Would you believe that I got my own credit card only recently? And no, it didn’t take me to apply for one. Magic, eh? Of course it is not. The bank where I have a savings account automatically issued me one so there.

I’m not really very enthusiastic when I received it. I’m afraid I would be another Becky Bloomwood of the famous Shopaholic series who owes her VISA a lot and she denies the fact by hiding all her bills under her bed. But I knew I didn’t want to return the card either. I know there will be a time when it will be very handy. So what I did was get advice from hubby (who has been using one for years and was never in debt) and read the fine prints very very carefully.

In the fine print, I learned that I can make a cash advance. The approval is as quick as overnight. You know, there are times and places when a plastic card just won’t do the trick, cold cash are needed. While I’m not really sure why would I need it, I’m sure extra cash will always come in handy. I can use it for some unstoppable shopping urge or even to address complicated matters such as emergencies. May the latter not occur in my lifetime, but we can’t really predict things, can we?

Now, it has been months since I started using my plastic card and I’m proud to say that I’m not in debt. I managed to control every spending and so far, I don’t need any cash advance YET. It just occurred to me though the holidays are a great time to take advantage of a cash advance. We’ll see in December. In the meantime, I’ll keep on monitoring the usage of my plastic card.