who actually applies for these?

Ok I get these stupid credit card offers for a credit card almost weekly. My question and observation are as follows. First the observation:
APR 9.9 % - Not too bad
Other Annual percentage Rates APR For Cash Advances 23.9% for purchases, Hmm
and now for the super ridiculous part:
Fees For Issuance Or Availibility of Credit:
Account srt up Fee: $29.00(One Time Fee) Program Fee-$95.00(One Time Fee) Annual Fee: $48.00: Participation Fee72.00 annually, Additional card fee: $20.00 Annually per card.

Ok now that was my observation, now here's my questions. Who in their right mind would actually apply for a card like this, with all the stupid fees involved? Might as well tack on you're a really deseperate idiot who needs a credit card fee: $1,000(Anually but somehow really it's just one time)(we promise). I mean geez, let's see how much we can squeeze out of someone and really bleed their wallet dry.

Ok another question, What's the difference between the annual fee and the participation fee? They are both charged annually, but hmmmmmmm different amounts. I call it greedy banks that have never given a single care about anything but theirselves. Oh yeah and also just a handy tip to all you peple looking to get a credit card.

If you ever get a card and u start building good credit, then you are given the option to get a credit extension and there is a fee of some sort attached, report this to the consumer affairs, it's totally Illegal and alot of cards get away with doing it simply because people are unaware. Never accept a card with alot of fees associated with it either. If you have troubles getting a card, don't stoop to the above cards level.

My suggestion to you is go and get a small loan and have someone cosign for you. It makes you as well as the person cosigning for you look good and is a much better way to obtain credit. Those programs associating alot of fees want you to miss a payment so they can make it pretty much impossible for you to pay it back.

Simple answer to your question, Neo. People who don't read fine print.

If I can't afford to buy something with cash I don't buy it. The ONLY things I'll finance are my house and my car. Credit cards are evil. You may as well borrow money from a loanshark. The downside of not participating in the CC system is that it makes it bloody hard to get the aforementioned loans. I had to jump through an unbelievable number of hoops to get a mortgage. But as long as I live I will refuse to use Credit Cards. I have a direct debit Visa. If the money's not in my checking account I can't buy anything with it... as it should be!

It blows my mind how much money Capital One wastes sending me an average of two CC offers a week, every week, year in and year out. You'd think after sending me 500-600 offers they'd figure out I'm not interested! Sending out that much junk mail is a kind of environmental terrorism if you ask me.

Did I mention how much I hate credit cards? ;P

I'll just add to Teeny's comment about people who don't read the fine print...

Two other types of people are the target of these ads. People who have a bad credit record or no credit record. Companies have "special" credit cards for these people to try and establish the fact that they pay their bills (and on time) etc. The ad you got doesn't quite sound like one of these, but all the fees accomplish the same thing, especially if there was a fairly low spending limit.

The other target audience for such ads are those who "game" the system by moving their credit card balances from one card to another. I have a friend who does this. He has a rather hefty credit card balance, but he frequently moves the balance from one credit card to another to take advantage of special offers (low rates) as they are advertised. The only problem is that these special rates usually are for a limited time. If you forget to move the balance back, or to yet another card in time, you suddenly get a bill for interest thats several times what you expected (wiping out the savings you achieved by moving to that card in the first place). While his intent is to take advantage of a special offer, their intent is to convince him to move his balance (what he owes) to them, and to hope that for whatever reason, he is unable to move it away again. I'd rather have a "reasonable" long term interest rate than a rate which is low now and sky high later.

I agree with Chip though, that the whole system is evil. I MOSTLY use credit cards as nothing more than electronic payment, and keep them payed off. It feels so much better to save for things you want and know that once you get them they are really yours.

I just remembered, here's how you really can tell who cares and who doesen't. Why is it that banks want to charge you all kinds of fees to use their cards and make money and yet it takes non profit organazations to help bail you out? All I say to that is, irony? I think not. Also to all those so called non profit organazations that still bill you some kind of monthly payment, how are you people considered non profit? I see non profit organazations as donation based, so how can they justify forcing people to donate by saying it helps maintain their organazation? Donation to me is strictly voluntary, people shouldn't be charged any fee they aren't willing to pay, non profit, my ass.

Actually no. Non-profits can churn though enormous amounts of cash. What they CAN'T do is have an owner, or group of owners who collect pure profit and take it out of the system. Essentially, non-profits have to SPEND all of the money they bring in one way or another. Whats really deceptive about this is that the top people in a non-profit can, and often DO reward themselves with high salaries for running the thing. Jesse Jackson runs a non-profit, hasn't done much else to make a living as far as I know and is filthy rich.

There are many non-profit organizations here in the Washington DC area. Mostly set up by lawyers who collect money from you people out there to promote whatever cause you are interested in. These guys all do quite well. It's really hard to prove that what they do, to lobby congress or get the word out is either effective or not. They spend MOST of their time trying to get you to donate though. And if by any chance the issue they are here to promote comes anywhere near getting resolved, they think of some way to screw it all up so that they don't get put out of a job. Keep those donations coming folks the fight is not over yet!

Thats my cynical view anyway.