Financial Products that Can Be Injurious To Your Pockets!
Financial products have made our lives extremely laid back and easy. Nowadays we also have digital currency, which is popularly known as crypto currency. However, there was a time when making a simple payment through cheques used to take hours to complete. There were limited modes of payment and there were also fewer instruments that could be used for making it.
Quick transactions were limited to set geographical areas that were more developed than the others. Payments to be made overseas often took days to get fulfilled. Fortunately, things started going uphill and the pace of all financial processes started increasing. Today, you can make payments worth millions in a second, be it anywhere in the world. The use of cash has become minimal and majority of the financial transactions have become digital.
Also, there are several financial facilities that are offered to people, as the time passed and economies started getting more developed. Banks started offering debit and credit cards. Overdraft facilities started as a trend soon. There were flexible loans for almost every need that a customer had. The advent of online payment revolutionised the financial market. It allowed the users to make payments from their respective gadgets, irrespective of where they physically are.
The use of e-wallets started a new trend of making payments in the economy. Hence, all these financial products have been immensely helpful for the customers, as they have provided them with peace of mind and an ease of operation.
However, there are always two sides to a coin. Without any doubt, the financial products have helped everyone to a great extent, but they have also created loads of confusion and malpractices. Every other day, there are reports of some or the other financial fraud or scam and looting of innocent people’s hard earned money.
The financial institutions have started getting greedier and they need more and more money out of their ignorant customers. Often, customers purchase financial products without having complete knowledge about them. This is exactly what the institutions take advantage of. There are many such products, which may seem very convenient and helpful but are not so beneficial for you in the end. Thus, you should be alert about these products and make every purchase and transaction wisely.
There are many such financial products, which may not be so beneficial for you. We have taken the example of credit cards, as they were partially responsible for the global recession the entire world faced in 2008.
Credit Cards
Credit cards have always expanded the limits to which a person can spend. They have given us the power to not worry about our existing bank balance, and spend money with a lot more ease. When credit cards were new in the market, they came along with a maintenance fee. This was an additional charge that the customer had to bear along with the bill payments. However, as the years passed, companies started to eliminate this fee. If you are still sold cards with maintenance fees, never opt for them. Almost every card company has gotten rid of these charges, and you should therefore opt for another company while purchasing credit cards.
In this way credit cards increase our capacity to spend even when we do not have the resources to pay them back. If you need a lump sum amount of cash and you want to avoid the hefty interest rates of credit cards then there is always the option of availing alternative finance.