“I had a great time.” It’s the sort of sentiment that money can’t buy and can be priceless. But inevitably, it’s not easy to claim the same about the credit card experience. Credit cards are injurious to a vast share of users. Take it from Martha White of Time magazine, who writes that on average, each credit card holder owed about five thousand dollars to debt last year in 2012. Due to risk of debt, so many other consequences necessarily follow, once entertaining any major component of bad planning such as a credit card. Know what you are getting into if you have not yet applied – or if it’s not too late to prevent a serious credit card crisis.
Credit cards are divisive
If more couples deferred both to standing cash on-hand and consensus about what to spend it on without choosing to “pay for it later” by using a credit card now, then making bad spending decisions wouldn’t have to take such a toll. Monthly subscriptions to services such as cable television or phone can often be done away with in favor of inexpensive per-call options online with a simple $10 USB phone.
Martin Merzer online with CreditCards.com explains the statistics that clearly suggest that one in two persons of either gender tend to abandon love on basis carried debt, and sixty-eight percent find essential that you’ll need the same attitude about money management if you want to get serious about love. How’s that for reasons to think ahead?
Rather than owe the money, appreciate the money. You’ll get your finances in order much faster if you see every dollar as substantial.
Credit cards are caustic
Although cash doesn’t literally burn a hole in your pocket, a credit card can bypass the fabric and gradually start eating through your pocketbook and then into your bank account. The simple explanation were that credit card users tend to pay far less attention to the price when they don’t have cash in the pocket to compare the bottom line against.
Credit cards are weapons
As with artillery, you can literally bombard yourself with regular reminders of monies spent that were better off done and gone. In reality, nothing beats a thoughtful file system for keeping receipts of any previous transaction. You don’t really need the credit card company to remind you where you’ve been, and a receipt were always far more useful than a credit card bill for getting a refund. Chances are that the only cases where you’ll actually need to contest any item were when there has been a fraud associated with your credit card account. Without the credit card, debit cards and PayPal can be used in a jiff via your bank account, either of which tend to offer sufficient consumer protection already.
Mounting in the meantime would be the little trap known as the credit limit, appearing as perhaps the sanest excuse to apply for your first card. If you can be certain to meet a plausible and modest $200 initial credit limit and use the card only in emergencies, then your greatest need to carry only a smidgen of cash can be met. The proposition offers so much utility that it can be difficult to turn down.
Good intentions pave this path to hell. Because once the achievable credit limit increases beyond its consensual definition, then despite any accompaniment intentions in signing up, that there is no longer the same amount of care and thought going on in consideration of the fact. Sometimes the credit card company will even raise your credit limit without a formal request and skirt any anticipated control that comes with signature definition.
Credit cards are stakes
Then comes the infantry in the form of finance charges. As the infantry moves in, The $25 alarm clock that you imagined you needed can easily become a $50 alarm clock in a short time. Paying the credit card bill late can also result in serious fees; finance charges are among them.
Once the credit card company has bombarded you with special offers and incentive – and once you have seen all the useful and handy incentives for using credit cards – don’t go on harboring the idea that you can’t escape these imaginary savings by spending your efforts on taking a good look at store fliers and competitive items to save without the extra trouble. If you really want to link a credit card up to sites such as Upromise, Savings Star or eBates that offer cash back, acquire a bank debit card instead.
Although it’s true that savings are worth shopping around for, the right deal at the right time on the same option will probably come at a better price without the fanfare.
Credit cards are deceptive
With a credit card, you always “know” that you have the money on-hand to buy anything. Rather than be careful with the food in the refrigerator as-standing, it’s easy to prepare one exciting dish after another and begin to throw out a small fortune in spoiling food. You’re more likely to order take-out a lot more with a credit card around even though a more frugal idea would be to check out the “copycat” recipes online for your favorite meals and try them out.
Credit cards divulge information
It may not necessarily be public information, but credit cards companies collect enough information to qualify as offline spyware. Do you have what it takes to wonder how all that information about what you have purchased gets used? Finding out may not be all that comforting, so discourage bad spending behavior at any turn.
The credit card is an instrument that you will hear more of, and sometimes choose to obey. However, cash is less likely to put you in debt without trying to get you more involved than you should be with spending. You have the power to put the greatest American worry behind you. Start collecting all of your receipts both on-the-move and in a useful file system at home. And turn down the credit card to favor alternative ways to save money that will be satisfying regardless of how you feel about savings.