Credit is shaping modern lifestyle in more ways than we realize. No matter where you go and what you see, advertisements proudly proclaim as a fact how rosy your life would become after you credit have taken credit from them. It seems all of humanity is consumed in the pursuit of materialistic objectives and hence an individual has to take credit to stay clear ahead of his or her peers. Credit has become so popular that personal credit in most nations is far ahead of personal wealth.
The instruments of credit are many and varied, such ascredit cards, personal loans, interest free terms, mortgages, IOU vouchers from the next-door grocery store oreven borrowing from friends to tide over an immediatenecessity and pay later.
Once you jump the credit bandwagon, your woes will never end. Statistics collected by innumerable surveys reveal that credit related suicides are on the rise and many families are breaking up from financial stress. Even people leading decent lives are pushed below the poverty line when they cannot return the amount to the creditors. But the lure of credit does not seem to wane. The word "defer"
coming in the definition of credit does seem ironic when one considers the fact that the benefits we enjoy while deferring their payment come to haunt us in the near future. This deferment leads to high bills, extra work to pay off the credit and lack of joy in life as a result thereof.
Meanwhile credit agencies place the debts in the hands of collectors who hound you for payment, who promise that you will never be granted credit again, who make your life a living hell and encourage thoughts of running for the hills. Most dont run but they probably resort to never answering the phone again either. Is that living? No, probably not but it is all done in the name of credit.
Surely, credit agencies should have societal responsibilities to ensure that those that apply for credit actually do have the means to support the credit. An application for credit could be full of bogus information and would still get approved. How many times do we have to write down a reference for our employer but later find that our employer has never been contacted?
Society really has a lot to answer for! Why was it ok to live within our means and to do without luxuries in years gone by, but now in the 21st century it appears to be totally unacceptable to live without having some form of luxury item on credit? What ever happened to budgeting and saving?
In the ultimate analysis it depends on you and your willpower to decide whether you want to live with the tensionof unpaid bills or compete with your neighbour to show himdown. In this time of over-choice you have to make yourchoices prudently.
Gutschrift Halteseil is the owner and webmaster of Ya Credit, Inc., a leading Internet directory for credit information. For more credit information and resources, please stop by:
http://www.yacredit.com
