One can read much these days about how bad credit cards can be for their hapless owners.
Credit cards carry too high an interest rate; fees are outrageous, making them too expensive and too dangerous to carry.
Many smaller businesses have actually stopped accepting them because the costly merchant fees have driven them away.
All credit cards are good for is driving sane, responsible people to the poorhouse of bad debt.
What is forgotten in all this doom and gloom is that credit cards serve a worthy purpose.
Their intent was never to put people hopelessly into debt.
They were meant to be a temporary solution to a temporary financial need.
An Annex of the Barter System Credit did not sprout up in modern times but has been around since this country's founding.
In the early days when our ancestors were building this country, there were stores that sold food and supplies to families on credit.
The store proprietor would sell the family the needed commodities and record the cost in a journal.
This debt was paid back when the crops came in, or the cattle were sold or whatever seasonal occupation the families were engaged in.
This worked well for all concerned.
The store could rack up sales; the farmers got what they needed when they needed it and paid the debt when they were able.
Eventually, however, as more people moved from farming communities to paid jobs and stores began to change the way they did business, the credit system folded.
Payment was expected at the time of service.
But there was still too much month at the end of the money from time to time-especially when an unexpected emergency popped up along the way-and so credit cards took the place of the original credit system.
How to Care for your Credit Card As they appear, a credit card is nothing more than a small rectangle of plastic with a magnetic strip on the back.
How you use this little plastic rectangle is entirely up to the owner.
Follow are three ultra-simple steps to keep you forever on top of your credit card debt, thus keeping you out of a financial abyss.
1) Limit emergencies to GENUINE emergencies, those that cannot wait until payday.
Your basement filling up with water because of a busted water heater is a genuine emergency.
Use your credit card.
Not having the cash to purchase a ticket to the Rolling Stones concert coming to your area is not.
Do not use your credit card.
2) Do not splurge on impulse buying.
If the cash isn't there to buy what you want now, chances are it won't be there later either.
That bearskin rug is a perfect fit in front of your fireplace in the den, but the fiscally responsible thing to do would be to set aside a little money from your paycheck each pay period until you have enough to purchase the wondrous item with cash.
3) Keep enough money in your checking account to pay off your balance.
I understand those $500 plumbing bills pop up right when you least expect them too, but that $20 blouse you just put on your VISA because you didn't have any cash? As soon as you get home, pull $20, plus the amount of your interest, out of your checking account and put it in savings.
Repeat for future purchases, and you'll always have enough money to pay your bills.
To paraphrase the anti-gun group - credit cards don't incur debt, people do.
And like that gun, a credit card is only a tool.
Use both wisely if at all.
Credit cards carry too high an interest rate; fees are outrageous, making them too expensive and too dangerous to carry.
Many smaller businesses have actually stopped accepting them because the costly merchant fees have driven them away.
All credit cards are good for is driving sane, responsible people to the poorhouse of bad debt.
What is forgotten in all this doom and gloom is that credit cards serve a worthy purpose.
Their intent was never to put people hopelessly into debt.
They were meant to be a temporary solution to a temporary financial need.
An Annex of the Barter System Credit did not sprout up in modern times but has been around since this country's founding.
In the early days when our ancestors were building this country, there were stores that sold food and supplies to families on credit.
The store proprietor would sell the family the needed commodities and record the cost in a journal.
This debt was paid back when the crops came in, or the cattle were sold or whatever seasonal occupation the families were engaged in.
This worked well for all concerned.
The store could rack up sales; the farmers got what they needed when they needed it and paid the debt when they were able.
Eventually, however, as more people moved from farming communities to paid jobs and stores began to change the way they did business, the credit system folded.
Payment was expected at the time of service.
But there was still too much month at the end of the money from time to time-especially when an unexpected emergency popped up along the way-and so credit cards took the place of the original credit system.
How to Care for your Credit Card As they appear, a credit card is nothing more than a small rectangle of plastic with a magnetic strip on the back.
How you use this little plastic rectangle is entirely up to the owner.
Follow are three ultra-simple steps to keep you forever on top of your credit card debt, thus keeping you out of a financial abyss.
1) Limit emergencies to GENUINE emergencies, those that cannot wait until payday.
Your basement filling up with water because of a busted water heater is a genuine emergency.
Use your credit card.
Not having the cash to purchase a ticket to the Rolling Stones concert coming to your area is not.
Do not use your credit card.
2) Do not splurge on impulse buying.
If the cash isn't there to buy what you want now, chances are it won't be there later either.
That bearskin rug is a perfect fit in front of your fireplace in the den, but the fiscally responsible thing to do would be to set aside a little money from your paycheck each pay period until you have enough to purchase the wondrous item with cash.
3) Keep enough money in your checking account to pay off your balance.
I understand those $500 plumbing bills pop up right when you least expect them too, but that $20 blouse you just put on your VISA because you didn't have any cash? As soon as you get home, pull $20, plus the amount of your interest, out of your checking account and put it in savings.
Repeat for future purchases, and you'll always have enough money to pay your bills.
To paraphrase the anti-gun group - credit cards don't incur debt, people do.
And like that gun, a credit card is only a tool.
Use both wisely if at all.