Everyone remembers before the recession how things were. There were people who would show how much money they could spend running rampant. Most of those people have been silenced by the recession as everyday average Americans have grown tired of extravagance.

So here are a few of the things that have gone almost extinct through the recession:

1. Unaccountability. People feel as though CEOs and high level executives have had a hand in the recession due to their lack of accountability. We never heard from them or made them accountable for actions they may have done. However, now, they end up being the most accountable and when a company does something wrong, the CEO is the first to blame and the first to go.

2. People flaunting their extravagance. The days of people owning things like Hummers, bling, and having their homes featured on shows like Cribs has come to an end (for now anyway). Even the once very public Paris Hilton has been fairly unseen recently. Hummer has been dropped from the GM lineup and people are cutting back wherever they can.

3. Outrageous Gas Prices. I’m sure this one will end up making a comeback eventually, but as of right now the average for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is around $2.65. This is far from the record highs of $4.10 a gallon for the same grade of gasoline from last year. Many people welcome the difference due to lower income levels and higher unemployment.

4. Less junk mail. Before there was a credit crisis everyone was getting credit card offers, including children and cats. Now there aren’t as many credit card offers floating around and credit card companies are being a bit more careful about who they are sending pre-approved offers to.

5. Stores that sell stuff we don’t need. Stores like the Sharper Image have just simply disappeared in the last year because they sell stuff that people don’t need and typically can’t even create a need for.

Here are some pretty common things that people tell themselves right before they find themselves in credit card debt:

1. It’s an emergency.
2. We deserve it.
3. It’s a bargain.
4. It’s not that much money.
5. The payment is small.
6. The card rewards make it worth it.
7. There’s an offer of zero percent APR on purchases.
8. Balance transfers are zero percent APR also.
9. Its for my business.
10. I’ll pay it off after graduation.

Here’s some truths to these lies that people tell themselves:

1. First of all, many times credit is not used in emergency situations. Sometimes we convince ourselves that credit cards will only be used in emergency situations and some people are able to stick to that rule, but not most.
2. No one deserves anything that they haven’t earned and later in life, they will be happy when they can afford something nice with the money that they’ve made working instead of paying interest on a splurge when they were younger.
3. A credit card is never a bargain. You will always pay interest. If you have an interest free card, it won’t remain that way forever and you HAVE to pay it off in order to keep from having to pay the interest. Did you know that even when you go to the furniture store and they say “no interest for 24 months!” or something like that, if you don’t have the furniture paid off by the end of those 24 months, you will have to pay interest on the entire purchase price,  not just what you owe.
4. It’s not that much money on the purchase maybe, but over time, the interest adds up and it becomes a lot of money.
5. The payment is small because it is meant to ensure that the credit card companies get the most amount of money they can from you. The smaller payment you make, the more interest the company will earn from your money.
6. The rewards are never worth it. Haha.
7. See number 3.
8. See number 3.
9. Businesses sometimes need loans to start up. However, if you’re going to take out money for your business, perhaps you should consider small business loans first. The interest rates are much smaller. However, if you can avoid it, why would you want to start your company in debt.
10. Haha. College procrastination at it’s greatest. I paid my credit cards off before graduation because I knew I had a crazy high student loan bill. Not everyone will have such an outrageous loan payment, but if you do those credit cards will likely be put on the backburner for awhile.

Lies, Lies, Lies….

In June, PayPal started assessing a 2.9% fee on purchases that are marked goods or services to personal accounts. While their business is their own and they can basically do whatever they want, it would have been nice to know about the change prior to them just going for it.

There was an email saying that the Terms of Service had changed, but the email didn’t give any specifics. In order to find out exactly what happened, you would have had to go read the entire Terms of Service and familiarize yourself with the changes. I don’t know many people who read an entire terms of service document.

When you do most of your business through PayPal, then these fees really start adding up. In the past, with a personal account (versus a premium account), you wouldn’t have to pay fees to transfer funds from one PayPal account to another. however, now even if you do have the personal account, you will be charged the extra fee.

The issue doesn’t stem from the fact that PayPal decided to start charging for something that was previously free. The problem comes from the fact that PayPal was being deceptive about the entire process. It is rediculous to think that a company can just start adding fees for no reason and give no warning. Even when my credit card company decides to change something in their privacy notice, I get a letter along with an email. I mean, credit card companies typically REALLY want you to know what’s going on.

So, what was PayPal’s excuse? This is what they told Jared Newman, the guy who blogged about the changes:

“We didn’t want to make a huge formal communication out of this pricing change, because we weren’t really adding any fees, and we were hoping it would be a more useful experience for people.”

Wow.