Today’s mail included a really nice, thick, black envelope that looked like a wedding invitation at first glance. Inside, however, was an ‘exclusive’ offer to open up a line of credit with the VISA Black Card, the “World’s Most Prestigious and Versatile Credit Card.”
If I enrolled, I would gain access to the following:
“Limited Membership”
“24-Hour Concierge Service”
“Exclusive Rewards Program”
“Luxury Gifts”
“Patent Pending Carbon Card”
And the kicker of them all…
“Annual Fee $495”
Furthermore, I am told that “The Black Card is not for everyone. In fact, it is limited to only 1% of U.S. residents to ensure the highest caliber of personal service is provided to every Cardmember.”
Wow. How does paying to go into debt make me part of an exclusive club? How many people do you know that have had or currently have credit card debt? Not exactly an exclusive club.
Credit card marketers are experts and spend hundreds of millions of dollars at hooking people into believing that credit is a way of life, needed to get ahead, and as this offer shows, what “really important people do.” Ask yourself this, “Does anyone really care what kind of credit card I have? Does anybody else but me even know if I have a platinum, uranium, or plutonium card?” I bet you answered “no.”
The irony of all this is that yesterday my husband and I shredded our only credit cards since we are in the process of becoming completely debt free. Even though we always paid off our balances every month, we decided that becoming debt free should mean not even using debt on a temporary basis. It also makes keeping track of our finances a lot easier since now we don’t have to worry about paying our credit card bill every month.
If you use a credit card, what are your reasons for doing so? If you have credit card debt, what are you doing to pay it off?
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My wife and I closed all but one of our credit card accounts over a year ago. The one we have is rarely used, and is paid off every month. We participated in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace program, and love the feeling of no debt - so much less stressful!
ReplyDeleteWay to go! My husband and I are going to FPU as well so that we can teach the class in the future. Saying 'no' to debt has totally revolutionized our attitude and habits toward money - we pray that more of our friends and family would do the same.
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