Tricks for Convincing Yourself Not to Use those Free Credit Card Checks
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008Hopefully you already know all of the reasons that you shouldn’t use those “free” credit card checks that come in the mail. They often have fees associated with them. They convince you to spend money on your credit card that you weren’t planning to spend. And they usually end up causing your budget to go out of whack so that you have difficulty making the payments and start accumulating credit problems. Despite knowing this, do you have problems convincing yourself to just throw those checks away?
Many people find themselves compelled to open up those checks when they come. Once they’ve done that, they often use them. We all have justifications for this. We swear that we’re just going to do it this once. We say that we’ll pay back the amount we use right away. We insist that we’re just opening the checks to save them “in case” we don’t have the money we need before they expire. The fact of the matter is that we can always find reasons to spend money we don’t have. We almost always regret doing it.
Here are some tricks to avoid using those “free” credit card checks:
• Don’t open the envelope. You know what is inside there before you even open it up so just tear it in half without even unsealing the envelope.
• Have a spouse or friend sort through your mail. If you can’t exercise self-restraint, have someone else sort your mail and trash things like this so you don’t even see them.
• Make yourself set a budget plan for paying back the money before you cash or mail the check. Once you see that you can’t pay it back, you’ll be less inclined to spend it.
• Make a list of ten reasons that you don’t need to use the check. If you still want to use it, ask yourself why.
• Write down the five biggest problems that you have with your credit, especially those that relate to using these types of “free” checks. Post it in the same place that you open your mail so that you’ll remember that you don’t want to use these things.
The main point here is that you need to learn how to choose smart credit card practices. That means being an adult and doing things that you don’t want to do like throwing those “free” checks in the garbage. It’s not fun, but it is smart.
