sandy453 said:
credit cards =debt trap.stay away from them.
My credit card balance is always full.
trying desperately to kick this habit .need help.
Well, Having a credit card is not a bad thing. Its a very useful little thing to have. Whats bad is getting into the habit (addiction) of swiping it every where you go. Having the convenience of credit card doesn't mean that you go around using it everywhere. Remember you are the master of the credit card and not vice versa.
As for your current situation, you have to get out of the habit yourself with some self control, no one else can help you in that matter.
As for me, I pay most of my bills online through credit card. Also booking flight tickets etc is easier with a credit card. But I make it a point to clear the CC bill the in the same cycle its billed.
Another question is how many credit cards should one keep. These days most of the banks offer life time free credit cards to people in the corporate sectors. As soon as most of our Indians hear the word free, they begin to pile up as many as they can get. In some cases, the marketing guy's pester so much that you give in. Normally these marketing people have an answer to every excuse you give for not applying for their card. In my case, when a marketing guy comes over to offer me a CC, I just show him my wallet and tell him that adding one more CC would make the wallet to fat to keep in the pocket. :rofl: The guy is normally is too dumbstruck by the excuse or laughing so much that he will not pester me again.
In my opinion, having lots of credit cards is one of the ways of loosing control. when you have so many cards lying around, you tend to use them. In my opinion, two cards to cover two billing cycles are more than enough. Also don't go in for very high max limits. Having a reasonable credit limit is a good way of keeping you in control.
I myself have two credit cards (HSBC and SBI) covering two different billing cycles and a max credit limit of 1.2L. Its more than enough for me.