Credit cards can be very convenient when paid promptly.
Living on credit cards not only is living on false riches but it contributes to impoverishing to deeper and deeper levels because purchases through credit cards if not paid promptly will cost ten fold.
Lured by incentives such as low rates one can easily be swayed their direction. And once the balance reaches a certain amount the rates will change, administering a vicious long term blood siphoning grip.
In simple words, credit cards offer the ecstasy cheap to get us hooked and to later keep us financially strapped to their higher insatiable demand.
“You did it to yourself” they might say. The answer is true yet very questionable.
A proverb from the old country says:
Opportunity makes the thief.
The most depressing day of my life was when I finally realized that in my life time I would not have been able to repay my debt. Transferring continually to lower balances, calling the banks, consistently paying much more than the minimum payment and even not spending made no significant changes.
What quelled the problem was to sell the house.
I have been cards free for ten years. Do not carry cash, keep some change in the car for the parking meter and live instead off the Debit Card.
Having cash on hand feels easy to spend and makes us momentarily forget how hard it is to make.
The debit card gives me the flexibility of the credit card and it is used only for expenses that are needed.
I keep the amount in the debit card low and if I cannot cover the purchase today, oh well, another day.
Once used to it, it is really no pain at all.
It might be fair to say that credit card rates should match the feeble rates the banks offer for savings or CD accounts but this would not be sufficient to cover their waste nor their greed.