Do you think you spend more because of credit and debit cards? (pay, charge)
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It is so easy to spend money because of those plastic debit and credit cards. It does not seem like you are spending real money. Especially at places where you don't even have to sign. Just swipe and go.
If you are using credit cards, you don't have to pay for weeks and can spread the payment over a long time if you pay interest.
They say one of the reasons casinos use chips is it does not seem like real money, so it is easier to gamble.
If you had to pull the money out of your wallet and count it out, would you spend less?
Credit cards make me spend less actually. When using a debit card only, there wasn't a balance of debt that the credit card shows. It's a psychological reality check that helps me realize exactly how much I spend per month and pushes me to cut down on x or y. That being said, I make enough where it really doesn't matter, but I like to live frugally generally.
No, we have no debt and use our debit card only and we have a budget that we stay with.
If one is disciplined with their finances one does not spend more than necessary.
Credit cards make it slightly easier for me to spend, but I'm such a skinflint normally that it ends up being a good thing. All credit cards are paid completely off monthly and I get a net gain, because I never pay interest and get cash back rewards.
It is so easy to spend money because of those plastic debit and credit cards.
It does not seem like you are spending real money.
Especially at places where you don't even have to sign. Just swipe and go.
...one of the reasons casinos use chips is it does not seem like real money, so it is easier to gamble.
If I'm honest, It made me spend more than I could have because I used credit cards to float interest free balances while getting 2 to 5 percent cash back in rewards. Of course this carried a risk, but it also allowed me to manage cash flow better. Ie have 10k cash and maybe 8k in debt (no interest being paid)rather than having no debt and 2k of cash. I never paid for balance transfers by staggering a new card with a no interest period as I paid the card with the expiring one down.
As it sits now, I've made thousands of dollars in rewards over the last half a decade and used credit for free and allowed assets to be used elsewhere. Of course it was risky, but as long as I was employed it was a useful tool to leverage my position.
In the sense of me spending for stuff I didn't need to get a 2 to 5percent cash reward to potentially pay 20 plus percent on? No, I don't think it made me spend more to chase rewards or buy stuff I didn't want or need.
Last edited by Thatsright19; 05-12-2017 at 10:45 AM..
Just the opposite. I never carry cash because it's just too easy to hand it over.
A cc feels worse than real money. That's because of the possibility of paying interest to the cc crooks. When you think of that, it's a disincentive to use the card.
Digging out a cc and knowing there's an interest charge if I forget to pay it off, is a deterrent to spending. I'll use the cc for groceries and gas because of the high points. I don't get many points for ordinary purchases so I try to keep purchases down. But I'd still rather use the card if I have to buy something because any points are better than using cash and getting zero points.
Yes, I think you spend without thinking as much about it when you're using credit cards. That's why they got invented, and it sure has paid off for the credit card companies.
Like Harry Chickpea above, I've got the skinflint gene so while I use my credit cards for everything I can, I have them automatically paid off in total every month from the bank so I never pay interest. I feel sorry for anyone who gets caught up in the credit card spiral, since using a card makes it so easy to accumulate debt.
if you can't manage money, you can't manage money no matter what form it is in
it makes a difference because of leverage. If I'm bad with managing 80k of income, that's bad. If I'm still bad at managing the 80k and throw another 40k of debt on top of it to mismanage, I have a much deeper problem. I'm not sure how it's hard to see how it's easier to spend more money when you're granted additional liquidity that you wouldn't have otherwise even had access to...
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