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

[Big Al]

A few thoughts:

Self-sufficiency means different things at different times in our lives, according to our frame of reference.

Our grandparents bought groceries on credit, and paid the bill at the end of the month.

Lots of people rented housed before WWII. Owning a home seems more recent for many.

Credit cards have become so much a part of the fabric of being in the world. Lots of folks pay off whatever they've charged and pay no interest.

However, living by barter, paying cash, or not buying at all, seem to me the ideal. Grow your own, build your own, make your own, or do without?

What do you think?

Yes to all.

The banks won't even give me a "proper" bank account. I have to go to the bank each time i want money which is a pain but it focus's the mind on spending. Sort of cold turkey treatment.

[Flo]

I've just found out what a can of worms credit cards can be. I believe that I have one (totally by mistake despite telling them the absolute truth about my income). I've used it for a couple of months and am about to wind it down completely and just use it for on-line grocery shopping every couple of months to keep it alive.

It's a temptation. But it has done what was required of it. Come Monday it will stay tucked away at home so that there is absolutely no temptation to use it. Let's say that it has been an education.

[Green Aura]

We have a credit card for online payments - no pin numbers so we can't use it anywhere else. Up here we'd have difficulty without it I think - we have to get a lot of stuff online. We try to be careful with it, but it does build up at times, then we go on strict rations and pay it off.

Hopefully our year of not buying anything new will help in that department, but I'll probably remain on ebays christmas card list

[Big Al]

I've just found out what a can of worms credit cards can be. I believe that I have one (totally by mistake despite telling them the absolute truth about my income). I've used it for a couple of months and am about to wind it down completely and just use it for on-line grocery shopping every couple of months to keep it alive.

It's a temptation. But it has done what was required of it. Come Monday it will stay tucked away at home so that there is absolutely no temptation to use it. Let's say that it has been an education.

.........but my can of worms was £73000,lol.

[mrsflibble]

cripes £73000?!

[mrsflibble]

sorry, that was nosey of me lol!!

much love Big Al!!!

[Annpan]

ouch...


On a possitive note, this week I make my final payment on my PSYBT* loan (only took me 10 years to pay it off ) Any one who cares to learn from my experience - NEVER take a loan to start a business, 2 in 3 businesses fail in the first year, I lasted longer than that and have just finished paying it off, I have a different life now, so strange to still be paying for something I haven't done in 8 years.


But as of this week it is gone..... WOOHOO!!!!!






*Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust

[Rosendula]

I know what you mean, Annpan. I didn't take out a loan when I started my business, thankfully, but when I first started up I was so convinced that I was going to be doing it for the rest of my working life and had such great plans for expansion. Obviously it's impossible to say how the recession would have affected my business, but if I had been able to ride that out I do think I would have opened a little shop to supplement the online shop I had. But my life changed unexpectedly and I had to choose between an exciting path down the Ish route, or carry on with the plans. That happened just before the recession started, when there was a feeling of impending gloom, so I thought why bother? The Ish route is far more exciting and profitable in ways other than money. I could never have envisaged such a huge change in my life a couple of years back.

I would never start a business unless I had my own personal money to start it up with. The reason is simple - my father started business after business, none of them successful (one was for a while, then he blew it), all on loans. For most of my childhood my parents were living on loans and overdrafts, moving into smaller and cheaper houses, taking out HP. They always had to give the appearance of having plenty of money, and the only way they could do it was by borrowing. In the end, my father couldn't retire until he was in his 70s, and the last decade or so he was working simply to pay off business debts - no wages. When he finally retired, it was only possible because of an agreement with the bank - they'll wait until he's died and take what he owes them from his estate. Hmm. Not that there's much of an estate to take from.

My mother once mentioned to me that her sister only ever paid cash for things and never borrowed anything. She even paid cash for her house (many, many years ago. I think it cost a few hundred pounds). When I first heard about that I was amazed. I didn't know you could do that! I had always thought that money spent belonged to the bank and wages were earned to pay the debts. Hearing about my auntie was an eye opener, and although I was never close to her I decided to use her as much as possible as my financial role model. So pleased I did. Thanks Auntie.

Congratulations on clearing the past!

[prison break fan]

Big Al, did you mean all those noughts? pbf

[JulieSherris]

Slightly off topic, because there's no credit cards involved, but my mum (dead now) was on benefits for the last 20 yrs of her life.

She couldn't get credit from anyone anywhere, so she never got a chance to run up debts in that way - which was probably a good thing, because when she died, we found that she had debts of nearly 30 thousand pounds......... I've written it so that you wouldn't think I'd put an extra zero in!

How did she manage this? Well, it's totally beyond me.... she never had anything in the house that was worth loads, she didn't go out every night, not even once a week.... she didn't eat fancy foods (her fryer & frozen iceland sausages became the norm for her )

But she was a spender... clothes that she never wore (and no-one else would have wanted to either) duvet sets that never got put on the bed, needlework sets that were in the packs in a box in her room.... My kids had to have all the expensive (but shoddy) gifts.... that they never used, or wanted in the first place.... then there was the animals.... chinchillas, chipmunks (why??)

Anyway, the debts were incurred by playing people off against each other... she had THREE provident agents & a total of 11 loans between them...catalogue guys, and loan shark bods.... so even without credit cards, people can get into trouble.

Personally, I had no sympathy with the lady - she smoked 60 a day & a lot of the loan money went on her day to day living as well as buying for buying's sake, but sometimes I really wish she had been more sensible.... it's been a hard lesson to teach my kids & I've managed 2 out of 3.... I just hope that over the next few years we all keep safe & emerge from these recession times relatively intact.

Julie