Credit card hangovers are no way to ring in the New Year
Posted by Jason Henrichs on December 18, 2009 in Dump Your Debt
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I have my Google Alerts set to catch articles related to debit rewards and started reading Frugal Dad’s blog as a result. This article caught my attention:
“While waiting to buy $4.26 worth of Christmas goodies concealment supplies when the guy ahead of my swipes his card with no luck. He tosses the merchandise back at the store employee and storms out after being told the card was declined. I sort of apologized for him to the young girl, who calmly replied, “No big deal – it’s been happening a lot the last couple weeks. I guess people are just maxed out.” Indeed. And I wonder if we’ll have a problem paying for it, collectively, in the New Year.”
Prior to the release of PerkStreet’s rewards debit card, I was a rewards credit card user (and a heavy user at that). It seemed every New Year I started with a hangover, not from staying out too late New Year’s Eve, but from the amount of purchases I racked up over the holidays on my credit card. This year, being transformed into a debit only guy, I needed a new approach to carefully budget what I needed for gifts and travel in advance to make sure I’d have enough money in my account. Getting 1% back on my debit purchases is a great reward, but not nearly as rewarding as knowing I won’t start the New Year with a credit card hangover.
