When my close friends revealed they had applied for and possessed credit cards, I was horrified.
I asked them, “Why would you get one?” which resulted in a long tangent about how every adult they knew had one, they needed to build up credit and it's nice to have extra money. I was so outraged by this reasoning that I flipped the Little Tykes table we were casually playing cards at and stormed out in disappointment.
After I inevitably calmed down, I thought, “Well, at least not everybody is applying for one right?” Wrong. I have met so many people at Ohio University who think credit cards are just extra money or that they need to start building “credit.” I personally believe college kids and many outside of college could do without it.
My credit card beef began at the very young age of 15, when I was being chauffeured by my father to an indoor lacrosse game. A little backstory for you: my dad is one of those cool 50-year-olds who still subscribe to SiriusXM radio despite having access to apps like Spotify and Apple Music. Whenever he drove, he listened to the business radio with a funny little angry balding man by the name of Dave Ramsey.
If you're unfamiliar with Ramsey’s work, he basically destroys whiny callers who do not want to change their poor financial habits, which is essentially my dream job. And you know what one of the biggest money eaters that Ramsey has to explain to people? Credit cards. Credit cards are vile scum of the earth that deserve to be burned at the stake, as I will explain.
A little info session for you adults out there young and old. Credit not real money; it's basically borrowing someone else's money that you have to pay back later plus interest. If you don't pay it back in time, you can incur fees or hurt your credit score that you were trying to boost. Dave Ramsey says this is one of the easiest ways to get into debt.
Second newsflash for you: having a credit card isn’t the only way to build credit. That's some lousy garbage cooked up by companies that want your money. Believe it or not, you can show you’re trustworthy by paying off your car on time, timely payments on rent and making sure you pay off miscellaneous fees or bills.
The third and last news flash for you is that debit cards are just as safe as credit cards. My goofball friends tried convincing me that credit cards are fully insured, whereas, with debit cards, someone can just access your account and gank your paper. If you use a big company like Mastercard or Visayou will be fully protected from fraud and insured.
As my hands clench with rage from the emotions that a small plastic card can evoke, I advise you, dear reader, to not sign up for a credit card like the others, before you are swirled away into a world of hurt.
Drew Haughn is a freshman studying communications at Ohio University. Please note that the opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of The Post. Want to talk to Drew about his article? Tweet him @haughn_drew24.
