"Here's one offering a credit line up to $50,000," he said. "And here's one for $100,000. And another.
"Who wants to be a millionaire?
"My first job out of college was calling people who were past due on their credit cards," he added. "So I know how easy it is to get into debt."
And how hard it is to get out.
Matthew Maniaci is a counselor for the Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Orlando, a nonprofit group that helps people manage their debt.
"I happens to all of us," he said. "I throw out at least two or three applications every week.
"The problem is that people think that if they have a lot of credit cards, they can make the minimum payments and still get by. But that can be costly. If you only owe $2,000, but the interest rate is 17-18 percent, if you made the minimum payments, it would take you 12 years to pay it off. And that's only $2,000.
"You have to remember that credit cards are very lucrative to banks, and even though bankruptcies are up, there's still a lot of money for banks to make."
Americans have been asked to help pull the economy out of a recession by spending more.
"But with the way things are right now," Maniaci said, "I'd stay lean.
"Look, it's so easy to take credit cards out and use them, but some retail stores charge 22, 23 percent interest. And a lot of the time, if you make a late payment, they jump the rate up even higher. It's in the fine print. The very fine print.
"I had one lady tell me she took her credit cards and put them in a zip-lock bag and froze them in a block of ice and kept them in her freezer so she couldn't get at them. That's a little extreme, but even that doesn't work.
"If you own a credit card but don't have it with you, all you need in most stores is your driver's license."
The best protection, Maniaci said, is to use one or two cards wisely, don't overspend and toss the applications for new cards as soon as they arrive. No matter how many show up.
But even getting rid of the applications won't be easy. To make sure no one fills them out, the Robinsons will have to destroy each one.
Kristin Robinson stared at the pile of letters in front of her.
"Wish I had a shredder."