Self-Control is Better than Government Control

-Time to Rethink Our Credit Card Strategy-

Personal Statement by Eleanor Blayney, Consumer Advocate for the Certified
Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board):

WASHINGTON, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The decision-makers in the 91 million
households in America with at least one credit card holder are facing harder
and harder choices. Just when out-of-work, out-of-home consumers are
struggling to make their card payments, many credit card issuers are raising
interest rates, charging higher fees, or lowering credit lines. Capitol Hill
is now trying to change all that. Congress is considering legislation
intended to help financially-strapped consumers by restricting the lending
practices of a $1 trillion industry.

This approach is hotly contested. Many consumers and analysts fear that
government protection of the credit-needy will come at the expense of the
credit-worthy: Those who pose the least credit risk may end up with higher
lending costs, in a paradoxical inversion of the basic economics of
risk-management.

Whatever Congress does, the sustainable, long-term solution lies not with
policy but with behaviour. Americans need to rethink the way we use credit
cards, because we have bad habits when it comes to plastic. It's time for
self-control in addition to - or instead of - government control.

Here are a few common American credit card practices that we need to change:

-- Thinking of credit cards as a way to get what we want, as opposed to
a
way to complete a transaction. Credit cards are for convenience, NOT
affordability. Having a credit card may enable us to get things we
could not otherwise, but it does not make these things more
affordable.
-- Thinking of credit cards as revolving loans with no due dates. When
you
borrow money, you have to pay it back by a certain date. Credit card
companies have encouraged us to pretend there is no due date, by
allowing minimum payments that for all practical purposes extend the
pay-back period to an impossibly distant (and financially ruinous)
time
horizon. When you borrow from your credit card company, you should be
thinking of the duration of that loan as less than 30 days.

-- Thinking of credit cards as substitute for money. We allow our
children
to use our credit cards as a means of giving them money for their
wants
and needs. But credit cards do not, and cannot, teach our children
the
same financial lessons that cash, a checking account, or a debit card
can. Credit cards do not prevent overspending in the way that getting
an "insufficient funds" notice or running out of cash does.

Exerting financial self-control takes effort, planning and a goal. And
learning self-control does not mean you have to go it alone. There are
qualified professionals who can help you rethink how your credit card can
serve you, instead of the other way around, and become a useful tool to help
you build a secure financial future. Talk to a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL
PLANNER(TM) professional about ways to be smart about credit. Unlike the
credit card companies, these advisors have plenty to lend in times like these,
in the form of qualified, competent advice to help you reach your financial
goals.

About Eleanor Blayney, CFP(R):Eleanor K. H. Blayney, CFP(R) is a pioneer in
the field of professional financial management. Her professional financial
advice on topics ranging from how to design large-scale investment strategies
for high net worth individuals to helping families develop and abide by their
budgets and meet their financial goals. Eleanor is President of Directions
LLC, a firm that assists women with money issues, and helps them to build
their confidence as competent financial consumers and decision makers.She has
been a professional financial planner for more than 20 years.

About CFP Board: The mission of Certified Financial Planner Board of
Standards, Inc. is to benefit the public by granting the CFP(R) certification
and upholding it as the recognized standard of excellence for personal
financial planning. CFP Board currently has more than 58,000 CFP(R)
certificants in the United States. For more about CFP Board, visit
www.CFP.net.

SOURCE Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.

Stacy Dimakakos, Media Relations, Grayling, +1-646-284-9417,
sdimakakos@hfgcg.com