Hmm, so it seems the credit card has become the new God for many as they struggle to fill the gaping hole at their heart center with consumer goods! Not that there’s anything wrong with enjoying the material fruits in the High Street garden, but fuck – are these products so important that peeps have to forgo all notions of good sense and prudence in order to place their palms on them?
I often hear about the benefits of the credit card, from the sensible (how it’s convenient to use in place of cash) to the terminally stupid (how it’s free money). Addressing the latter point, I have to ask – since the cred imbued on a credit card is anything but “free”, why the flying fandango do people bother with those putrid pieces of plastic? I mean, with monthly payments, plus any interest one incurs from making use of ’em it strikes me as a great wanking waste of time. I mean, convenience? That’s what the hell debit cards are for, friend! Easy access to the money you have without having to a)search out a cash machine that may be out of service, or b)get up earlier than is healthy to get to a bank. As for the easy access to money you don’t have, why do loan sharks any favours? The old adage “neither a borrower nor lender be” holds true, and nowt more true than in this instance! I had the same reckless attitude to cash when I was borrowing taxpayer funds to ease my passage through uni; but at the setting of the sun, free money really, isn’t and you have to pay it back – with compound interest!
Nowadays, the only cash I’m reckless with is my own and I feel all the better for that – the wisdom of the present is often emerges from the embers of yesterday’s follies. I’m confident that in time I’ll come to appreciate the value of budgeting and the like, which mean much more than any kind of temporary bail-out offered by a credit company. In fact, I wonder if today’s credit card craze is a by product of our instant gratification culture, which pauses not for breath to consider what the payoff may be.
Of course, the real bitch concerning the dreaded credit cards is the fact that many net services depend on them for transactions – you can get anything from anywhere with any cred card, but Lucifer help ya if you’ve the wrong fucking debit card! Pain in the ass, no? Especially for a guy who distrusts the Paypal system.
Gimme a universal debit card to work with, dammit!
~MRDA~
I heart my debit card. You can’t check into hotels or rent a car, or really rent anything without something resembling plastic. When I was 24, I busted my butt to pay off my out of control consumer debt, and haven’t been back there since.
But when you are planning a major business or something, you need credit! After all, borrowing large sums of money on one’s reputation is part of the American dream.
Perhaps if one can cover the debt and garner the revenue then one can take the plunge. In many cases though people just go loco with their alloted credit and, before they know it, the loss outweighs the initial gain.
I just fail to see why peeps would favour credit over debit cards – I suppose it saves the bother of having to secure small loans from one’s bank. I just see the added charges as something of a burden if you’re using credit on a less grand, day-to-day level.
Perhaps I was too hard on the cards themselves, but too many people claim them for shopping sprees, then cry when they see they’ve punched a planet-sized hole in their life savings – it’s the recklessness and the lack of cost-gain analysis that irks me.
Even though I may be too young to have used a credit card myself, I agree completely. My parents spent years paying off debts from frickin credit cards.
This is a big part of the reason why I advocate people trying to fill that ‘hole in their heart’ with something other than consumer goods.
Credit Cards are the DEVIL INCARNATE!
I needed it and used it for our wedding and honeymoon since we got screwed on monetary gifts and now its pay back Lucifer time.
I have taken it out of my purse and left it at home, so if something happens where I need it I’m sol. Society basically runs off plastic and oil.
Meet out true leader’s plastic and oil…