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I Know Why I’m Fat! It’s Because of My Credit Cards!!

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I caught an article on Bankrate.com that suggests that credit cards can make you fat.

I’m fat (although working to change that! 😉 ). I have credit card debt. Is there really a connection?

The article claims that the convenience of credit cards make one spend more money than they would with cash or checks. Now that you can use credit cards in most fast-food restaurants, there’s nothing stopping you from quickly grabbing that burger when hunger strikes.

“In 2002 Visa USA conducted a poll and found that 32 percent of customers admitted that they had limited their drive-through orders because they did not have enough cash to pay for what they wanted. The ability to use credit cards eliminates that obstacle.”

[Via Bankrate.com]

I have mixed feelings about this. I do believe that the convenience factor of credit cards and the available credit make it easy to spend money you don’t have. We are a prime example of that. But I’m not so sure that they make you fat.

It also doesn’t sit well with me that the article is highly based on credit card spending studies per the assumptions below.

  • You use a credit card at fast food restaurants
  • You spend more with credit cards
  • Therefore, you spend more at the fast food restaurants and buy more food
  • Therefore, you get fat from eating more food
  • Therefore, your credit cards make you fat

Only one study discussed is related to weight, and that study only showed that supersizing a meal resulted in a weight gain of 0.07 pounds (comes out to roughly 1 pound gained for every 14 supersized meals). Again, another assumption is made in the article by suggesting that spending more with credit cards results in a supersized meal. When we occasionally have the fast food meal, we actually spend more now because I buy the more expensive (and healthier) salad!

All in all, this article needs more solid facts and less assumptions before I believe it. But then again, they wrote that credit cards can make you fat. There’s a bit of leeway there.

I was overweight long before fast food restaurants started accepting credit cards. I’m fat because I didn’t exercise enough and I ate too much. As much as I’d like to blame my credit cards, I can’t. It was all me.

Your thoughts?

Debt Carnival, Emotional Value, Why Budget if You Fail and Someone Got Married!

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Lots going on around the blog-o-sphere this week. Here are a few articles that caught my eye.

This week, the Carnival of Debt Reduction is over at Picture of Wealth. Check it out for some juicy debt reduction related articles.

Jim took a closer look at how my son priced some of his toys and wrote an entire article about understanding price, instrinsic value and emotional value. Pretty interesting when you look at it that way.

Starving Artist shares why you should at least try to budget, even if you fail.

Lazy Man got married (congrats!) and came clean about the cost of his wedding.

Enjoy!