Advantages and disadvantages of owning a credit card.
Credit card management skills and and stay creditworthy.
An Online Free Christian Magzine on money issues
Money
Management Part 10
How to use your credit card wisely
Ever tried watching a supermarket checkout counter and counting how many people pay for their purchases in cash? Not counting those cashing their welfare checks, what percentage do you think of the total number of shoppers are those who pay cash? Very small?
Not Cash Anymore?
Nowadays, it seems that cash is suspect. If you pay cash at any store or establishment, they would think you are trying to hide something by not revealing your name and other information. Or you don’t want to leave a ‘paper trail’ and therefore perhaps you are fleeing from some felony or other. Or maybe your credit is down, and that raises eyebrows. People just don’t pay cash anymore: plastic money is the norm.
Remember the first time a credit card was issued to you in your name? Isn’t it the most beautiful piece of plastic you ever saw? Didn’t it feel like you own the world, that your image is as big as a conquering hero entering Rome? And you felt that now that blonde in the office will certainly invite you to lunch every day, which of course you’d pay for? Wasn’t that day the most blessed day of your life ever? Simply because YOU have THE card!
That piece of plastic has opened a lot of opportunities for you, increased your social standing, affirmed your ownership of a larger piece of the world, and proved – to yourself above all--- that you are complete as a person. That piece of plastic demonstrated that you are reliable, can be trusted with your own money as well as somebody else’s.
Yet it also established that you are now goldmine for the credit card company, and would be a sucker for unnecessary purchases.
Credit as a Necessity
So getting credit and establishing creditworthiness is today a necessity of life. Without personal credit, it appears one does not exist at all. The credit card is such a part of our monetary system that someone without creditworthiness is a non-entity.
Being creditworthy and having a credit card affords one many advantages:
-
You can buy items even if you have no cash, when you want
-
You can buy items which prices are beyond your immediate cash availability
-
You have assurance you can pay for emergency payments when/if they come
-
You can carry a large amount of money without toting the cash
-
Itemized purchases in the monthly bill allows you to remember just where the money went
-
The credit card is accepted all over the world
However, having a credit card has some pitfalls:
-
It encourages impulse buying
-
It also encourages you to buy items you don’t really need, but you nevertheless buy just because you can afford it on credit
-
An item purchased on credit costs more than its real price because of interest charge
-
It encourages you from paying the full amount payable because of the ‘least due’ indicator
-
Amounts not paid on time lowers your credit-ability or credit rating, which might adversely affect you later
Yes, credit is important in our way of life today. Without it, life can be tumultuous at the worst or inordinately complicated at best.
Money
Management Part 11
Debt Assessment Chart Download, Right Click "save as"
<Back to Budgeting and saving strategy table contents ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| establishing credit and creditworthiness >
Website for Christian man on christian riches and christian wealth building, free debt reduction, christian money management and various issues. Free debt consolidation and management helps individuals get out of debt fast. Money issues providing self help articles on investments and getting rich. Absoluteguys covers USA, UK, Australia and Singapore.
Home / Christian Money / Personal Finance/ Community / Sitemap / Absolutedirectory / Sitelist / Debt Free Search Results / Money Blog
ALL COPYRIGHT OF WWW.ABSOLUTEGUYS.COM 2006 an online Debt Reduction Planner and Christian Money magazine