October 15, 2007

Should A Christian Have A Credit Card?

This is a guest post from Linda Bustos and I think it ties in a bit with what I have been talking about recently with status symbols…

Credit cards may be a more recent phenomenon, but the concept of borrowing from others goes back a long time. The Bible mentions borrowing and lending many times, but credit cards are never explicitly covered because, well, they didn’t exist. We know the Bible teaches it’s wise to avoiddebt whenever possible, but it doesn’t call borrowing money a sin. Certainly for the poor (whom God loves) there were times when they had to borrow from others, and there may be situations when we do need to whip out the plastic and borrow from the bank.

But it’s so easy to misuse credit cards and fall into a debt trap. Because that piece of plastic looks the same whether it has $50 or $15,000 owing – we can forget how much we’ve spent in a given month, or we could just flat out go crazy on a spending binge figuring it can just be paid off later. Really the issue is not how we’re using the credit card but WHY. Is it for necessity or luxury?

If you feel you have a spending problem, there are practical things you can do to ensure you don’t go over a certain limit, including asking the credit card company to reduce your limit, using a pre-paid credit card or handing over your credit card to your spouse for safe keeping. When these measures are not enough, you’ve heard Jesus’ words: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” Basically, if you can’t control your hand, make it impossible to use your hand! And it implies that you’ll lose something of great value to protect yourself from a much worse situation.

If owning a credit card makes it too easy for you to spend what you don’t have on useless things that you don’t need, cut it up. You have to “count the cost” of doing the right thing, but in this case, you should count the savings. Of course, merely getting rid of your credit card doesn’t solve the problem if the excessive desire for things remains. God’s called us to be free from sin, so if you find that you have an inordinate craving for the material – you need to get to the root of why that is. It may be that the world has seduced you with its glamour, or you are buying things to numb
you from emotional pain, or you just have a lack of self control. No matter what the driving force, the answer is we need to trust Christ in us to fill us with Himself so we don’t walk after the desires of the flesh. Get your eyes on God’s Word, meditate upon it and pray it through. Accountability partners also help. But in our affluent and hedonistic society, we need to be constantly washed by the Word to have our minds
renewed so we’re not vulnerable to the world’s temptations.

Linda Bustos is an editor with Creditor Web, where you can learn about credit cards, and find out how long it takes to get out of credit card debt with the credit card payoff calculator.

A Credit card is good in case of emergencies but it requires discipline and responsibility. It is always wise to compare Credit Offers to make sure you find one with reasonable Interest rates, no annual fees and preferably a low Balance Transfer fee.