Do/could you live without a credit card? Is this a goal...?

[LBR]

We don't use credit cards however we do have debit cards and a credit card for the business which is automatically paid off by direct debit each month.

A quick tip which I have posted elsewhere

Don't cut up all of your credit cards if you are trying to go back to just using cash. It is always good to have an emergency zero monthly charge credit card just in case. but to stop you using it on frivolous things you need to put it in a washed out tin can full of water and put it in the freezer. It will take you a good while to defrost it and because it is in a metal can you cannot cheat and put it in the microwave.


mamos

Very creative. Or just leave it with a trusted friend.

[Loobyloo]

My poor MIL is facing bankruptcy due to overuse of credit cards when she was ill a few years ago and not earning. The horrible thing is that the its going to basically close the charity she runs.

credit cards are evil.

[Milims]

To me credit cards are the tools of satan!

Now, don't mince your words or keep anything bottled up. Just say how you really feel about them
quote]
Well I did say that it was my X who liked the credit!

[Helsbells]

I could live without my credit card, I only have it for buying big things from the internet for the extra protection. I sued it to pay for our holiday online last year.

However I rely heavily on my debit card, and rarely pay cash for things. I much prefer this because it means I have a record of everywhere I have spent my money. Although I am not sure I am such a fan of this because it means someone else can also see what we have been buying (not that I am buying anything illegal, but its the principal.)

[mrsflibble]

we lived without one for 3 years, then we got one for emergencies... and needed it badly a ouple of months later when the tv broke and th car needed tyres in the same nmonth. it gave us a month's grace to pay it off so james did lots of overtime and we paid it all off, interest free tv, interest free tyres.

i think they have a use, but only if you're sensible.

[Nomada]

I've never had one and never want one, my student debt is more than enough!

[lsm1066]

No credit cards here. If we don't have the money, it doesn't happen. We used to have cards, loans, goodness knows what! Now we have a mortgage and that's it. It took a while to get used to, but I'm so glad we did it. And if we ever have a problem where we need a card (for instance, we're currently dangerously low on heating oil and don't have any money at the moment), my mum sorts it out with her card and we give her the cash when her bill arrives. We're doing this tomorrow and it's only the second time in 5 years!

Lynne

[MikeM]

I do have one, and it's paid off each month. I use it only for internet shopping big or small as I'd rather have that one have bogus stuff on it than my debit card, it's a lot easier to stop payments on a credit card than a debit one. Just cos the weak willed can't resist the lure of cheap credit doesn't make them evil, they're just bits of plastic!!!

[pumpy]

Apart from a mortgage, i've never owed anybody so much as a penny. I've always worked on the principal of "if i don't have the cash, then i won't buy it". However, my brother, who has his own business, lives on credit & owes tens of thousands which does not bother him. I could not live like that as it would worry me "to death".

[John Headstrong]

this says it all

http://www.seizetheday.org/music.cfm?al ... trackID=30

[Fizzy Izzy]

[quote="Millymollymandy"]Credit cards don't seem to exist in France so we have bank cards which are debit cards. You can use them on the internet or abroad because they are recognised as 'credit cards' when overseas as they have mastercard or visa logos on them but they are debited direct from your account and there's no credit or bill that comes in. Sounds like that would be the answer to everyone's problems! [quote]
There is the same in England too! I have Visa debit cards from Barclays (which I don't use because I'm in a huff with them) and and Nationwide. I've used them with no probs all over the world, and on t'internet. It's so much better to have the money coming straight out of your bank account. I definitely don't need (or have) a credit card.

[sleepyowl]

I don't use mine anymore

[Odsox]

Credit cards don't seem to exist in France so we have bank cards which are debit cards. You can use them on the internet or abroad because they are recognised as 'credit cards' when overseas as they have mastercard or visa logos on them but they are debited direct from your account and there's no credit or bill that comes in. Sounds like that would be the answer to everyone's problems!
.

Banks are altogether different in France unless they have changed a lot since I lived there.
If you write a cheque that "bounces" they freeze your account for a month AFTER you put the account back in credit, if you do it again it's frozen for three months and so on, or that's how it was 10 years ago, it may be different now.
The consequence was you could absolutely trust a French cheque without resorting to guarantee cards and the like.

[Loobyloo]

Just cos the weak willed can't resist the lure of cheap credit doesn't make them evil, they're just bits of plastic!!!

If you were suffering from various undiagnosed illnesses on top of severe depression, unable to work and trying to survive on next to no money you too would perhaps find yourself 'weak willed'.

Fair enough the cards themselves are just a bit of plastic. It's the companies behind them which prey on the 'weak willed' that are evil. And you cannot convince me that a company which sepcifically targets people with bad credit ratings and offers an APR of 39.9% are anything but the scum of the earth.

Sorry about this, i always try to avoid ranting on here but this is quite close to my heart as my mother in law is doing her best to run a charity for people who have suffered abuse and because of credit cards she is facing closure.

[prison break fan]

Well said loobyloo I agree with everything. There but for the grace of god go I. pbf