Credit Cards, The Anchor Keeping You in Debt
The sun is shining on a warm Friday afternoon. You have finished at work early and it is pay day! The weekend is yours, nothing but time. Pulling in the driveway you stop to grab the mail, browsing through the inevitable junk and sale flyers, suddenly the sky begins to darken and the world around you seems to slow down. What is going on? The next round of credit card bills have made their way into your hands to ruin a perfect afternoon.
It is easy for us to forget the looming burden that credit card debt can become in our lives, right up until the next statement arrives. It is a vicious revolving cycle that may seem to have no avenue of escape. Remember how grown up you felt when your first credit card offer arrived in the mail? You couldn't call in quickly enough to accept it. Over time, you likely received offers to transfer balances for zero percent for a period of time. Sounded good at the time didn't it? If you kept paying the same amount before the transfer you could knock out a good chunk of the bill before the interest started building again. But on the 11th month, I bet you started looking for yet another card with a good offer to transfer the balance onto. Unfortunately, most people do not see the cycle they have entered into and wind up with several cards with transfer balances on them, more credit available and an increasing ability to further bury themselves in debt.
Before most people are aware of the situation, they find themselves paying hundreds of dollars in interest alone, often forcing them to fight to keep up with the minimum payments which are designed to keep you in debt forever. The hundreds of dollars that you shell out every month for credit card payments will eventually drain enough of your available income forcing you to become dependant on the credit cards for basic needs purchases. Unfortunately getting out of debt is no where near as easy as it was to get into it.
We are constantly romanced by companies seeking to get a piece of the 30 billion in profit generated by credit card companies every year. More and more we are seeing companies self funding their own credit cards, offering purchasing incentives for using the card at their stores. The love story ends when the bills become so oppressive that you move from making large payments onto the balances, to making the minimum payments, to thanking the Lord for creating caller ID so when the bill collectors call, you don't have to answer.
What can be done? Stop using them, cut them up, shred them, melt them, no matter how they disappear, get rid of them. The only way to begin to cut the chain of that anchor holding you in debt is to break the cycle.
Start by using a debit card, also known as a check card. They are able to fulfill any need you have to make a reservation or purchase products just like a credit card. The difference is, the money you are spending is what you have in your account. As the balances decrease, the creditors stop calling, I guarantee that you will begin to enjoy grabbing the mail on that sunny Friday afternoon just to see how much closer you are to getting out of debt.
Just a Thought:
There are plenty of programs available that offer debt relief. The only real way to eliminate debt is to stop creating it. Budgeting and expense tracking will lend assistance to see where your money is currently going and where it needs to be. Assess your spending habits and begin the painful process of learning to survive on your available income. You won't regret the effort.
