bluntmoney.com

It seems to me that about the worst thing you can use a credit card for is an emergency. Why do I say that?

My first credit card was a department store card. I got it solely for the purpose of “building credit”. I think it had a $200 limit. At the time I (wrongly) thought you had to carry a balance in order for it to “count”, so I bought about $50 worth of clothes and deliberately paid for them over a period of a few months. I used my checking account or cash to pay for all of my other expenses. All was fine until I got married and my then-husband and I got a credit card to use “strictly for emergencies”.

The problem was, we kept having “emergencies”. One of us “had” to fly out of state for a funeral. Twice. We “had” to replace the clutch and the brakes on my lemon of a car. Three or four times!

It just got more and more depressing seeing our balance grow. And we kept paying as much as possible toward the card, which meant that we had zero wiggle room in our budget to build an emergency fund. Which meant, you guessed it, that the next “emergency” went on the credit card.

Pretty soon we got so discouraged that it just felt like “what’s one more thing?” (Very illogical, but who says feelings are logical?) So we began adding non-emergency things to the card too. A hunting trip, paint for our condo, a new dress, a ceiling fan, you name it.

If we had committed, really committed, to paying off our balance in full every month no matter what, we wouldn’t have charged things that we couldn’t afford to pay off that DAY. (Not just “that month” — you have to have the money ALREADY, not be planning on getting it later in the month.) If you know that you HAVE to pay for something in its entirety, you can’t rationalize to yourself that it’s an “emergency” or that you can just pay for it later or that you really “need” it because of blah blah blah.

Instead, maybe you’ll miss the funeral. Your loved one will understand. Or maybe your coworkers will take up a collection to buy your plane ticket (like the place I worked at once did for someone.) Maybe you’ll take the bus or sell your lemon of a car instead of just blindly paying for yet another repair that you can’t afford. Or, gasp, wait until you have the money to repair it. Maybe you’ll take a pass on the hunting trip. Maybe you’ll live with tiny holes in the walls for awhile instead of repainting. Maybe you’ll shop for a dress at a thrift store instead of a department store. Maybe you’ll REALIZE that you can’t afford these things, and take steps to remedy that situation instead of just conveniently blaming the credit cards and their high interest rates.

Using credit cards for “emergencies” or other things that you can’t afford just masks whatever problem you are really having. Using them for gas that you pay off in full every month? Not so much.