It’s not uncommon to find people screaming at the top of their lungs that credit cards are bad. Of course, if you use just about anything incorrectly it can be bad. Frankly, I don’t have anything against credit cards – I think that they are great, provided you know how to use them. We have a handful of credit cards that we pay off each month, so in effect, we are using other people’s money for the course of the month. And yes, I fully understand that we could get into a bind if we needed to pay some other bills first, and couldn’t pay those cards off. But that’s why we try and have money available to pay the bills. It’s all about using your head.
That said, if you can’t do that, then maybe they aren’t for you at all, and that’s okay as well. But what I don’t get are the people who talk about credit cards being the worst thing to hit the planet since, well, evil, but they don’t talk about things like ATM cards. I mean really. ATM cards – in fact, let’s lump all debit cards or check cards or whatever you want to call them into the same bunch – can be just as bad, if not worse. Sure, there is the advantage that you can’t spend more money than you have, but you can sure spend it just as quickly.
I remember when I was in high school – and yes, I can remember back that far, thankyouverymuch – and I had my first ATM card. Actually, they weren’t even called ATM cards back then. I don’t remember what they were called, but I can tell you that I had one from BankAmerica. Not Bank of America, as they wouldn’t come along until much, much later. I think it was just called the BankAmeriCard or something like that.
Anyway, it was great. I would go to the bank and get $20 or $40 with the push of a button. Yes, I had to have the money, but in the course of a summer, all the money I had saved up – which admittedly, wasn’t a lot, but for a senior in high school, I was pretty impressed – was gone. It’s simply amazing how much you can go through in a couple of months when you’re spending $20 at a time and it is easy to get your hands on the money. Why is no one talking about this avenue to the problems we have with finances?
Furthermore, while it doesn’t have to do – directly – with plastic, I keep getting this annoying offerings for new credit cards, and they have bizarre tie-ins, like for Disney. I’m all for Disney and all (actually I’m not), but come on now – that’s just wrong. The kids see Disney on a credit card and want to know what’s what? They find out that we’re earning points that we can use… to spend at Disney. That’s just cold. Talk about making life harder.
On another note – did you ever notice how there are all sorts of time you can say “the best thing since sliced bread”, but there isn’t really a comparison like “the worst thing since disco”. It just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Anyone have any ideas what we can use here?