Linux apps like Quicken are badly needed 3379

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Ah, okay, I see what you mean, and yes, I agree. Payment by plastic is a different experience than payment by cash. I think that one of the problems we have is that banks like people to be in debt, so that they can charge them for it, but they want them in 'optimum' Debt Consolidation - not so high that they can't service it, but equally, not so low that they make little or no money from the customer-debtor.

In order to get people into debt, banks want it to be as easy as possible for a customer to spend money, so yes, a plastic transaction is less painful than a cash one. This model gets into problems when the banks over-encourage people into Debt Consolidation which they subsequently cannot repay. You could argue (and I immediately know which people on this group would) that it's entirely the consumer's fault, and the banks should be allowed to do whatever they want. Unfortunately, this viewpoint falls down hugely when you consider the widely variable levels of intelligence and education amongst a typical population; basically, the highly educated folks in the banks prey on those with lower intellectual capabilities...

-- Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk The beauty of a pun is in the "Oy!" of the beholder.