Americans are trending toward noticeably more cash and debit cards than credit cards.
The shift ends Americans’ long love affair with credit cards and is one of the changes in consumer behavior that has emerged since the financial meltdown that could depress consumer spending this holiday season and affect shoppers’ habits long afterward. Personally, I think that’s a good thingTM.
I advised my kids right after college and pre-first-apartment to get only ONE credit card with a $2K limit so they’d never have credit card debt that they couldn’t conceivably pay off and now, voila! they are both pretty much debt-free and have savings. They have friends with credit-card-induced dire straits.
I’d like to think I’m smart, but I was simply passing along my own parental advice from my father’s adage, “In all things, moderation.” (That came right after, “Don’t pick it up until you know where you’re going to put it down,” which usually referred to a large, heavy box or television.)
My parents taught me the same thing and after I graduated from college my credit score was high enough with a year of working full time and saving I was able to purchase my first home before I turned 23.
Sue,
That was a great plan. A lot of people are not taught about “money” as they are growing up. This leads a lot of people into that credit card hole that they can never get out of!
Great job!
Bob
If all the customer’s start to protest the unfair, unethical, and dishonest practice that businesses has profited from from–by encouraging people to use their credit cards to make purchases. This unfair, unethical, and dishonest business practice is no different from the real estate problem it is probably the same is you count the dollars. Because there are more people in credit card debt than in real estate. For instance, if there are 15 persons in real estate debt; there are approximately 150 in credit card debt. The financial institution are encouraging you NOT to file bankrupt, because the insurance companies can not pay them for the debt that they have allowed us to accumulate because the insurance companies will go bankrupt or would not pay because they are not insured for the unfair, unethical, and dishonest practice that they have been practicing. So, I WOULD ENCOURAGE EVERYONE WHO IS UNEMPLOYED, FIFTY OR OVER–because employers are not willing to pay for your experience, when they can pay less for inexperience, AND HAVE $7000 OR MORE CREDIT CARD DEBT TO FILE BANKRUPT. Then we will be able to play the wait and see what happen games that the investor are playing with tax payer money.
BANKRUPTCY RALLY!!
Its really a very nice article for kids…………Now I think if I could this benefit when I was small……….