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Blog Entry: #88

Credit Card Success Revealed:
Little Plastic Heroin Dealers In Your Pocket!
by Joe DePalma

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Yesterday is a cashed check.
Tomorrow is money not made.
Today is ready cash. Spend it wisely.
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Let's face it. If credit cards were living , breathing people they would not be the polite, helpful, and upstanding citizens our banks make them out to be; rather they would be monstrously evil and heartless heroin dealers! In the end if you do not take credit cards seriously they will maim and destroy your life like a dirty heroin pusher. That is how you must view your credit cards if you are to develop a smart money mindset.

Much like drug dealers , banks seek out young people and those who are in a desperate situation s and give them credit cards without ever warming warning them of the real life consequences or teaching them about their dangers. Usually, the credit limit on most cards issued to young or desperate individuals is low and relatively safe. However, if the monthly bill is paid on time, while though the balance is kept low, the limit will rise quickly and the potential for danger will increase dramatically. Now if that doesn't sound like a drug dealer insuring his client base I don't know what does.

Much like a heroin pusher , the banks know that X amount of their clients will not have the intellect nor the vision to be able to understand what they have gotten themselves into. The banks , on the other hand , have the vision and are able to see that some people will assume it's good to get more credit cards after the first one is one no longer able to produce the same results because it is maxed out. Of course that assumption is false, but it's all part of the bank's master plan.

You must take the banks and their credit cards extremely seriously! They aim at young people and those who are our in a desperate state who don't know any better and plan ahead for the fact that most of them will get in over their head s . Then, if their family can't or won't bail them out of the credit trouble , ; they're hooked in! It will take many years for them to battle through the compounding interest that is constantly building up. Meanwhile, as the years go by they will end up throwing thousands of dollars away in finance charges. That is what banks plan to do. They aim for and attack those who don't know any better. They are the same as dirty heroin dealers. You MUST treat them as such… and here's how.

You should limit yourself to one or two credit cards. Credit card companies are little more than blood-sucking thieves that want to silently encourage you to charge everything you can by making it seem as if you are not spending real money. Then they turn around and hit you with just how real the money is with added interest costs, annual fees, late charges , and over-the-limit penalties. However, it goes further when the credit card companies assume that you don't know the difference between a credit card and a Christmas card. That is when the individual store and retail outlet cards show up.

Department store credit cards are even more dangerous than regular ones because they influence your decisions by only being acceptable in one store. These cards work as if your heroin dealer is now baiting you through a maze with some cheese by indirectly forcing you into shopping only at one store. It's CRAZY! An entire credit line in your name is only good at one store. The card is telling you where you can shop! Are you feeling like a puppet yet? With a smart money mindset there is no practical reason to ever get a store credit card (even if they give you 10% off on your first purchase, it's still not worth it). Especially since all the major credit cards are accepted just about everywhere.

In addition to that , one of the best-kept secrets in the credit card industry is the secret behind annual fees. Many people ask “Why do some credit cards require an annual fee while others do not?” The big secret that the credit card industry doesn't want you to know is that annual fees on regular cards only apply to people who are willing to pay them. Simply ask your credit card company this question and watch them squirm : , “Why should I pay an annual fee when there are a dozen other credit cards that will provide the exact same service without an annual fee?”

Not only will credit card companies try to avoid your questions, but they have to resort to underhanded methods to get you to pay for the annual fees. The two extremely immature and unprofessional techniques used by the major credit card companies to swindle you into paying annual fees are:

1) “We'll stand behind the curtain with our feet sticking out the bottom and hope you don't notice us.”
(This method is applied with tiny fine print to your monthly statement. They simply hope you don't notice the annual fee!)

2) “Oh, you didn't know that we charge an annual fee, even though we never actually told you.”

(You can beat this annual fee charge by calling your credit card company and complaining about the mysterious fee. Credit card companies will usually drop the annual fees and late charges if you call and threaten to cancel the card.)

Notwithstanding Despite all of the pitfalls that are associated with credit cards, they are a necessity and you need them to build a strong credit history for yourself. When you apply for a credit card the most important thing to look out for is the finance or interest rate. Most cards start out with a competitive introductory interest rate that will balloon up to 30% if you miss a payment or are late on a few of them. That is why you must read your statement fully each month.

The best way to keep interest charges low is to clear as much of your balance every month as possible. Whatever you do, avoid paying the monthly minimum of $20 or so. That is exactly what the credit card companies want you to do so they can hit you with high interest charges on your remaining balance which will eat up most of your minimum payment to the point where only a few dollars will go towards your balance and the remaining money will go straight into your credit card company's pocket.

It's easy to see how many people get in serious financial trouble very quickly with credit cards. Not only is it too easy to spend money you don't have, but it's also extremely difficult to keep your head above water as the interest fees compound down on you each month. Begin treating your credit cards with the same sensitively you would treat a very dangerous situation. Credit cards and the banks that back them are not your friends. They will turn on you in a second when they get the chance. Be aware. Stay informed. Spend smart money.

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