Let’s chat about credit cards for a minute. Since my blog discusses a lot about loans and how to get out of debt, I feel it is importance to touch briefly upon credit cards.
There are a plethora of benefits and really cool things about credit cards. For starters, it helps you build your credit. Just getting out of high school or college, kids, typically, do not have any credit yet.
Lucky for me I have SO MANY student loans to help build my credit, but for those of you that don’t…this is an option.
Another cool thing is most credit cards have some sort of reward system. I fly quite a bit, so I have one of the airline credit cards, and that is the ONLY credit card I use. With this card, you earn miles with all your purchases. To me, that is super valuable.
Obviously, there are tons of different cards with didn’t rewards that will fit what is important to you.
Okay, why am I talking about credit cards….am I getting commission? Haha no. I wanted to talk about the pros so that I could also talk about the CONS.
CREDIT CARDS ARE NOT MAGICAL!
It is not a way to live outside your means. I cannot stress this enough. Credit card debt is such a big problem in SO many peoples lives. Yes, I sit under a pile of debt, but it is from my education. I joked about having a shopping problem, but I never spent what I did not have.
I use my credit card for almost every purchase, solely to get my air miles. I pay off my credit card every month.
Credit card debt can’t quick turn into crippling debt because of the insanely high interest rates. Most credit cards have somewhere between 15-25% interest rate. I think the card I have has 24%. Crazy!
I can buy stuff without money? Cool!
So maybe think twice before swiping the credit card next time. If you cannot pay off your credit card bill every month, then you might be living outside your means. It might be time for the B word.
BUDGET!
More on that later…