i havent had one ever goin on 36 years.

I can't help wondering what his FICO score is.

So his solution for not having a credit card is to have a n American Express card? I thought they were credit cards.

I have a credit card, but I don't think of it as one. I pay it off like it's an Amex card, every month, in full, and I get United Miles for it. I put everything on it -- from my cell phone bill to my home phone bill to my cable and Internet. My restraint is internal, imagine that.

Must not buy a lot of stuff on the Internet.

I also don't carry a balance and have never missed a payment. The CC is just for convenience and minor perks of points or miles, as well as a consolodated bill. If he never actually had a credit card, that would be impressive.

My dad has had a two credit cards since 1957 and has paid them off, in full, every month.

50 years! Go Dad!

@B:

A normal AMEX card is not like a normal credit card in that it is not a revolving account. In order to not be in default, the entire balance must be paid off every month.

@B: There's a special kind of Amex card that requires you to pay the balance in full every month. Therefor it isn't really a revolving line of credit.

Since when is American Express NOT a credit card? Just because it has to be paid in full every month? Isn't he still charging purchases for the float time? Now if he said he had NO cards and strictly paid cash for everything at the time of purchase, then I think I might be impressed. But really, don't we all know a lot of people who do that?

So, he's got a charge card not a credit card. Not really that much of a difference.

I wish I could pay mortgage with Credit Card! Does anyone know if this can be done somehow? that would be so cool. Imagine getting 1% of your mortgage payment back in rewards points!!

@samurailynn:

That's the standard Amex (i.e. Green/Gold/Platinum/Black), actually. It's only the Blue cards that are credit, as opposed to charge, cards.

I have several credit cards.

/pats self on back

@timmus: Assuming a perfect payment history on his American express, My guess would be around a flat 700. Depending on the number of loans he's had for mortgage and/or cars etc his score could be a 780.

@Amy Alkon: Seconded. Credit cards aren't the devil, lack of impulse control is. They're kind of a necessary evil and you have more consumer and fraud protection (eg chargebacks - thanks Consumerist!) than you would with cash or debit cards. I pay my credit cards in full every month, and seeing my spending totaled keeps me in check.

Well most of us agree the benefits to a credit card make it worth having one. (online, travel, emergencies)

So as long as his "non" credit card is doing that good for him. But like the above commenter says to have 5k af available spending yet NOT spend it requires admirable discipline as well.

Also, doesn't the green AmEx come with an annual fee? If you pay the whole balance every month, isn't it more cost-effective to have a fee-free credit card?

I must say that I commend you on not using credit cards.

I have a different perspective on credit cards though. Unfortunately, our monetary system seems to be built upon credit ... buy now, pay later. As a result, I have learned to run most of my bills through credit cards and PAY THEM IN FULL as soon as I use them. ( I literally sign on and use online bill paying to pay whatever I spent that day. ) By doing so, I have received thousands of dollars in rebates, points, etc. I do NOT carry balances so basically, those that do are subsidizing a better life-style for me.

I have a FICO score of 771 and am treated much better at establishments because they "think" I have $$$ when I use those platinum cards. In reality, I'm the same as the guy that uses cash ... except I pay 5% less that he does.

(Yes, I know this is thread drift.)

Is there any reason, in terms of benefits (by which I mean actual financial benefits, not the psychological benefit of forcing myself to pay the balance in full every month) why I would want an AmEx Green (which has an annual fee) instead of the Blue I have now (which has no annual fee)?

no credit here. not even a 'charge card' like amex. i only recently got the visa symbol on my ATM card, too. i'm insane. but i like paying for things with cash. oh, and my FICO isn't too bad because i'm have a car and student loan in good standing. its possible to live without credit!

When the smug from this post hits the smug from George Clooney's Oscar acceptance speech, the result will be a storm the likes of which has never been seen...

I suppose not being able rent a car or reserve a hotel room are tradeoffs I can't do without.

You can rent a car without a credit card. Alamo accepts debit cards with a plane ticket.

@RandoX: You can do that with a bank debit card as long as it's got the Visa/MC logo on it. I do it all the time.

That said, I think the spirit of why this story could be inspirational was missed when the guy said he has an Amex card.

What would make it newsworthy is if he went 30 years with no plastic at all. No Visa, no MC, no Amex, no nothing. With the exception of a debit-only card for purchasing. That would have made a statement about how in this world where it's increasingly difficult to get by without such things (i.e. renting cars, getting hotel rooms, buying things online, paying bills, etc.) it's still possible and here's how the guy did it.

I have been without a credit card for about 7 or 8 years now. I have my bank card that's got the Visa logo on it, so I can use it like a credit card, but it's not. I can't rent a car without them asking for a $400 deposit and 2 utility bills. I can't rent tools at all. Hotels are some-do some-don't, but they all act sketchy about it. Soon it will be tough to buy airline tickets without a bona fide credit card.

he is losing out on a lot of benefits of using a credit card company. Pay it off before the bill and use them for all they got. This should really be an article of what not to do. Responsible credit card usage can be profitable.

Seriously people, credit cards are not evil. I don't use my cards (gasp, i have 2 whole cards!) to subsidize a life that I can't afford. Rather, I use it to get $15 or $20 in cash back every month. I get paid to use my credit card. How is that irresponsible?

I kind of fail to see the point of this. I have a credit card and I pay it off in full every month...do I get featured in an article too? Arguably I'm the better candidate, as I don't have to pay any annual membership fees.

A couple of points (and yes I have a credit card, although I only use it for business travel).

