Credit-card use akin to spending play money, say authors

Most often people tend to estimate their purchases on the low side of the amount. This usually occurs when people are doing their shopping with a credit card. A credit card is very dangerous when it comes to situations like these. The person will continue to rack up purchases without thinking nor caring how much it will cost at the end of the month. Because of the credit cards ability of buy now, pay later, many people will find themselves in a hole trying to pay off the balance. The article states that many teenagers are most vulnerable to be in debt from a credit card. As well, many teens will not know how much interest is added upon if they do not pay the full amount but instead will pay for minimum amount to save some spending cash.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/09/08/consumer-behaviour.html

How this chapter relates to this article is the process used to make the transaction occur. When often a person swipes their credit card to make a purchase, the clerk will print out a sales slip through the imprinting device. This device prints out the customer's name and identification number on the sales slip. Then the customer will sign their name on the sales slip to verify the purchase and to allow the transaction to occur. Once that is done, the customer takes a copy of the sales slip for his/her own reference. Another relation to the chapter is how cardholders will be charged with interest on their overdue balances on their account. This is mainly how people will get in trouble with debt.

I think that this article is true in many ways, especially in the aspects of spending money. In my own experience, I felt that having cash at hand is much better than having a debit card mainly because you actually see how much you're spending. With a debit card, all you have to do is swipe it and enter your pin. This process is much easier to deal with because you don't get to see how much you're handing over to the cashier. I'm all for it with credit cards because they're very useful when you want to buy something now and pay later. But the only thing you have to be careful with is making sure that you keep track of your spending and knowing your limit before it gets out of hand.