For most people, mixed reactions can be solicited from having credit cards on hand. The unaware people consider them as lifesaver, making it easy on the pocket especially for people who love to shop, online or through actual visits to the nearby department store of mall. With credit cards in tow, people have the luxury of purchasing products on credit, or even deferred payment scheme installments on larger cost items such as electronic goods and furniture.
Credit cards make a living by enticing people to spend and borrowing money inadvertently from the company. Most leading credit card companies such as Citibank, AIG, Hongkong Shanghai and Banco de Oro live on indirectly lending money at certain percentage rates, normally 3.5%. Minimum payment due seem to be easy on the customers but they are offered to let the customer lay back and simply pay the minimum amount due which is really the interest for the use of the card. Another charge is given for the outstanding balance left unpaid if it is not settled. Accumulated credit purchases will balloon and it will not be surprising how a person can drown in debt after some time should he consider paying the debt through the minimum amount due only. In cases where the cardholder would fail to pay the minimum amount due on their statement of account, a penalty charge in the range of 5% will be charged all the more adding woes to the cardholder and finally making him realize that a credit card is not that ideal to have after all.
To date, there are a lot of people who have debt problems, largely due to credit card transactions. Credit card companies pry on these unwary customers, the reason for them being in existence. Credit cards were viewed to help people get over their usual periodical needs. In reality, they are only adding to them. Unless a person simply wants a credit card for the sake of status symbol in society today, it is quite clear that utilizing the allowable benefits are not helping at all.
The usual people who would have credit cards in tow can attest to this. Regardless of their class and status, people dread credit cards today. A valid reason to which most people can attest to this is similar to what most people encounter in their daily problems with regards to career and transactions, the lack of product or service knowledge about the entire scheme. Through word of mouth, people would think that others would look at them in a different way, and idealistic point of view. Perhaps this can hold true in the early years of carrying out a credit card. But today, people have different perceptions of credit cards, among them is that this person is in for quite a ride, hopefully for the better and not for the worst.
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Originally posted on October 13, 2006 @ 1:09 am