Gas Credit Card
Only you can control your debt
We are entering the season where a wave of purchases turns into a tsunami of debt for far too many people.
The proliferation of plastic cards instead of hard money has made it easier for people to turn off their financial common sense when Christmas time rolls around. Limiting the damage of personal financial difficulties and effects of high debt come January is a challenge.
A pair of scissors for credit cards would be a good starting point for many people. How many credit cards does a person actually need? Perhaps one or maybe two at most should be plenty.
Credit card companies suck people in, though. They often start by providing no interest credit cards for a set time and then raise the rates after a few months. Sounds great at the beginning but eventually the interest rates rise and people end up contributing to credit card outrageous profits.
Credit card companies also thrive on people who only pay the minimum balance. Often this is only $10 or two per cent of the bill. Keeping a balance is loved by credit card companies.
Why credit card companies need to have an average of 18 per cent interest charges on unpaid balances when they are making trillions of dollars is puzzling.
Credit card companies are like sharks in the water smelling the tiniest amount of blood of an unsuspecting card holder. Preying off those that can least afford it is wrong.
And not only do credit card companies zing people with exorbitant interest charges they now have fees for just about any imaginable scenario.
Credit card companies get away with it because, quite simply, they can.
The words that any business hates to hear are "government regulations." Credit card companies recently warned a Senate committee that meddling in their businesses specifically around fees they charge would wind up hurting consumers.
Yeah, those trillion dollar profits might decrease a few bucks. Give me a break.
When credit card companies seemingly are immune from political scrutiny because of the very profits they have, one wonders how much is too much?
The other side of this financial mess is the people who succumb to societal pressures to buy more things than they need. People want lots of things, all the ads inform people. You can even live better if you get more things according to one ad. People want and have so many things that a whole whack of storage businesses have popped up.
Societal pressures to purchase the next generation of iPhone, X-Box, or laptop feeds into the profits of credit card companies.
It's okay to not spend. It is okay not to go into debt. Those simple messages seem to have been misplaced.
Sticking to a budget is the best way to avoid debt come January. Buying that last minute gift might seem like a good idea at the time, but come January when the bills arrive maybe not. Discipline is important. Credit card companies don't like consumers with discipline, it hurts their profits.
People are essentially going to have to deal with credit card debt themselves. Government is too weak and credit card companies too powerful to control. You are on your own.
Paying off balances by the end of the month using a credit card is crucial to avoiding debt. Deciding how much to spend and keeping within a set amount of money should help with the bills.
Best of all would be to chop unneeded credit cards into tiny little pieces and pay with hard earned cash.
COLIN MACKAY, Intelligencer Writers Group
December 2, 2010
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