I Love, Hate Credit Cards

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*sigh*

Credit cards... You love them, you hate them.

They are great for emergencies and for when the cash I have is not enough. They are great for shopping and save time in counting out the bills for payment and storing the change back to my wallet. The perks that some credit cards have are very attractive. There are discounts to nice restaurants, a free dessert for meals, exclusive passes to sales, free movie tickets, reward points that could be exchanged for useful items like bags and appliances or miles that could be used for traveling to other countries or to beautiful places in the Philippines. They also allow me to purchase items yet pay in installments, they also stretch my money because I could pay after a month when I use it after the cut-off date. It's like hitting the jackpot when I receive low interest rate credit cards.

When the billing statement comes, that's when I feel that they're such a burden. Reading what was listed, I would often wonder if I have truly purchased those (of course, I did! I check them against the charge slips). I feel like Rebecca Bloomwood, sometimes. But, I am not a shopaholic, though. I used to have around three credit cards, but it's hard to keep track of all them so I allowed myself just one. If one has different types of credit cards like First National Bank of Omaha credit cards and Pentagon Federal Credit Union credit cards, and with different due dates, I think he would be susceptible to late charges as it is very easy to overlook when they should be paid off. And then there's the amount due, I usually pay the whole amount so to avoid incurring interest. Sometimes I wonder if debit cards are better since it sort of controls the spending.

Nowadays, I don't think that could live without credit cards. Somehow, they wove their way towards a person's essentials.