Earlier this week, I went shopping at Canada’s last remaining national department store. I’ve been searching for black pants for the past few months and I had some time to kill between appointments so I took myself shopping, an activity that I normally hate very much.
To my very pleasant surprise, I found the pants that I was looking for and they were on sale for $29.99. Hooray for Blue Lobster! Exactly what I wanted at a price that I was willing to pay. Does it get any sweeter than that?
So I took my awesome find to the till…and the credit card tussle began.
The cashier asked me if I had a last-remaining-national-department-store credit card, which I’ll refer to as the LRNDSCC for simplicity’s sake.
I said that I did not.
She asked me if I wanted to apply for one.
I said “No, thank you.”
At this point, she gave a look that very nearly had me checking my shoulders to see if I’d grown another head.
The cashier doubled-down. She told me that I could save 15% on my purchase if I were to apply for a LRNDSCC that very moment.
Again, I replied “No, thank you.” And then I threw her for a loop. “I don’t need any more credit.”
I thought she would faint, but she held it together. That cashier indicated that it wouldn’t take but a minute and she repeated that I would save 15% on my purchase immediately.
Once more, and with a smile, I told her “I don’t need any more credit.”
At that point, she stopped pushing the credit card. I have assume that, during her cashier training, she’d been instructed to keep pushing credit until the customer had denied it three times.
She was so perplexed by my refusal that I almost felt sorry for her… until she asked me for email address. I told her I didn’t want any email. She started to tell me that providing my email would allow me to get notice of sales and special offers. I just shook my head. Still reeling from my denial of credit, that hard-working cashier simply gave up and rang up my purchase.
Why not accept the credit card offer?
I thought about this a lot on my drive home. It’s a bit more complicated than the fact that I don’t need more credit. Tis true – I don’t need more credit. I have plenty and it’s sufficient for my purpose. In a certain respect, credit is like dish soap. Why would I use more than I need?
The other reason I didn’t accept the offer was because I don’t believe that the reward was worth the risk.
Risk, Blue Lobster? What risk is there in accepting a store credit card?
Well, there’s the risk that my information will be compromised. The more cyber locations housing my personal information – name, address, social insurance number, salary, etc – the more opportunities for Bad Guys to steal it and engage in identity fraud against me.
Limiting the number of creditors with my information offers me some measure of comfort and control.
Check this out – 37,000 customers from Transunion have had their information compromised. This is not a good thing. I might already be one of those unfortunate customers, so I’ll have to keep a close eye on my credit cards to ensure that my financial identity remains safe. I suggest you do the same thing too.
On a purchase of $29.99, I wasn’t willing to increase the risk of identity fraud simply to save $4.50. Fortunately, I had the extra $4.50 in my budget to make the purchase without impacting my ability to pay for shelter, food & my bare necessities. My choice to spend the additional $4.50 means that I won’t be taking on the risk that Bad Guys hack into the credit card information of the LRNDS and steal my personal information.
The third reason why I didn’t accept the credit offer is simply because having credit in my wallet means being tempted to spend on that card. Why put myself in a position of temptation if I don’t have to?
The 15% discount was a one-time thing. Again, I would’ve saved $4.50 on a pair of pants if I’d accepted the offer. Yet, I would have a shiny new piece of plastic winking at me from my wallet. And the sole purpose of that new little item would be to put me into credit card debt.
So how many credit cards do I have?
I have two. They’re accepted everywhere. One is for my day-to-day, and the other is for travelling. Both of them are free. Both of them offer rewards that suit my lifestyle perfectly. Personally, I see no reason to get anymore credit.
While I’m willing to accept that credit cards are a convenient tool for many people, I still think it’s a great idea to limit one’s access to this particular tool. My rules for this tool are simple – pay it off, in full, every single month. If you can’t do that, stick to cash.
Physical currency will buy you the exact same things that credit cards will, and it provides the additional benefit of preventing you from ever going into debt. Cash is still king for a reason.
The next time you’re offered a retail credit card, be brutally honest with yourself. Think about whether you really need it. Will you be tempted to spend on that new credit card? Is the savings of that particular purchase worth the risk of someone hacking your information?