<prompt> Human: I take issue with the claims that There is no good reason to have a credit card, and more specifically that responsible use of a credit card really doesnt exist. And yeah, I get it: this advice isnt for me. This advice is for people who are already in debt. And for those people, its probably not bad advice. Id be totally fine if he would say to them responsible use is possible, but you wont be ready to try it for a long time. But he doesnt do that, so Im compelled to write this rant. Ramsey tells us responsible use doesnt exist. An extraordinary claim that Ramsey declines to even try to present evidence for, being content to point out lots of ways credit cards could hurt people when misused and leave it at that. Alright, it actually doesnt look like this article was written by Ramsey himself, but Im still taking it as representative of his views, its on his site and linked to by many other posts.Early on, the article anticipates the objection I can pay my credit card off each month. So whats the big deal? and counters with There is no positive side to credit card use. Even by paying the bill on time, youre not beating the system. And then goes into talking about how much credit card debt the average family carries and something about youre likely to pay thousands of dollars in interest over the years as you carry a balance. What does this have to do with the person saying they can pay off their card each month? This bit is a total non-sequitur. The next sentence returns to the possibility of paying the card in full, and were informed that with one missed payment your interest rate skyrockets, you get slapped with fees and it dings your credit. Come on. Interest rate doesnt matter if you never carry a balance, and Ramsey and Co. dont believe credit scores matter says so later in this article. So that just leaves fees, but electric bills and rent also have fees for latemissed payments. Adults need to learn to pay bills reliably. This isnt an argument against anything. The next bit about cash-back cards is less an argument, than a shitty attempt at a gotcha. Its basically: You think youre getting this money back, but what about the fees youre paying? Bet you never thought of that ever! And if you dont pay annual fees, this means basically nothing. Look, I dont doubt there are people in this situation, not realizing theyre getting ripped off... but this isnt an argument against credit cards, its an argument for doing some really freaking simple math before getting one that has a fee. As for rewards in the form of miles, I avoid them myself because its less immediately obvious how much what Im getting back is worth. And Im afraid travel-specific rewards would incentivize me to take more trips than I should, rather than cash-back which goes into my regular money pool. However! Im not assuming every person using them is enough of a dullard to not know what theyre getting. Once again, the writer demonstrates that misuse exists or rather, that misuse is possible and believes that supports the claim that responsible use doesnt exist. Ill admit, the bit about credit cards making you spend more is a little fuzzier. Personally, I can demonstrate that Im paying nothing in interest or fees. I cant conclusively prove that Im not spending more than I would with cash or debit only. But I will say the bolded admonition that You will spend more if you use credit cards. is without support. The evidence that this is even a trend on average is IMO somewhat questionable, but the evidence that this is in effect for every person without fail is non-existent. The article confidently assets that When you pay cash, you can feel the money leaving your hand, and that Flipping a credit card up on a counter does nothing to you emotionally, which is an extreme oversimplification of the issue. And if it were true that simple, then immediately recommending debit in place of credit makes no sense. Wouldnt flipping a debit card on the counter also do nothing to me emotionally?Anyway, thanks for reading. Again, I know this advice isnt for me, but I still believe it could do good for more people if Ramsey learned some nuance and stopped mixing crappy logic and baseless assertions in with the legitimate stuff.Edit: Im an idiot and kept saying in the linked article when I hadnt actually liked it. So, uh, here you go. Assistant: Again, I know this advice isnt for meThats the rub though, right? You look at the advice and say that. You have to look at it from the perspective of folks this advice does resonate with. Those people are his target audience. Its no different than political commentators on the radio I agree or disagree with. I think some of them are insane, yet they still have many faithful listeners. Those people are the target audience, not me.Human: I mean the show is for people with financial issues. If you go to an AA meeting and say you cannot have a recreational drink. That doesnt exist it would be a reasonable message for the audience.Assistant: But at the same time, theres evidence that the one-size approach of AA isnt the best for all alcoholics either.  <response>: Maybe, maybe not. But thats completely missing the point of what Im saying.Ramsey isnt really useful at all once you have the basics down, really. Basically most people who are regulars here really have no business even paying all that much attention. 