Paul Little: Tide turns for not-so-fantastic plastic

Consumers say they don't intend to apply for new credit cards and don't plan to request an increase in their credit limits. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Credit cards are so much a part of life that it's easy to lose sight of what peculiar things they are. Surely the people who came up with the idea never expected to find a market gullible enough to accept them so wholeheartedly?

"Let's give people a card they can carry around that means they can get an instant little bank loan whenever they want one.

"And let's charge them higher interest than normal for the privilege of making it easier to get in debt.

"That'll work."

It's worth remembering that credit cards came into our lives at a time, about 1980, when debt was a bogey and credit was an elusive goal. To get a mortgage, you had to have a third of the purchase price as a deposit, prove you had a steady income and have a two-year record of regular saving.

I don't have any of those things.

Then came a tsunami of easy - though not cheap - consumer credit, and it's hard to believe this has not been behind many of the small-scale financial messes in which masses of people have found themselves.

But tides turn. Credit specialist Dun & Bradstreet this week revealed, if not the death of the credit card, at least a pause for a cuppa. Consumers report they plan to use savings more, don't intend to apply for new cards and don't plan to request an increase in their credit limits. We appear to be at the start of an outbreak of common sense.

This runs counter to the instant-gratification philosophy that drives credit card use. As the first TV ad for a card said, having one "means you've got it, when you want it".

On the other hand, as that great sage Marilyn Monroe once sang so wisely: "After you get what you want, you don't want it."

All those high-definition TVs that were bought to enhance your Rugby World Cup experience will now have little more to do than take you deep inside every pore in Mike McRoberts' face and let you see just how much make-up Corin Dann is wearing.

It's ironic that so many people buy because of interest-free and deferred-payment offers - using their credit cards. These attractive deals are thoroughly thought-through, any discount made up for by a higher ticket price to start with and the onslaught of add-ons people get talked into buying.

The stores have never gambled. Now consumers are realising they don't need to either.

Christchurch quake prediction

Not so long ago, it was standard practice not to tell people with cancer that they had the disease. It was reasoned that they would worry unnecessarily and fret and be a bother. People died not just in pain but in ignorance, with no opportunity to make any decisions about their own futures, however brief.

We have since seen the error of that way. Patients are now kept well-informed about their outlook. The people of Christchurch deserved no less respect.

Scrabble championships

If it has done nothing else, the RWC has shone a brighter light on its polar sporting opposite, Scrabble, than the board game would otherwise have received.

On Monday, Nigel Richards, formerly of Christchurch, became the first person to win the world Scrabble championship twice. I knew this because within 24 hours I was told so by a colleague who's reasonably up with the play in Scrabble circles, heard a news item about it on television and came across it in a piece of writing I was editing.

All three reports concluded with a version of: "You can bet that won't get much attention with the Rugby World Cup on."

Don't blame God for profit failings

Restaurant Brands, the people behind KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks, are blaming the Christchurch earthquake for half their just-announced 44 per cent drop in profit. Maybe. But that still means a hefty 22 per cent drop in profit is due to other causes.

I'd venture these could be that KFC looks and tastes like it should come with a health warning, in my opinion, Pizza Hut pizzas are less appetising than the boxes they come in and Starbucks coffee is undrinkable.

Perhaps they could work on those issues, rather than blaming poor old God.