1. When I was only using my Debit card for travel I never had any problemm renting a car or a hotel room. I'm not saying people don't have trouble with this issue but I'm just letting folks know that its possible to travel without a credit card.

2. After I had cancelled my 2 credit cards (I recently obtained new card for biz travel) both of which had 5-10 year positive payment history my FICO score was above 800 a year later its still above 800.

I have the power to turn my Amex Blue Cash into an Amex charge by setting up my automatic payments to "pay in full" (right now they're "pay minimum")

Cool huh?

@trickonion: Not really. Your monthly payments should already be pay in full.

@jamesdenver: Really? It's not that admirable. Yeah, I have more than half my gross annual salary in available credit but it's rare that I revolve more than a couple hundo each month. It's not admirable to keep from digging yourself into debt just because you can -- it's common sense

I knot know why one wouldn't use credit cards. They have so many benefits fraud protection, charge back abilities, extended warranties (amex), he list goes on and on. In addition to the fact that they can be used to make you money on purchases you would make anyway. Plus you dont have to carry cash. Credit cards are not evil, all too often people are just stupid when they use them.

Going on 30 years I haven't needlessly patted myself on the back for something trivial.

What's that?

DAMN DAMN DAMN!!!

I have a credit card but I have not eaten a banana in a month. That's a pretty good streak.

@B:

Yeah good point, I just got it so I'm using the 0% apr for six months so I can get cash back on the card, and earn interest from the money in my credit union savings account

After 6 months, to paid in full it goes!

@kdoyle55: You nailed it. The benefits of responsible CC usage far outweigh some sort of mythical Luddite-hero self-worship.

Congratulations Greg, you don't have a credit card (even though you actually do, and have been paying $50 a year to not have one, LOL). You don't also have the thousands of dollars in cashback that I have gotten over the years, which was saved off and spread out in various CDs and MM funds, now earning interest at rates better than anything any bank could offer me now.

I'm the same as this person. No credit card. For me it's been 15 years. I also have an American Express charge card that I put everything on and is due in full each month. I also have a mortgage. I just paid cash for my car so no car payment. My FICO score is either 800 or 808 depending on the agency. On my credit report it shows my Amex card with a high balance of $26,000 (I had a major expense that month) and current balance of $1,800 (what my last statement was) and a long history of consistent, never-late, payments.

So point to my reply is, in my case, not having credit cards obviously hasn't impacted my credit score as someone wondered above.

@SadSam: One of the problems with using debit cards for hotels (and gas, too, for that matter) is that they will sometimes put large holds on your account. That can be really irritating if you don't keep tons of money in your checking account at all times, especially since it can be fairly unpredictable whether they will do this or how big the hold will be.

That's without getting into the other problems with debit cards.

The more I think about this the more I realize this is a "non-story".

Although you may have to pay your balance in full each month with AmEx, it's STILL a charge plate.

I have to agree with the other posters that stated this would be a much better story if the person in question actually went without a form of charging @ all.

My parental units have a very high FICO score and only use their AmEx cards simply because AmEx treats them well and the interest paying consumers finance their trips to the Pocono's via all the points they receive.

Show me a consumer who has gone 30 years WITHOUT using ANY "Charge plates" and then I'll be impressed ...

I have a question about credit cards that maybe someone on here can answer. I have 4 credit cards, and just yesterday I paid one off in full. I have about $900.00 in debt total on the 3 others. If I pay the remaining balance off on the 3 cards will my credit score go down? I haven't checked my score in about a year but last year it was 790-800.

Also, does your score go down if you do a balance transfer to a card you currently have with a lower interest rate?

This guy's smuggly patting himself on the back because he's had an American Express card for 30 years instead of a credit card?

Gee, fool that I am I've had a Visa card for that same 30 years (longer actually). I pay it off every month as well, but I don't have to pay a yearly fee like he does with his Amex. Not only that, but they give a percentage of my purchases back every year, and it's excepted more places.

It's never occured to me that this was in anyway news worthy. As it turns out neither was his story. What a tool!

Payment, interest, revolving credit, notwithstanding, imagine all of the information that has not been passed or lost on this guy. Twice in the last year I received notices from businesses that my personal info was lost/stolen/given away/sold. At the very least, he may have had several thousand pounds less of advertisements showing up in his mailbox over the years. Oh, wait. What? Am Express is a credit card? Then his mailbox (postal informational receptacle) is probably getting crap anyway. Never mind.

@nutrigm: I don't know all the details, but my husband's parents put their mortgage on a credit card. Somehow, they just got a really good deal.

This might be interesting if it really was a story about someone who really didn't have a credit card for 30 years. Instead, it's a story about someone who has one credit card. A more appropriate headline would be "How to go 30 Years Without Credit Card Debt."

@SkyeBlue: No, your score will not go down if you pay off debt. In fact, it will likely go up. Your score is quite high already, so I wouldn't worry about it much at all.

As for how the BT affects your score, the answer is "it depends". If you transfer to a card that has a lower credit line than the one you are transferring from, it might hurt your score since you would be utilizing a larger percentage of your line. If it's the other way around, it might help. But again, at your score level, it shouldn't matter much. That's a trivial amount of credit card debt as far as your score goes if you have high credit limits.

Why are they called credit cards and not debt cards?

I use my credit card for everything. Why? Because I hate carrying cash and I love reward points. I always pay off my bill every month. And last month I was able to get a Plasma TV with a few years of saving my reward points.

@dss902: Because they don't inherently involve debt?