This tip works more on a psychological level to limit excess spending more than anything else. Either way, limiting your credit card spending is a great start to building stronger money management skills. If you’ve been shopping around online, you’ve more than likely noticed the trend of websites asking for your email and card information to store in their databases. They keep the card information for your convenience so you don’t have to keep entering time and they use your email information to send you the latest and greatest deals.
What they’re actually doing is making it easier for you to buy exclusively from their inventory. If you think about, once you receive a personalized email from Amazon for that new laptop and it’s 30% off, you might not think twice about logging into your account and immediately buying the item.
You don’t even have to enter your credit card information, isn’t that nice?
A good way to stop this form of advertising is by deleting your credit card information from these sites that don’t really have your best interest at heart. This will force you to enter your credit card number, giving you more time to think about your purchase.
You should also take yourself off of the email list for these sites as well. Consider this the fun side-kick of storing your credit card information. When these sites send you deals or reminders to buy their products it adds an extra level of psychological marketing that compels you to shop till you drop (or shop till you’re in a heavy amount of debt).
This strategy simply makes it harder for you to make these purchases and gives you the chance to think it through.
Many of these sites also charge for their services on a monthly or yearly basis. Amazon, for example, will charge you yearly for their “Prime” account. By deleting credit card information and your account, you can also save money by getting rid of the associated fees.
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