Credit cards are a piece of plastic that can buy you anything you put your finger on. It is one reason that compels you to make that purchase and get everything you love and desire.
I know right now the credit card is sounding all pleasant and filled with gaiety.
However, that is not always the case.
Credit cards are the most critical piece of plastic that can make your finances go from cheerful to glum without you even realising.
Considering them a blessing and going all-in with it can be a mistake you will realise much too late.
I know this because I have lived through this mistake, a mistake that could have cost me almost everything.
How did I Start?
I had always admired the fancier things in life. Unfortunately, I could not buy them because I wasn’t financially independent; nobody is as a child.
So, I knew from an early age on, and I would buy every possible luxury that I could to make up for the lack of it on my childhood.
When I got my first well-paying white-collar job, I knew that my life would never be the same, and it wasn’t. Much to my dislike, the change wasn’t what I had expected.
Whenever you start earning yourself, you begin making extravagant purchases, if not many than at least one.
After about six months into my employment, I bought a brand new car and loved driving it as much as I loved myself.
Then I came across the wondrous innovation of the credit card and bought a Flat Screen TV without saving a penny for it. The card paid for me.
How I Got Addicted?
The thrill of making a purchase, without saving, without hesitation and the months of planning, had me hooked.
So, you can probably imagine what I did next.
I kept on buying things with my credit cards. I had gotten myself a few more to help with the purchases.
- I bought an Xbox;
- I bought the latest iPhone;
- I changed the entire lighting in my apartment;
- I kept on buying makeup for some apparent reason, as of now I own more than a thousand makeup products that I never use;
- And yes, I only bought clothes from high-end stores, I have a Hermes Scarf worth £200, and I am yet to wear it.
Let me tell you that I knew I had to make the repayments after all the credit card was lending me money, not paying everything for me.
So, I kept repaying small portions every month.
When Did I Realise the Problem?
Even with the extraordinary number of purchases and my credit cards pretty close to maxing out, I never thought I had a problem.
I just thought I bought more because I was young and young people bought new stuff all the time.
I was wrong.
The realisation did come, but only after I hit rock bottom.
I had to buy a new MacBook because my older one was not working properly. I tried to charge the payment through one of my many credit cards, but all four of them were maxed out and would not make the payment.
I needed the laptop because my work was dependent on it, so I thought of getting a loan.
I could not get one because of my previous debt obligations, and can you guess what they were? Yes, my pending credit card payments.
So, I did the next best thing I could. I got myself one of the bad credit loans. These are a God-send, they do not give your credit score too much emphasis, and your loan will get sanctioned, despite a bad credit score.
And the next day I had my new MacBook Pro and the Apple Airpods Pro as well.
Do you guys see the level of my stupidity because I did not then?
When I got my credit card bill and saw the amount on it, I realised how deep I was in debt.
My repayments of the credit card were not doing anything because the amount was too high, the interest kept on adding at a faster rate than I could ever repay.
What Helped My Sinking Ship?
It was my family who helped me.
The first thing I had to do was get away from the compulsion of buying because it still hadn’t gone away. If I went to a Chanel Store then, I would have made a thousand pounds worth of purchases.
So, I got professional help and started going to meetings to curb my proclivities.
The next thing was to get out of the debt. I could not repay all of it at once, and the credit card interest would have surely drowned me to rock bottom.
I could not even take another loan to get out of the financial mess I was in, so my father took one of the easy loans available online with the quickest approvals and cleared my credit cards. However, I had to repay the loan myself. I would be transferring the repayments to him every month.
My financial condition is not sound at all; I have just begun a long road of recovery.
My piece of advice does not overuse your credit card if you do not want to end up like me.