Credit Cards are not Bad
A post by Single Ma caught my attention.
First, Single Ma posts about why she likes credit cards and high limits. She recognizes that many people act as though credit cards are bad and describes how that isn’t the case in her situation. And, honestly, it isn’t the case for anyone’s situation because it is the use of credit cards that either helps or hinders someone. I also find the convenience of credit cards incredibly useful and would use one for every purchase if I had one. Instead, I just use my bank card in the same manner. I hate to carry cash and the card helps me track my purchases and makes it easier to put them in the right category in my budget.
Now, when the partner and I first started getting serious, I made a very strong negative case against credit cards. I noticed that he’d often charge things when we went out, like dinner or entertainment. Now, the partner has extremely high credit card balances and I really jumped on him (in the nicest way possible while being (overly) critical) for it. I explained that he shouldn’t be using credit at all while working so hard to pay down debt. I argued that if he didn’t have the cash to buy it, he shouldn’t buy it at all. I then continued to say that if credit were ever used, that is must never be for consumable things — no meals, no entertainment — because if there is not the cash for those things then we should just stay home and not spend anything. First of all, it was months later that I realized he’d taken my statements completely to heart and stopped using his credit cards — I didn’t expect that. Also, it has made a serious improvement of paying down debt and once debt is paid down, I’ll have no issue with using credit cards again — just not to the point to being 30,000 in debt.
So, credit cards offer (some of) us an incredibly useful convenience. Also, there is the benefit of credit offering the chance to buy a larger ticket item and pay it back in pre-planned steps. Of course, I find planning and saving for a larger purchase in advance is better their planning how to pay off a purchase — but it is nice to have that option available. Also, there are times when something comes up that is easily solved with the use of credit. None of this means that racking up large amount of debt is appropriate, but that credit cards have their uses and are not bad in and of themselves.