Students Need To Stop Blaming Credit Cards

This is a guest post from MD of Studenomics, a blog where he simplifies complex financial topics. Lately he has been writing about earning more money and becoming your own boss at Passive Income Now.

Blaming your credit card company for being in debt is like blaming McDonald’s for being out of shape. I think that it’s embarrassing to be honest. It needs to stop. We all need to become more accountable for our finances instead of blaming the economy or “evil” credit card companies. Today I wanted to share why college students need to stop blaming credit cards and how they can become more proactive with their money management.

I wanted to point out a few things college students can do with their finances instead of blaming credit cards for being broke:

Stop spending foolishly.

I realize that this is easier said than done, but it’s the main cause for most young people being in debt. Just this past week I had to stop myself twice from making ridiculous purchases. I was about to get some flashy white belt and new iPhone speakers. Then I realized that these purchases were useless. Showing off your belt is lame and how loud do you need your music to be? Spending money foolishly is your problem and whether you have a credit card to facilitate the process or not doesn’t matter because poor habits stick with you for a long time. Once you learn to spend your money wisely you’ll realize how quickly your savings will start to grow.

Understand that a credit card is still money.

Just because you never see the money it doesn’t mean that it’s not real. I’ve heard various arguments from college students about how this isn’t far and how credit card companies are supposedly loaning us money that doesn’t exist. This is irrelevant. The point is that you’re borrowing money from someone in exchange to purchase something. The money just happens to be electronic and never seen. A credit card is money and if you max out your credit card, you’re going to have to come up with the money and you’ll be hit with interest fees every time you miss payments and the
longer you keep a balance. This can have a severely negative impact on your savings and your credit score.

Try using cash.

Using credit is far too easy. It has become so easy that Amazon is kind enough to store my credit card information so I don’t even have to type in my credit card number in again if I want to purchase a book in a split second. If you find that a credit card is hurting your finances instead of being used as a tool, then you should try to use cash only for a little while. After a few weeks you can determine if the credit card is the problem or if it’s your lack of money management skills that’s hurting you.

Find the right credit card.

There’s many different types of college student credit cards out there. The goal is to find the right credit card for your situation. It’s usually recommended that you start off with one that offers the introductory limit of $500 so that you can grasp if you’re even mature enough for a credit card at the moment. If you’re stuck on this, don’t worry because this site offers tips for finding the right credit card. Once you find the ideal credit card and improve your spending habits, you’ll learn how beneficial credit cards can be in your financial toolbox.

These are the main ideas I would recommend to all of the college students out there that have blamed credit card companies for their financial issues in the past. What did I miss?