Give me credit…
Wow has it been a long time since I have been working on my blog!
My life has really been spinning for the past two months, filled with tons of work, travel to foreign contries and the biggest and most hard hitting event, the passing of my Father. I might write a little bit about that event when I feel a bit more up to it but at the moment I want to talk about something which is closer to everyone and that is finances, credit cards to be exact. I was looking at a website which consolidates credit card deals from a myriad of credit card providers. It seems that in America there are a number of different types of offers which credit card providers can offer to their potential customers, I thought was quite interesting. If anyone knows how the banking system works in South Africa, you know how we are ripped off, especially when it comes to credit cards and petrol cards. As an example, if you take a look at the gasoline credit card offers section on the website you will notice that there are some cards with rebates and other types of offers when you use the card to purchase fuel, well in South Africa, it is illegal to offer any sort of reward or discount on petrol, the price of which is strictly controlled by the government. Our government figures that if we get a rebate on petrol then that is almost like getting the tax back that we paid on the fuel, and that is a no-no.
When it comes to credit cards, they are not my most favourite thing in the world. Don’t get me wrong, they have their place, but too many people have adopted bad habits when it comes to credit cards. A common problem with credit cards is a practice known as revolving credit or rolling credit. This involves having multiple credit cards and paying them off using each other. In theory this results getting a certain amount of money which you never have to pay back. In reality though it involves the banks making huge sums of money from you while making you think like you are getting free money.
The place for credit cards in our lives is not to be over looked though. Using credit wisely can allow you to juggle your positive bank balance around for a few days until you have to pay off the credit card balance. Obviously this will only work if you get some interest free credit from your credit or you will end up paying for the privilege of borrowing a small sum for a few days.
Credit cards are also useful in emergencies, such as for example an urgent car repair or helping you with payments on an unexpected medical expense.
Needless to say, although I mentioned not being a big fan of credit cards, I feel that every one should have at least one card which, managed correctly will help rather than hinder your financial situation.
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
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