7 Useful Steps to Curb Credit Card Spending

How many times has this happened to you? You walk into a store intending to buy a small inexpensive item, and walk out with a bill totaling hundreds of dollars? This situation is commonly faced by many credit card holders today. Armed with a seemingly innocent piece of plastic, they end up accruing huge amounts of debt. This, in turn, leads to severe credit score damage, not to mention tremendous mental stress caused by escalating interest charges.

So, what can you do to ensure that something like this never happens to you? For your benefit, we’ve compiled a list of seven actions you can take to avoid falling into the overspending pit.

1. Remember that You Must Pay it Back: Most consumers tend to purchase more when they use credit cards, as opposed to when they use cash. This is because, with cards, they don’t realize that they are spending money and hardly feel the pinch of the purchase. One way to get over this tendency is to treat your cards as cash - remember that whatever you put on your credit card, you must pay back in a timely manner.
2. Set Your Own Spending Limit: Just because you have a credit limit running into thousands of dollars, doesn’t mean that you need to spend it all. In fact, to maintain a good credit score, your credit utilization ratio, i.e. the proportion of total available credit used by you, should remain below 30%. To ensure that your credit card purchases are under control, keep your current balance, rather than your spending limit, in mind. Swipe only as much as you can afford to pay back in full. In fact, you can also ask your issuer to lower your available limit if it helps to curb your spending.
3. Be Careful with Multiple Credit Cards: The more credit cards you have, the more will be your available credit and the more balances you will need to keep track of. So, before you apply for one more card, ask yourself – do you need it to earn more reward points, to better manage your finances, or is it another way to obtain more credit for overspending?
4. Don’t Let Emotions Influence Your Purchases: As per research reports, consumers tend to spend more when they are sad, unhappy, bored, jealous, angry or unhappy. So, when you feel any of these emotions, wait until you’re back to a better mood before going shopping.
5. Use Your Card for Things You Would Have Purchased Anyway: Electricity, gas, and groceries are some of the necessities required for daily life. Use your card on these items, instead of on things that you can’t afford. One of the reasons why many people fall into debt is because they use cards to artificially extend their purchasing power. Steer clear of this mistake and you may find that you’ll never have to worry about unmanageable credit card bills.
6. Let Your Spending Decisions Be Influenced by Your Financial Goals: Create a roadmap in your mind, if not on paper, as to where you want to be financially in 5, 10 or 15 years’ time. Make your spending decisions based on how early you want to retire, or how much savings you would like to have when you quit your working life for good.
7. Leave Your Credit Cards at home: The more you carry your credit cards around, the more you will be tempted to use them. Thus, leave them at home and use cash when you are on one of your shopping sprees. Use the plastic only for specific purchases, such as when shopping for true necessities.

If used carelessly, credit cards can land you into severe trouble. On the other hand, if used properly, they can help you temporarily tide over a cash crunch, fund your business, or even provide a down payment on a property. At Fund&Grow, our team helps individuals with good credit obtain $50,000 - $250,000 of unsecured credit at 0% interest that can be used for any purpose whatsoever. So if you, or someone you know, need this kind of financing, call us right away at (800) 996-0270 and we will take care of the rest!