Thursday, September 25, 2008

Are credit cards necessary ?

My feeling originally was that if I did not have a credit card I could not leave the house ! In todays society credit cards are needed for alot of transactions: renting a car, a room at a hotel, etc.

The key is to PAY off the credit card at the end of every month. We use credit cards for all of our house expenses and business expenses for the sole reason of getting air miles. We get several free airline tickets every year by doing this. However, we pay off the cards at the end of every month. If you don't do this, you are not gaining anything.

So you have balances on several cards? I had 11 with balances ! Pay off the card with the highest interest rate first. Add an extra 10 % to the minimum payment if you cannot pay it in full. Do this until the balance is paid.

When this is done, add the amount you where paying on this card on a monthly basis and add it to the second card with the highest interest rate. Keep doing this until all your cards are paid off.

The one major rule is: STOP adding NEW credit card debt. If you keep adding new debt, you are digging yourselft into a bigger hole.

Don't worry about how long this will take. Just DO IT !

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello Jacques

I agreed with you on the credit card issues, without it we cannot function. But in most cases the credit card does more damage then good.

All of the temptations, every where you look; most cashier are trained to say, “Would you like to save 10%? We can open a credit card for you in 10 minutes, and you will save 10%.” For the College kid, the credit card company employed nice looking youngster. They go into the College campuses with free gifts offer to students, entice the students to get into the credit card habit while they are still in school. I feel that the only way to fix the credit issues in our society. Is to have a louder voice on financial literacy, then the voice the credit company currently have. We need more blog site like your, one that speak for financial literacy. So, speak loudly!

Giovanna Garcia