If you have a pattern of living beyond your means by buying on credit, get rid of the culprit-the credit card. The world worked fine back in years B.C. (Before Credit). Think about it! Just a couple of generations ago credit cards didn’t even exist. People paid with cash.
You can function in our increasingly high-tech world without buying anything on a credit card. Vladimir Christopher, a senior business student from Miami, said, “Credit cards can be either good or bad depending on its use. Using credit to support a lifestyle we can’t afford, which many students do, will definitely come back to haunt you later.”
Credit cards offer short-term pleasure and long-term pain. Credit cards give the illusion of having more money than you actually possess. Eventually, you live with less because each month a portion of your income is siphoned away paying past credit debt. Credit is positioned like a foundation of life, so that we use it, and use it, and use it until we literally cannot survive without it.
Has your credit card company told you that it’s time to increase your credit limit because you’re doing such a great job of paying your minimum payments on time?
Creditors are not doing you any favors by extending your credit. They are getting you hooked and draining off your future money that you can’t even guarantee is going to be there. Why? Can you guarantee you will have your job tomorrow or in 10 years? But you are promising it away just the same.
Regina Mangram, a senior student from Lafayette, Ala., said, “Using credit cards properly will boost yourself financial abilities in the future, but it seems as though many students and young adults are misinformed on the correct ways to use credit.”
Consider this: Creditors do not make a penny until you go into debt. Therefore, do you really think they hope to contribute to your future wealth or do you think they just might prefer that you are horribly irresponsible and charge everything you see? They want you in debt.
Until we learn to shut off the wealth sucking valves, we will continue to drown in a sea of debt. Until we stop creating new debt with the convenience of a credit card, we will continue the stronghold by our creditors. Until we start operating on a cash basis, we are doomed to a life of debt.
Yolando Turpin, a representative of Wachovia Bank said,” Credit cards are simply means of creating more debt, especially amongst college students
Turpin continued, “Educate yourself before making any financial decisions. Before you swipe that plastic card at the restaurant or shoe store, understand that you will owe more than the product was actually worth.
Contact Cherline Pierre at famuanbusiness@yahoo.com