Practice Management

I do not think so.  That is why I refuse to have a credit card.  First, they encourage you to spend in ways that is not health, and to buy extravagances.  Second, we all know the tricks credit card providers play to make money off you that you do not suspect and which only make your situation worse.

For example, CNNMoney reports that card issuers use all sorts of tactics to wrestle money from their customers.  One credit card holder was careful to not go over the limit of his card while he was buying items.  He did not, but later the credit card company added an interest charge and that pushed him over the top and costs him an additional $29.00 in an over-th-limit fee.  He got it removed, but only with a good deal of effort.

Americans hold $850 billion in credit card debt, and the average balance per card-holding household is $8,568, according to the Consumer Federation of America.  Most of these credit card uses are getting slammed by penalties, fees and other billing practices.  And, according to Curtis Arnold, founder of Card Ratings, a consumer advocacy group, "The issuers have gotten a lot more trigger happy over the last few years."

Consumers are not the only ones complaining these days.  Government regulators are starting to take notice of the slight of hand of credit card companies.

The point is that I run into too many attorneys that use credit cards to try and even out the rough spots in cash flow for their practices.  But, inevitably what happens is that they use it too much, and do not pay off the balance, and they eventually get into a bind - or bankruptcy.  The truth of the matter is that it is too convenient to go out to dinner, for example, when you have not brought in enough business for a month and you do not have the money in the bank to pay for it, when you should be home eating beans and cornbread instead.  That new laptop just looks too attractive when you do not have the money to buy it otherwise and you have a computer that will do.  The goal should be cutting back when you have to and taking some leisure when you succeed.   Besides, there is nothing that will get you out of bed in the morning  and get you motivated to work, when you know that there is no fall back position, and you have got to hustle to find clients, settle cases and make money.