How To Succeed With Your Credit Cards And Gain A New Spending Mindset

Let’s understand this correctly. If credit cards were actually people; they would not be the nice, proper, and happy citizens our banks make them out to be; rather they would be hideously evil and corrupt drug dealers! When it comes right down to it if you do not take credit cards seriously they will maim and destroy your life like a dirty drug pusher. That is how you must view your cards if you are to develop a new spending mindset.





Much like drug dealers, banks seek out young people and those who are in desperate situations and give them cards without ever warning them of the real life consequences or teaching them about their hazards. Usually, the credit limit on most cards issued to young or desperate individuals is low and relatively safe (at first). However, if the monthly bill is paid on time, though the balance is kept low, the limit will rise quickly and the potential for danger will jump up dramatically. Now if that doesn’t sound like a drug dealer insuring his client base I don’t know what does!





Much like a drug pusher, the banks know that a given number of their clients will not have the intellect nor the vision to be able to understand what they have gotten themselves into. The banks, on the other hand, have the vision and are able to see that some people will assume it is good to get more cards after the first one is no longer able to generate the same results because it is maxed out. Of course that assumption is not true, but it is all part of the bank’s plan.





You must take the banks and their credit cards very seriously! They aim at young people and those who are in a desperate state who do not know any better and plan ahead for the fact that most of them will get in over their heads at some point. Then, if their family cannot or will not bail them out of trouble, they are hooked into the system! It will take many years for them to battle through the compounding interest that is constantly building up. Meanwhile, as the years go by they will end up throwing tons of money away in finance charges. That is what banks plan to do. They aim for and attack those who do not know any better. They are the same as heartless drug dealers. You MUST treat them as such… and here is how to do it.





You should limit yourself to only one or two cards. Credit card companies are little more than life sucking thieves that want to blindly encourage you to charge everything you can by making it seem as if you are not spending actual money. Then they turn around and slap you with just how real the money is with added interest costs, annual fees, late charges, and over-the-limit penalties. However, it goes further when the card companies assume that you do not know the difference between a credit card and a Valentine’s card. That is when the individual store and retail outlets show up with their own cards.





Department store cards are even more hazardous than regular ones because they influence your decisions by only being acceptable in one place. These cards work as if your drug dealer is now baiting you through a maze with some food by indirectly forcing you into shopping only at one store. It is NUTS! An entire credit line in your name is only good at one store. The card is telling you where you can shop! Are you feeling like a puppet yet? With a new money mindset there is no practical reason to ever get a store card (even if they give you 20% off on your purchase, it is still not worth it). Especially since all the major credit cards are accepted everywhere.





In addition to that, one of the best-kept secrets in the credit card industry is the secret behind annual fees. Many people ask "Why do some cards require an annual fee while others don’t?" The secret that the card industry does not want you to know is that annual fees on regular cards only apply to people who are willing to pay. Simply tell your card company this question and watch them squirm: "Why should I pay an annual fee when there are a dozen other cards that will provide the same service without one?"





Not only will credit card companies try to avoid your questions, but they have to resort to underhanded tactics to get you to pay for the annual fees. The two incredibly childish and back alley techniques used by the major credit card companies to swindle you into paying annual fees are:





1) "We will stand behind the curtain with our feet sticking out the bottom and hope you do not notice us."


(This tactic is applied with tiny fine print to your monthly statement. They simply hope you do not notice the fees!)





2) "Oh, you did not know that we charge an annual fee, even though we never told you about it."


(You can beat this annual fee charge by calling your card company and complaining about the mysterious fee. Credit card companies will usually drop the annual fees and late charges if you call and threaten to cancel the card.)





Despite all of the hazards that are associated with credit cards, they are a necessity and you need them to build a strong credit history for yourself. When you apply for a card the most important thing to look out for is the finance or interest rate. Most cards start out with a competitive introductory interest rate that will explode up to 30% if you skip a payment or are late on some of them. That is why you must read your statement fully each month from cover to cover.





The best way to keep interest charges low is to clear as much of your balance every month as possible. Always avoid paying the monthly minimum of $20 or so. That is exactly what the card companies want you to do so they can hit you with high interest charges on your balance which will eat up most of your minimum payment to the point where only a few dollars will go towards your balance and the remaining money will go straight to your credit card company as profit.





It is easy to see how people get in deep financial trouble quickly with credit cards. Not only is it to easy to spend money you do not have, but it is also very difficult to keep your head above water as the interest fees compound down on you month after month. You just begin treating your cards with the same sensitively you would treat a very dangerous situation. Credit cards and the banks that back them are not your friends. They will turn on you in a split second when they get the first chance. Be aware. Keep informed. Use your new spending mindset.





Positive Mind For Bad Credit - Joe is also the President of the #1 Positive Success Website called www.ReadySetRise.com which has the best positive mind content anywhere!

Positive Music For Those In Debt - Joe is also the President of the #1 Positive Success Website called ReadySetRise.com which features the greatest Positive Music anywhere!