Latina CEO Recommends Using Only One Credit Card or None at All

If you have read Sophie Kinsella's Confessions of a Shopaholic or watched its film adaptation and you find yourself relating to Becky's character who is a shopping addict and has fallen into a debt crisis as a result, then you might agree that owning credit cards can be a burden.

Studies show that the average American has roughly four credit cards. To stay financially fit, Latina Chief Executive Officer Sandra Campos of the fashion brand Diane von Furstenberg recommends reducing the number of credit cards, according to an article by NBC News.

Credit card balances carried from one month to the next hit $443.96 billion in September 2019, according to NerdWallet's annual analysis of U.S. household debt. Moreover, credit card debt has increased almost six percent in the past year and more than 34 percent in the past five years.

Meanwhile, the 2016 Bankrate survey found that 29 percent of Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings. Higher compared with the rate in 2015, when about 22 percent said they had more credit card debt.

According to Campos, the first step is to realize how much one is spending and how much money is being taken home. Although budgeting will help, it is worthy to note that there are several open lines of credit which may make people think they can spend more than what they earn. Even the incentive programs that card companies offer including the credit card points and cashback, can also lead to the credit card user overspending.

Campos added that she is always reminded by her mother to reduce the amount of credit cards she has and really focus on using cash.

Cash and debit cards are good ways to spend if one doesn't have huge credit or has no problem in managing finances. According to a study, using cash instead of credit card in paying not only leads to better choices, it also increases the emotional attachment to that purchase.

The Federal Reserve reports that there is a significant growth in debit card payments between 2012 and 2015. During this period, the value of payments using both prepaid and non-prepaid debit cards increased from $2.1 trillion to $2.56 trillion. In the same period, the number of debit payments grew from $56.5 billion to $69.5 billion.

The same report claims that the volume of debit card transactions grew at an annual rate of 7.1 percent, while their value grew by 6.8 percent each year from 2012 to 2015. Furthermore, the Federal Reserve noted that most of the growth came from non-prepaid debit card transactions.

"I have one credit card, and I limit myself to that credit card and then everything else I do is cash [because] debit cards can be very scary. You add more and more of them and it just creates more debts so my recommendation is not to have many," said Campos although she admits there are times when it may make more sense to use a credit card when purchasing online, when traveling and for the sake of record-keeping.