Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Romans 13:8
While I do not
think that St Paul’s words at the start of today’s Reflection are meant as an
absolute prohibition on borrowing, it is certainly foolish and a waste of money
to pay the interest on credit that does you not good at all.
Yesterday, I began
to set out a plan that can help you clear redundant credit and, more generally,
reduce your dependence on credit. The final stages follow.
- Close your credit card accounts that you do not need: keep only one or two that you can use to help control your cash flow and which might come in useful in an emergency. (Do not simply cut up the cards but contact the lender to close the account.)
- As you clear one credit commitment, add that payment on to what you are already repaying off the next most expensive. Keep doing this until everything is paid off.
- When you have done this, get into the habit of paying off everything on your credit cards each month and repaying any overdraft you use within four weeks. There will be exceptions to this routine but they should be rare.
A word of warning. If
you think of transferring balances to a lower APR, remember to check if you
have to pay a handling fee. Do not put new purchases on the same credit card as
balance transfers because your payments will be used to clear the cheap transfers
before the purchases that generate more interest.
If you are not good at resisting the temptation to buy something with a credit card that you could not otherwise afford, or are better off not buying for some reason, consider leaving the card at home and shopping with cash. Also, do not have the card details already entered into websites, so that you cannot buy something just by clicking on an icon but have to enter all the card details each time. If these 'barriers' to buying do not help you, you may be better off not having a credit card at all.
Handling money,
dealing with money problems and clearing debt can be complicated. If you think
you could benefit from expert help (and I think it true that most people facing a problem could benefit),
search out a free debt advice agency.
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans
2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
Handling
money and dealing with debt can be complicated and neither the author nor
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