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Credit Card Super Users

BY: T. Franklin Murphy | September 2018

A Close up photo of a credit card. A Flourishing Life Society article on wise use of credit.

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Super users get paid to spend. Evaluate how you are using your cards, free yourself from the high-interest trap and let the banks pay you.

Credit cards are nasty little things. They target our greed, catering to the buy now pay later epidemic that drags so many people down. Credit cards initially appear to expand our buying power only to strangle our budgets with high interests, and hefty payments.

The instant credit is tempting. I was dumbfounded to see how many offers were sent to my daughter while she was working part-time while going working on her degree. As bad as these little devils can be, when used right, they give flexibility and offer many attractive rewards to the credit card super users.

You can spot a super user at most stores. Watch as they flip through their wallets before paying. They are looking for the card that offers the highest return, the most points, or four times the miles for buying the two packs of athletic socks and cotton briefs. Yes, they are a super user.

"Credit cards initially appear to expand our buying power only to strangle our budgets with high interests, and hefty payments."

We live in a capitalistic society and we spend money—a lot of it. Why not get paid for spending your money? Instead of paying a bank to lend you money and then spend the rest of your life paying five times the purchase price through outrageous interest, how about pay the purchase price, get rewarded, and be done.

Being a super user is much more than having a rewards card. Almost anyone can get rewards. But getting a few percent back while paying twenty-one percent (compounded) interest isn’t much of a deal—small discount up front, large penalty on the back. The modest reward is just an enticement to spend money. The bait on the hook to catch the undisciplined. If you carry a balance, nix the reward and look for the lowest interest credit card. Or, even better, find a no interest introductory rate, roll your balance onto the new card and cancel the old one. Pay off the card before the introductory rate expires and then find a rewards card and start training to be a super user.

Don't Pay the Banks

Simply stated a super user does not pay interest or penalty fees. They pay off their balance monthly and maximize the rewards. When balances are paid off monthly, the cards can be used for every purchase—groceries, gas, bills, and dining. The card offers the flexibility of leaving paychecks in higher yield savings accounts during the month, and then moved to checking to conveniently pay off the balances at the end of the month.

Credit card use is a barometer for the health of your finances. Make the plastic work for you, not you for the bank. Become a super user, enjoy the benefits, and free yourself from the weighty chains of high interest credit card debt.

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T. Franklin Murphy

Wellness. Writer. Researcher.
T. Franklin Murphy has a degree in psychology. He is dedicated to the science of wellness. In 2010, he began publishing his findings.