The first time I ever attempted to get a credit card...was in March of 1980...at McChord AFB's single bank on base.
It was a 6-minute conversation.
I had been a member of the bank for 3 months, and wanted to get a card. The lady looked over my numbers and then said....well...the best she could do was a card with roughly $850 of limit, and a yearly fee of $75.
What I was making at the time? $637 a month (before taxes/social security). I gulped over the $75 fee, and just said 'no thanks'.
The second time I ever attempted a credit card....was the summer of 1987. I was now in the $1,200 a month range on military pay.
Oh yeah, by this point....they were willing to offer me a card with zero fees, and a limit of $8,000. Yeah, way over logical sense.
As you looked around in this era....probably one out of three military folks were in serious debt issues, and no real control over spending.
Around six years would pass, and the Air Force now wanted to sell everyone on NCO Club membership, and a credit card to be part of their gimmick....with the monthly charge coming off this card.
It seemed like some propaganda crap....getting people hyped up, and you noticed over the next year or two....more folks got into deeper debt issues....over this stupid club card.
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