We all know that buying on-line can not be done with cash, unless you just order on-line and have the goods delivered to you. Most products and services sold on-line have credit card payment features, to make the purchase as compulsive and immediate as possible. Every day there are hundreds of new on-line buyers who spend happily and pay as they can, slowly sinking into a quicksand of debt.
Secure Servers
Secure servers and hype are the perfect recipe for a financial disorder that seems to be growing day after day, as marketers perfect their homepages and sales copy to conform an infallible trap. From air tickets to vacation packages, from software to books and e-books to membership fees of certain sites, almost everything you can find on the net has a price tag.
Unnecessary Junk
In other circles, we talk about getting out of debt, especially from credit cards, by taking a loan to pay it off, when the water reaches our necks. My question is, Is it really necessary to buy so much junk? I am not preaching against internet. It is just that it seems ridiculous to pay double interest on something that is not essential to our daily needs.
Credit cards charge a percentage for the use of the card and then for financing the purchase. Then comes punitive interest when we pay the minimum and the interest of the loan, when we consolidate. Well, I do not need to explain all the harm this process does to our credit ratings. Then, when we are in real need of something too costly to pay in cash, we resort to a loan, but oh, surprise, last years consolidation process has left a stain on our report.
Rational Spending
Would not it be a lot easier and safer to have a lower credit limit? Just do a simple mathematical operation: Add your credit limit to your bills, debts and monthly expenditure, and the final sum will surely be higher than your monthly income. This means that part of the credit card balance must be financed. Apparently, a higher credit limit gives more status, which is inevitably spoiled by a bad credit rating on our report.
And There Is Even More
When you analyze what benefit or entertainment or profit you got from your on-line purchase, you suddenly find yourself wondering, Is that all? Money exists to go around from hand in hand and as it does, give a benefit to those who use it. If we balance the benefit against the inconvenience of having financial trouble, the scales will tip in favor of the problems.
There Is No Particular Solution
Each person or family knows what has to be corrected. In some cases the solution will have the appearance of an income increase, with some effort. In other cases it will be to reduce spending, drop the broadband connection, drop credit cards, eliminate extension cards, or whatever.
Our mission, as we understand it, is to point out the problem so that those who suffer it will be aware and take action. The sooner the problem is corrected
, the easier it is to do so.