Sign of the Times: Multiple Credit Cards to Shop

I thought it was weird at first too. We've had it at our local Targets (yes, I frequent more than one) for a few weeks now. But now that I think about it, sometimes you can pay quite a lot for a trip to Target. Recently, we bought furniture for my daughter's room. Some Targets, you can buy groceries at. You can also get electronics, etc. So, it's probably not too far-fetched for some. Still, probably not for most. It would make more sense if the gift cards went into the card readers, but they don't. They get scanned.

Brian, I saw this at Target and know that it can be done at most stores and have seen it done in the lines in front of me. One reason is the gift cards another is just the need to pay the huge credit card bills then use the margins on multiple cards for this month's purchase. Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul is the hottest game in town. You THINK the financial/Auto/municipal/mortgage crash was bad; wait until the biggest part of the biggest part of the economy is frozen - the consumer. That is one bubble that has serious aftershocks.

I can't help but wonder how many of those cards are the result of identity theft. A fair percentage, I'd suspect.

Not that this is the case all the time, but it is common for consumers to split a purchase into multiple cards when they are making both business and personal purchases in the same trip, and they want to keep the charges separate. I do this a lot with my work (my debit card + work credit card).

This was designed partially due to the popularity of Visa/MasterCard/Amex gift cards. This format allows a limited value card to be used for only part of the transaction. You can take the $50 from the gift card and use another card for the rest. Target's own gift cards are scanned; others are not.

I am in retail part time (very part time now) and see this often. Some women use cash to pay for some of the purchase and then use credit to pay the other half. I had one woman tell me that it's called "Keeping it from hubby" Payment Program. Guess they think that "hubby" only looks at credit card statements and not the actual checking account. Sometimes, I just have to shake my head and wonder if they were dropped on their head as a small child...

Your title reminded me of when I pondered at the grocery store checkout - hey, I want my National debt card, or deficit spenders club card. However, it JUST occurred to me, you CAN get personal pipeline access to Treasury The - LIKELY - I'm sure it's in the works, soon to be Goldman Sachs Platinum Visa. I will settle for a GS Debit card with a PICO below 600 likely. Hey, the .com era didn't work out for me okay ? ! Really though, you get a GS credit card ? I'd expect that technically to be Treasury backed money. I will also point out, the TOTAL bonus bin for Goldman this year was 10 BILLION, so, 6 guys at the top ? dropping what ? 1/2 bil in bonus ? You tell me - GS STILL HAS the other 9.5 Billion to give out in bonuses. They have maybe 30,000 people, at 10 bil ? call it 9.5 now ? that's OVER 300k per person, STILL, now, of course, it's not averaged like that. The news is misleading. They still have 9.5 billion set aside for bonuses and you know what's real peculiar ? they're asking for 10 billion in aid. go figure.

GS leads the charts btw on bonus money vs company population. MS I think came in second. I'd have to check. 1/2 the amount though, more people too. So, you tell me, GS spends 9.5 billion STILL - instead of 10 billion - because the 6 top guys made a media smokescreen on how GS is giving up their bonuses, and be SURE the story gets out... Then ? After spending 9.5 billion on bonuses - never mentioned in the news - they ask for 10 billion in tax aid. Let's start calling it Tax Backed Securities ? heh... TBS.. hmmm I smell a Savings and Loan cookout coming up. Easily Part II - Not Silverado this time, the entire US mortgage sector bound and gagged.

See Citi's x-mas gift ? dumping 50,000 jobs and raising rates on customers. And hey, let's be sure and give them some Tax Backed Securities money this season too ! Now, if Citi is getting all this money from the Treasury ? why are they firing so many people and raising rates on their customers, who they notoriously trap into a life of never ending debt. I have a rule when moving, if I see a Citi Financial within 15 minutes of the new home to be ? Forget it. If CF is there ? They've done their homework, that means they've found a population they can pull 20 to 40 % loans on. Translates to depressed area, likely 'other' features detrimental to the community, aka, my definition of crime. In fact, I guess my movers formula on Citi Financial flat out says, if I see a Citi Financial in a community ? I can expect higher crime. Now, it's CountryWide who probably actually sought OUT the high crime areas to know for sure they could quickly unload some tasty bit 350k home mortgage products to whoever walked through the door. Where's the SEC on that one ?