Impulsive behavior

Credit Card companies tend to target young people because they know that their spending habits are driven by impulse.

Take the ADHD person with an LD and low self esteem (me) and give hime a credit card the results are a closet full of 50 pairs of sneakers and other worthless consumer goods that he could of lived without.

IF you're a counselor please offer some advice on how I can avoid this trap in the future.

Use your debit card instead. I have one. It works as if you wrote a check for the same amount. Also, many banks have a phone system where you call up the machine, key in your account number and passcode/PIN, and you can get the bank balance.

Good luck.

I "lose" my credit card often and well.... it's somewhere in that sock drawer... don't take it into music stores. Period.
A possible dissuader would be to wrap the thing in a bank statement, too. (And tape one to the computer monitor if you've been buying things online - but with the recent credit card security problems that's been falling off a bit!)

Sue J, webmastress www.resourceroom.net

I've learned my lesson and I've learned it well enough at a young age. I was the target of a Credit Card company when I was 18, for the past 6 years I've been buying things that I could live without. I'm almost on my way to financial freedom and I will hopefully learn to budget my money accordingly in the future.

How do you "lose" your credit cards? I thought women were supposed
to have a wallet within a purse? ( Even a simple 3 poket wallet for
credit cards) . I am glad my card is a Debit card. That way I know
the money is paid/deducted from my checking account. Also, I am
not charged insterest. ( Both of these avoids my Math LD issues ) .
Sue --- do you trust everyone who enters your computer area?
It's not a good idea for your to paste your credit-card number to the
monitor. I pull the card out of my wallet, and then replace it shortly after the purchase. ( Same procedures when I use my library card to access the Internet PC's there, at the library ) .

Good luck!

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Quote "Sue":

I "lose" my credit card often and well.... it's somewhere in that sock drawer... don't take it into music stores. Period.
A possible dissuader would be to wrap the thing in a bank statement, too. (And tape one to the computer monitor if you've been buying things online - but with the recent credit card security problems that's been falling off a bit!)

Welp, I manage to stick it in one of the dozen little baskets or old Gatorade powder plastic jugs and then not remember which one it's in, so while it's not truly lost, I don't have it to use.
You're right, the whole statement would be a bad idea -- but perhaps tearing off the part that has the balance... reminding me what I'm going to see when it comes in the mail and thinking just how *great* it would feel to read down it and say "hmm.... I remember resisting impulses there!" when it's just the groceries and gas. (Duly note I'm trying to visualize the positive instead of building fear of the negative... it just works better, usually.)
Carrying anything with too much "identity" information is bad - especially if you lose pieces of paper as easily as I do :-)
Could get even more eccentric about it... and have my very own "bank statement" of all the things I *didn't* buy... and every time I don't buy it, I stick a buck in that gatorade jug, since I *know* that what I was going to buy was more than a buck.
But now... to resist the impulse to surf the boards... gotta get some real work done :-)

Sue J, webmastress www.resourceroom.net