It’s totally possible to live without credit cards. It’s also a great feeling knowing the items your buying are paid for.
There was a time that I thought of everything as a monthly payment. If I buy this $1000 TV it would only ad $25 a month to my credit card payment, I could afford that, I thought. That’s what I was supposed to do, right? I didn’t know how buy anything without using a credit card.
Don’t get me wrong, I was responsible and paid all my bills on time, but I was spending funds we didn’t yet have, counting on having enough at the end of the month to pay the bill. This worked fine for us until we hit a slick patch of unexpected unemployment and then it was a slippery slope into debt. Cutting out our credit cards was the first and major step to our getting out of debt.
If you’re struggling to get out of debt, you have to get off the Ferris wheel. You can’t keep acquiring new debt and expect to wipe it all out.
Live without credit cards? How?
1. Don’t carry any credit cards.
The only plastic in my wallet is my debit card, store discount cards, and gift cards that now weigh me down. You can’t spend what you don’t have. And if you don’t have a credit card in your wallet, you generally can’t use it. That’s easy.
2. Use your Visa debit card or Paypal for online transactions.
There’s no excuse to have to use credit cards to shop online. It just isn’t so. I pay almost all our bills online without a standard credit card. Either I write an electronic check from our bank account or use our VISA debit card. VISA debit cards have all the same securities and protections as a regular credit card, but the funds come directly from your bank account, bypassing a bill and a life of credit.
4. If you buy something big, pay for it with cash.
Try not to make large purchases on a whim. Research and think about the purchase ahead of time. This helps make sure you really want it as well as to secure the funds in cash or check to pay for the item. Save your pennies to pay for the big item or vacation, it’s make si t more enjoyable knowing you won’t have to try to figure out how to pay for it later.
5. You’ll spend less by not using credit cards.
Statistics show, as does experience, that your are more likely to overspend when the money is not instantly removed from our possession. Using a credit card gives one a false sense of having more than we really do.
