When plastic is involved, in today's culture, we have to retrain not only our "buying" habits but, more importantly, our thinking habits.

First, the card gives the illusion of instantaneous solution of problems, but then we come to find out the problems multiply instead.

Second, credit card debt is not an "overspending problem."

"I spent X dollars" is not the came mental process as "I borrowed X dollars." But that's what card use is-- borrowing.

One of the big reasons for credit card debit is the simple but unexamined semantic issue: "I bought this on Visa" is often said, but not quite accurate-- "I borrowed this via Visa" is actually closer to the truth. "I bought" and "I owe" are two completely different ways to think about resource allocation.

Even more accurate would be, "I encumbered myself with this." But the ad campaigns don't teach us to think that carefully.

Even the credit-counseling approach talks in terms of "overspending"-- but that money has not been "spent."

~Susan