18 May 2010

Top 5 lies or excuses you tell yourself to get into credit card debt. Which of these you often used?

Basically, there are a few lies or excuses that you tell yourself before you spend with your credit card and all these are what leads you to credit card debt. How many of these seems familiar to you?

1) It's an emergency
Often we use our credit card to pay something that we can't really afford at that time by telling ourselves that it is an emergency. Of course there are real emergencies like paying for a medical expense. But we tend to thinks that stuff such as paying for a car repair which is not your primary car is an emergency. If the car is not repaired and you still have another car for transport, then the repair is not really an emergency. Basically, anything that is not about life or death isn't really an emergency right?

2) I deserve it
Another common lies we tend to use. Usually after a hard work or after a long and hard period of saving, we tend to thinks that we deserve a reward. Purchasing something that you fancy or just an expensive dinner at the fancy restaurant to reward yourself is not really a good idea as rewarding yourself should not mean getting yourself deeper in debt. Is this really a reward?

3) It's a bargain
When there is a sale going on, we tend to buy more than we need simply because it is a bargain. However, these kind of great deals happen quite regularly and if each time you spent more than you can afford, then it's not really a great deal since you'll be paying extra on your credit card interest. It doesn't mean that we should not buy during a sales, just remember to buy what you can afford.

4) The reward from credit card totally makes it worth
We all know some credit card gave us reward points or even cash back when we spend with it but these isn't really worth it if you're not paying your credit card in full every month. If they give you cash back of 2%, then you actually save 2% if you pay the bill in full. If you're not paying the bill in full, at the end you'll need to pay the higher interest. So, avoid spending with the credit card if you are not paying in full every month or else the reward isn't really worth it.

5) I can afford it
You might think that you can afford to buy something but the truth is, if you can't afford to pay in cash, you can't afford it. Paying using credit card when you don't have the cash to pay it now means you don't really afford to buy the item and you might just get yourself into deeper debt.

So, that's the top 5 lies or excuses we often use. How many of it that you used regularly?

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