PUBLIC relations practitioner Wee Hwee Leng, 28, never imagined that an innocent-looking piece of plastic would be the start of her financial woes.
Five years ago, she pampered herself by signing up for her first credit card and promptly chalked up $2,000 in debt in the first month from shopping and entertainment.
She paid half of the bill and rolled over the balance. The pampering went on for two years and Ms Wee kept rolling over the outstanding debt, paying interest of 24 per cent a year on it.
'I never had to budget in my life. When I got my first credit card, the instant gratification that I derived from spending was so addictive. I used to ask myself, why shouldn't I pamper myself?
'I was impulsive when it came to shopping... When I saw something that I wanted, I just had to have it,' she recalls.
She was earning about $2,000 a month and half of that went towards paying her credit card bills, so she was not able to save a single cent.
This went on for two years and her credit card bill stubbornly stayed at more than $3,000 every month.
Fortunately, a friend pointed out the high interest rate she was paying on her outstanding card bill and suggested that she take a personal loan at a lower interest rate, to help her pay off the card bill completely.
'The logic was compelling enough for me to take up the loan to pay off the card debt and then pay off the personal loan,' says Ms Wee.
Now, she pays off her card bill promptly every month. In fact, if she spends more than $100 on her credit card, she goes to the AXS machine to pay off that transaction using her savings account even before the monthly bill arrives.
She also keeps track of her expenditure through her receipts and tries to use credit cards only for emergencies or online purchases.
As for rolling over card balances - that is a thing of the past for her.
'Never use the credit card as an additional source of income. Use it for emergency purposes and try to pay off the bill quickly,' she advises.
