Put the card awayEveryday life

unbry

Put the card away

A short book about living on credit and treating the limit as money you have

27 chapters11,593 wordsAbout 53 minFirst edition

What's inside

·Before you startThis is a short book and you can read it in two or three sittings. It's about one habit. You open the banking app and the number you look at is the one in…2 min
1Available, twelve hundred and forty poundsIt's the twentieth of the month and you're in a shop with a coat. It's a good coat and it's two hundred and twenty pounds. You open the app. Available…2 min
2Why the card seems sensibleBefore I argue with the card, I want to be fair to it, because there's nothing foolish in how you've been using it and a great deal of design. It smooths…2 min
3"Available means I've got it"Start with the green number, because it's the belief the whole habit rests on. Ask what the limit is. It's a number the card company chose. They chose it…2 min
4"It doesn't feel like spending"The coat was two hundred and twenty pounds and it didn't feel like two hundred and twenty pounds. It felt like a tap. That's not carelessness. It's what…2 min
5"I always pay the minimum, so I'm fine"This is the belief that lets a responsible person carry four thousand pounds for a decade. You've never missed a payment. The minimum goes out on time…2 min
6"The interest is only a bit a month"The interest line on the statement is small. Fifty-something pounds. Sixty. It's the price of the convenience and it's less than a night out. StepChange…2 min
7"I'll clear it when the bonus comes"The balance has an end date in your head. The bonus. The tax refund. The month with five weekends in it. When the lump arrives, the card gets cleared, and…2 min
8"It's for emergencies"The card is insurance. The boiler, the car, the vet. You keep it for the day something breaks, and the balance is just the ordinary use of a thing that's…2 min
9"The points make it worth it"Some cards give something back. Points, air miles, a percentage in cash. Using the card for everything earns it, and not using it leaves it on the table.…2 min
10"Everyone's got a balance"Look round. Your friends, your colleagues, your sister. Everyone's carrying something. A card with a balance is what an adult's wallet looks like, and a…2 min
11"I pay a bit on each card"If you've got two cards, or three, you'll have a way of paying them. A bit on each. The bigger balance gets a bit more. It feels fair, and it keeps…2 min
12"A second card would spread the cost"The second card arrived in the post, pre-approved, and it seemed like a solution. More room. A zero-per-cent offer for the first year. Move some of the…2 min
13"I'd never manage without it"Here's the fear that keeps the card in the wallet. The month doesn't work without it. The last week is the card's week. Take it away and the last week has…2 min
14"I know exactly what I owe"You'd say you're on top of it. You know roughly what's on each card. You know the minimums go out. You're not one of those people who doesn't open the…2 min
15"It's not debt, it's a card"There's a word that's been kept out of this so far, and you've been keeping it out too. Debt. Debt is what other people have. Loans, arrears, the letters…2 min
16"I've got it under control"You'd say you're in control. Payments on time. Limits respected. Nothing spiralling. Whatever this book is about, it's about people who've lost control…2 min
17What living on the limit costs youI've argued the mechanism. This chapter is the bill, and the first line is the one you've been paying without adding up. The interest. Add the interest…2 min
18What it does to the monthThe card doesn't only cost money. It gives the month a shape, and the shape is worth seeing because it's the thing the method changes. Here's the month…2 min
19Put the card awayThe next three chapters are the method. This one is the title, and it comes first because nothing else works while the card is in your wallet. Physically.…2 min
20Pay it in the right orderThe cards are away. Now the balance comes down, and it comes down faster with an order than without one. Dearest first. From the sheet, find the card with…2 min
21Live on the accountThe cards are away and the balance is falling. This chapter is about the money you spend, which is now the money in your current account, and about making…2 min
22The decisionYou've got the argument and the method. What's left is to decide, and I'd like the decision to fit in one sentence. The card lives in a cupboard, not on…2 min
23Joint cards, buy now pay later, overdrafts, the partner who spends, and when to get helpThe rule holds for every kind of credit that behaves like a gap. A few need their own paragraph. Joint cards. A card two people spend on is a gap two…2 min
24When you've used it againIt'll happen. The card will come out of the cupboard for a thing you told yourself was an emergency and wasn't quite, or the saved card on a website you'd…2 min
25Available, nothing, owed, nothingIt's the twentieth of the month, some way on, and you're in a shop with a coat. It's a good coat and it's two hundred and twenty pounds. You open the app…2 min
·NotesThis book gives general information about an everyday habit. It isn't financial advice, and it's no substitute for a debt adviser who knows your…3 min