The Love and Hate of Credit Cards

Written by A Guest Speaker on May 21st, 2008

The Love and Hate of Credit Cards
Written by Gord Boehler

My wife loves credit cards and I hate em’.

This is a typical scenario I hear about at work from my buddies and read in magazine articles, newspapers and online blogs. Recently my friend at work in the Jazz Air Hangar was on the cellphone with his wife and I could tell the conversation was getting a bit “heated”. After he flipped his phone closed he began walking around in circles muttering to himself.

“What’s the problem, Pat” I asked him. “She goes out this morning and buys all these clothes and charges $420 on the card and I’m trying to get it paid off, Jeez!” He yells.

Does this sound familiar to you? Similar instances are happening around the world probably a million times a day.

My first run-in with Credit Cards was when I left the Commercial Fishery when the Government of Canada closed the “Cod” fishery. The backbone and livelihood of Newfoundland Fisherman since the province of Canada was first discovered. This was the start of a declining industry especially for the owners and operators of fishing vessels. It would and is becoming a “big” company operation and the small business man (me) would be pushed out.

In 93′ I retrained as an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer and being at the top of my class landed a job with Jazz Air LP which was Air Nova at that time. This meant moving to Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada. This was the first move away from Newfoundland and her parents. After working a couple months we bought a house and were given a “$5000.00 limit” Visa credit card.

My wife’s eyes light up when she saw the shiny new card and couldn’t wait to use it. I had reservations and thought we should cancel it but she won the debate. To make a long story short, within a year and half we were up to our limit with buying furniture and making up for my initial small salary working as an Aircraft Mechanic apprentice.

As my salary increased I managed to get the “card” paid off but since then it has been an up and down battle keeping the credit card bills to a minimum. A credit card can easily take over your life and push you into bankruptcy if you can’t control it. On the other hand my wife’s sister and husband use it everyday and pay off the balance every month. They don’t pay any interest and build up points for travel and hotels.

I can see a big change in the last few years where staying in a Hotel , booking a flight, renting a car, joining an online business and endless products and services, require a credit card. The struggle for most, like my me and my wife, is to keep it under control.