While for myself I have always had the habit of fully paying the credit card this month I have been making a ton of purchases because of the holidays. While that isn’t an issue as I always only charge what I can actually afford I usually just pay everything off at the end of the billing month. However, I always look at my charges to make sure and looking at the number just reminds me how it is so easy for people to get into debt.
It is over four figures so far and if I wasn’t a person that paid it off all at once I could imagine that one would simply keep spending not knowing how much they actually charged on the thing. That of course means credit card debt eventually and paying those ridiculous interest rates. It made me think how while many people usually say tear up the credit card I was thinking how it might be more effective to discipline yourself where if you make a big purchase you must pay it off right that day. That should force you to look at how much you are spending while semi ensuring that you are actually paying it off.
Many would probably say you may as well just use cash but in my opinion you would be missing out on so many reward options such as cashbacks. It’s a little extra step to get some financial literacy training too I think where you can eventually just manage everything like its second nature.