Moving away from your Credit Card & Overdraft

I am often asked on forums and podcasts exactly what things help me now to manage my finances and avoid going into debt again apart from not gambling.

First of all, I no longer have a credit card or an overdraft, all I have are two debit cards which work on the condition that if there is no money there I cannot spend it. Having an overdraft made my gambling addiction worse, in fact it is worse than having a credit card if you are an addict because you end up in a spiral of horrible debt where your wages vanish as soon as they go in, you then rely on the overdraft to pay your bills and with not much left you take out loans. I am sure people on here know the damage that a badly used overdraft can do.

I found that as soon as I told my bank that I wanted to cancel my overdraft they wanted to raise it? not just that but the bank would try and delay me reducing the amount, it took me two months to reduce the overdraft and then pay it off.

As gamblers or ex gamblers most of us lack the will power or common sense to manage a credit card. Most people say that have one for a rainy day, however for a gambler the credit card is like dynamite, it is the first thing that is used and maxed out, again we go into debt along with the interest. I am ashamed to say that my first credit card defaulted, it took me over 15 years to pay it off due to the interest and my continued gambling.

If you are genuine and determined to stop gambling and to stay stopped the overdraft and credit card should go, keeping them makes no sense, quitting gambling is a full time job, it requires focus, reflection as well as learning to respect and value money again.

Debt and lots of debt can be attacked and successfully eliminated if you have no other avenue that are ging you credit. I hear all this its good to have credit etc and that it builds a positive credit history, well that is fine if you are not an addicted gambler, it just means nothing if you are throwing your money away, I have no credit at all now, but it has to be this way. 

Recovering from gambling is a full time job, we owe it to ourselves to take it seriously.