If you've made a commitment to be done with debt and have started to work on the debt snowball one of the ways that you can lose the 'temptation' of getting sucked back into the credit game is to take the initiative and STOP the offers from coming in the mail.
We are being bombarded daily with credit 'offers' from our local banks, airlines, our member clubs (Sam's/BJ's), local retailers where we buy our groceries, clothing ALL offer discounts if we just 'sign up today' for THEIR card. We can't go online and not be hit with an advertisement in the margin offering us 0% interest to transfer a balance. The marketing dollars credit card companies and banks spend on advertising will astound you.
Here's what the top 3 advertisers on Google in the credit market are spending on MONTHLY ads to capture your attention and your business:
- Chase $4,489,865 (using 64,368 'keywords')
- Capital One $6,349,382 (using 65,545 'keywords')
- American Express $3,593,729 (using 93,706 'keywords")
So what can you do?
You have to have AWARENESS and be smarter than they are! You have to know that they don't spend $14,432,976 PER MONTH collectively to advertise because they aren't making big bucks in interest charges once they capture you!!! You have to stop believing you can WIN with their offers and beat them. Their buildings are bigger than your house for a reason!
Sit with this for a week. Really digest the reality of the money that is being spent by the corporate credit giants to get rich off of the average American family by way of interest rates earned by them. They benefit each and every time we have a 'want or need' that we are willing to 'charge'.
And then make a commitment to do something different! Commit to using your 'debit card and CASH' for your purchases and be done with interest charges on purchases you made a year ago.
You can also decide to stop receiving the prescreened offers of credit and insurance you receive in the mail. To do so, you have two choices: You can opt out of receiving them for five years or opt out of receiving them permanently. To opt out for five years: Call toll-free 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688) or visit www.optoutprescreen.com.