For me credit cards have always been just a means to an end. I need money, out comes the plastic with which to supply it me with! So you can imagine my surprise when my friend pulled out a beautiful looking credit card. I have a low APR credit card from MBNA, bought solely as it was the best deal online at the time (and still is!) her credit card was however charging an extortionate interest rate and had a very low credit limit. When asked why she had one? “It looks good”!

I started doing some research online to see if there was other ‘mad people’ out there that cared more about what they looked like than what they were paying for a credit card – I mean clothes I can understand, I am a woman after all, but for a piece of plastic you only pull out at the counter? Seemed a little crazy to me, but I did find out my own friend has 17 different credit cards. When I asked why she felt the need to have so many? “I got bored with the design” and so she applied for new cards with new designs!
As I looked around I realised the incredible number of people who choose their credit card for the fashion statement it gives off and not the financial advantages it comes with. However the more I researched about it, the more I realised how vain people are. You know you can get credit cards with your own photo as the design on it?
I have a charity card; the skin on this one is representing the charity. It makes me proud to pull that out my wallet and use, and don’t worry this one is also a low APR credit card.
My friend’s argument for having a ‘fashionable’ credit card was actually not that bad. “If I pay off my balance in full at the end of every month, the the APR is of no bother to me. Why then should I not go for a good looking credit card?”
Because my friend…. there will come a time when you will forget or simply overspend! What then? That sting will be worse than not looking good!