Michael Kelly does without his credit card
Most of the things that I give up each week are, thankfully, fully reversible, and after a single week of self-imposed penance I go back, wiser perhaps, to my old ways. Back to shaving, driving, using my mobile and the dishwasher etc. You learn something from the abstinence each week, but making a complete break is not something that really enters your head.
On the desk beside me I have a large scissors and my credit card. If I cut neatly through the centre of the card, it will be a "no going back" moment.
I was excited when I got my first credit card at the age of 25 or so. It seemed like I was being welcomed to the top table. Back then I wasn't very responsible in fiscal terms, and when you think about it neither was the credit card company - they offered me ever-increasing credit limits and I graciously appreciated the latitude, spending copious sums on CDs, books, hotels, rounds of drink etc.
I must have been their favourite customer. I have old credit card bills in a drawer somewhere where the outstanding balance was almost €10,000 - it still gives me the shivers to look at them. For about the past two years I have had it under control, with only rare personal expenditure and some work-related expenses that got paid quickly.
But I still hated getting those bills. It must have been a throwback to the sweaty horror of my 20s when I would calculate how much I could afford to pay back each month and realise it would take me about eight years to clear the debts.
Once I cleared the balance I started getting ever-more desperate letters from the credit card company trying to lure me back to fiscal ineptitude with offers of pre-approved €30,000 loans and glossy brochures showing me the kinds of things I could spend their money on (the weekly grocery shop was one of their more questionable suggestions). They even started sending me four or five blank credit card cheques which I used to burn in the stove each time I got them (credit card cheques backed up by a large credit limit are not something you want lying around the house).
I've thought about cutting up the card before but always felt hamstrung by the number of things you actually really need it for: online shopping, booking airline tickets, hotels etc. Well, no longer. There are companies out there that now sell disposable pre-paid debit vouchers, which can be used just like a credit card and replenished as required like mobile top-up (check out www.3v.ie, for example). So no excuses . . .
I reckon having a credit card with a €15,000 limit is a bad idea in my wonderful brave new world of reduced earnings, downsizing and simplification. So here goes. Snip.