Archive of Reasons to Not Have a Credit Card
Sun 6 Jan 2008, Written by Eden
Categories: Credit Cards
I started a series of posts on Remembering Why I Don’t Want Another Credit Card to help keep track of the things I read that cause me to think to myself, “I never want to deal with a credit card company again!“. That was a start, but not quite the right solution to my problem since I would have to go digging through single posts when I want to review the list. So…I started a page, Credit Card Stories, with a list of articles, news stories, resources, or anything else that causes me to remember the phrase “I never want to deal with a credit card company again!“.
For the record, I do not think that credit cards are evil, though I do think that most credit card companies are evil (or at least dirty) and personally I want nothing more to do with them.
A few people successfully game the system and earn money with their credit cards (playing what is commonly known as credit card arbitrage). Go right ahead if that floats your boat, but I don’t want to invest my time keeping tabs of every little transaction, changes in policy, or dealing with customer service at a credit card company when they inevitably make a mistake and try to steal my money.
You can’t argue that people make money with this game, but I’ve never read biographies of the rich getting rich by playing credit card arbitrage. I’ll try to make my wealth the old fashioned way and I think achieving wealth will be much easier if credit card companies don’t have a part in my financial life.
For the vast majority of people, credit cards do not help you to achieve financial freedom! If you carry a balance, your finances are moving in the wrong direction. You need the power of compound interest working for you, not against you, to become wealthy. Credit cards may seem like part of the American Way, but they don’t have to be.
Visit the Credit Card Stories page for some inspiration to say goodbye to credit cards and feel free to send me links to include in the list. I know I have missed a lot of good articles and I will be updating the list indefinitely.
