Step Back and See How Credit Has Monopolized Our Lives

In the financial world, the word “credit” is used to hide the word “debt”. If we replaced all financial terms that has the word “credit” with the word “debt”, we’ll probably find yourself less likely to utilize our “debt cards”.

When we are asked, “what is your credit?”, we usually answer with our FICO credit score or maybe “good” or “great”. We do not fully understand how our credit is calculated. Closing a credit card account can hurt your credit? It may not make total sense but we have no control over the terms that regulate the effects of what we do on our credit.

Swiping the plastic has been made too easy. We just don’t see the money flowing out. Logging into your bank account and seeing $1,000 is much less impacting than having $1,000 in cash in front of you. The same goes for using a credit card. We’d all be much more unwilling to part with ten $100 bills than just seeing $1,000 printed on a credit card receipt.

The credit card is a mere representation of a loan agreement. If every single time that we used a credit card, the cashier gave us a 5-page document to sign, how often do you think we’d borrow to pay for something? The creation of the credit card hides this from the consumers so they don’t feel the burden that they are taking responsibility for.

Got bad credit? Sorry. You can’t buy that home, can’t get that job, can’t rent that apartment, can’t buy that car and can’t get that lovely cell phone plan for your iPhone. But, guess what? You need credit to get more credit. Without it, you will not have the ability to enjoy many of the luxuries that life has to offer.

We have no choice but to abide by the system. Stepping outside to see how dangerous credit can be will hopefully discourage us from relying too much on it.

Photo credit: Andres Rueda

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