Can a credit card help you spend smarter?

Question

Recently, Discover Card created a new ad campaign explaining how they can help consumers spend smarter. Do you feel a credit card company can do this?

Answer 1

No.

Answer 2

No, a credit card cannot help you spend smarter.

Answer 3

That commercial does not say how they hope to achieve what they are proposing.  The pile of cartons being unloaded from a truck is a clue of their true intentions, to get you to charge things you cannot afford and string you along for the interest.

A credit card may help keep track of expenses, if you pay it in full every month.  But it can cost you if you look at a credit card as free money (far from it) and credit limit as something to shoot for (stay far away from it).

Answer 4

They can give advise, however, it is ultimately up to the individual consumer to use common sense and good judgement.

Answer 5

Absolutely NOT!! Credit card companies are in-no-way beneficial to the economy... they create a financial disaster not only for consumers, but for businesses consumers buy from as well!

An individual takes out a line of credit from a credit card thinking it's putting more $$$ in their pocket. Most credit cards have a high APR (annual percentage rate)... so whatever amount you charge to your card, you're also being "charged" an interest fee.

Which makes more since: saving/ putting aside money from your paycheck for a $500 investment OR going into debt by placing a $500 charge on a credit card and then also being slammed with finance charges and interest rates??  Sometimes you end up paying back twice as much as you initially spent!

My best advice is to ONLY use a credit card in an emergency: i.e. car repairs and medical expenses. All else should be budgeted from a paycheck.

Answer 6

Look at all of that new, hip, stuff that you can get, and ask yourself "who needs all that junk?"

Now I'm not against buying luxury items.

I am against going on vacation and bringing home a $5,000 balance on your Discover Card as a souvenir.

You want to spend smarter?  I got two words for you:

PAY CASH.

Answer 7

yes through  consumer education

Answer 8

No, it is more likely that people overspend because that plastic isn't real money.  People have to learn how to use credit cards to their advantage. Carrying balances is never good.  Credit card companies want you to carry balances since they make money on the interest.

Answer 9

1. if yu wanna spend smarter, thro the kredit kard in the fire.