TipHero - Your Guide to Saving Money   Tip Hero serves up fresh money-saving tips daily,
with over 2,000 tips shared to date.
 
  GET FREE UPDATES:

 
Tips by Category:
 
 
 
sponsored search
    Search the Web For:
        
Personal Finance
Home > Personal Finance > Topics:  Credit Cards
-----------------------------------------
Pay Cash to Avoid Debt

Submitted by: anonymous  04/05/2009 10:24 PM
 
Use credit cards only if you can afford to pay the balance at the end of the month. If you have trouble with this keep only one card for emergencies and use your debit card, cash or checks.bThe old fashioned notion that you can't afford it if you can't pay cash is really applicable nowadays.
---
sponsored: Find Money Budgeting Tips.
---
Tip Hero serves up new money-saving tips daily.
Get free updates via Email , RSS or Twitter.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Comments:
 
.................................
 
Last fall I was able to finish paying off my credit card, on which I had owed more than $8000 six years ago. (I'm on Social Security and have a low-paying, part-time job). The maximum interest on that account--for using those handy "checks" for purchases--was 9.9 percent. (I never used the checks, so had a lower rate on my outstanding debt.)

Five months later I got a message from my credit card company that my ceiling had been lowered and my interest rate had gone up to something near 20 percent! Needless to say, I will not use them again.

I was never late with a payment and always paid considerably more than the minimum.

Be aware that consumer credit has tightened up! Your reward for being a good "customer" is likely to be higher rates, lower ceilings. The credit card industry is using the consumer--who ultimately is paying for the bailouts--to guard its own future.
 
Posted by anonymous on April 12, 2009 10:41 AM
.................................
 
-----------------------------------------
Share Your Comments:
 
Comments may need to be approved before they are displayed.
 
Comments:
Name (leave blank if you want to be anonymous):
Email Address (your email address will not be displayed):
Website URL (not required; please do not include "http://"):