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Credit cards. The Dangers of Credit Cards and Debt

Money is money – money is something that you can put in your pocket and use just about everywhere that you go where you live. Plastic is another word for credit cards. Credit cards are taking the place of money, because you can use them just about everywhere that you use money. 

Credit cards can be dangerous to your financial future if you are not careful about how much you use them, and if you are not diligent about paying them off. 

Credit cards are becoming a way of life as we use them more often to make purchases online, to buy our gas, our groceries, and to save up those rewards for travel and other goodies. 

Credit cards are another way of getting what we want in life, but because we are not actually thinking about how much we are spending when we use plastic, it is easy to get too far into debt. 

In this article, I want to tell you more about the pitfalls of credit cards, and how easy it is to get yourself in debt, more than you can handle. The point of this article is to help you avoid getting into debt, and to understand your situation in case you are already at this point. 

While you may think is hard to get by shopping or going out without having a credit card, it really is not all that hard once you get to the hang of things. Years ago, credit cards and credit lines were not the common place. 

Using a credit card means that you are going to pay more for what you are purchasing because of the interest payments. If you cannot wait to have an item or if you cannot save up to get something you want, you are already leaning towards having a problem with using credit cards. 

A pit fall of using credit cards is the interest that you are going to pay on what you purchase.

A pit fall of using credit cards is that if you are late on a credit card payment, you pay a very hefty fee for being late. 

A pit fall of having some types of credit cards is that you are paying a fee just for carrying a card in your wallet that you may only use occasionally. You pay for the privilege of having that plastic in your wallet. 

Late payments are a pitfall that you can avoid by making your payments on time. If you cannot pay it off, at very least make the minimum payment and avoid that large fee. 

If you do not want to pay that fee to have a credit card, often known as a membership fee, tell the company. If they will not wave their fee, switch to another card that offers no fees!

Credit cards are great at giving you those checks that say you can have this great low rate on purchases, until you read the fine lines. The fine lines will tell you that the great rate is only going to last for four months or six months, and then the rate triples. 

Be sure if you use those purchase checks with the great rates, that you pay off the balances before the expiration or you could be paying way more than what you wanted for your purchase. 

If you have a hard time meeting the time line of when payments are currently due, have your payment date changed. It is just a matter of pressing a few buttons and your payment date can be changed with no hassle. Make the credit card company meet your own needs. 

Do not fall for those free offers just to get a credit card. Who needs a chance to win, and another credit card. A person only needs one credit card in order to get by. A credit card is for emergences, traveling and purchasing online, not something that you have to use to purchase your groceries to save up your traveling points.