With everything we’re going through and watching Maxed Out and In Debt We Trust, I thought I ‘got it’ that credit card companies are just plain evil. We I guess I’m still stupid to their game. A month or so ago, I saw a couple of PF blogs writing about an American Express deal where you get the business card, make a single purchase and get either $250 in gift certificates or a $125 statement credit. Even though we’re going through paying off tons of existing credit card debt, I signed up and was approved.

I’ve had the card for a few weeks and have been wondering where I was going to ‘use it’ so I could claim my rewards. Yesterday I finally used it, and decided to buy a couple of Dave Ramsey books though Amazon. I still plan to follow through with my plan, to pay the full balance, claim the the reward, then cancel the card, but here’s the irony of this whole story and the reason for this post.

Last night I was listening to some recent archives of the Dave Ramsey show, and someone emailed him about how he got a free radio from AmEx for opening an account and wondering why Dave hates AmEx so much. Well, that set Dave off. He explained that nothing with these cards are free. All this is, is a marketing scheme to sucker people in knowing that while some card holders can properly maintain their habits, a bigger majority will carry balances for years making AmEx tons of money. So really, nothing is free, plenty of people will pay for this ‘free’ radio. And that’s nothing different than the offer I signed up for. Provided I follow though with my plans, I hopefully will come out a little ahead, but in the end, I just fell for yet another marketing scheme to try an entrap me and I wish I wouldn’t have signed up at all. I’m hoping this experience has made me at least a little bit smarter and wiser.