:dancing-banana:
It sounds to me as if you are financially responsible.  Using a credit card to SAVE money is very different than using one to spend money when you don't have a chance of paying it back.  As for a home purchase, if you have to pay rent AND save up enough cash, let's face it, you will never own a home!  Yes, our world is filled with usury, but the sin is on the part of the usurer, not on the part of the victim!

Money = debt. That's the current monetary system. If you study how "legal tender" - the dollars we spend - come into existence, it will truly make you sick.

Be that as it may, the system expects everyone to borrow and was designed as such. So it's a "give unto Caesar" kind of thing if you think about it.

I don't think it's sinful if done out of necessity.  To borrow irresponsibly though could be sinful but you're not in danger of that from what you say.

Personally I really dislike the idea of taking out a loan on anything, because with loans come interest. I liken interest to flushing dollar bills down the toilet. Interest rates are outrageous and I feel indignant about paying such ridiculous sums to users.

Buying a family home these days, it would be very hard to avoid. But for things like vehicles, I think loans are avoidable if one is willing to drive a car that is no frills, and only serves to get from point A to B. I've known for a couple years now my car is going to bite the dust at any time, and during that time I've saved up a couple thousand to buy a car that will do. I'll pay straight up, no strings attached and be done with it. I know I'd never be able to do that with a house or land though unless I married wealthy, and I'm not banking on that at all!!

Congrats on your new little one!!

I'm not sure I entirely agree with the posts so far.  My last car is old, but for what I initially paid for the car, my car expenses have been less than what someone who leased would usually pay and of course, at the end of "the term," I still owned the car outright!  On the other hand, I learned to do my own repair work and I shopped online daily for months for the car, until I got a very good price.  

Of course, I still needed a car in those days.  However, a family member sold me their well maintained old car for what the dealership would have given them for the trade in, which amounted to less than two thousand dollars.  And that was good enough, with the help of an honest and sympathetic mechanic, to save for my "new" car, which was about four years old.  Been driving that into the ground, but saving all the while for another car.  So, the next one may actually be brand new!  (only because with high gas prices and my ability to purchase without borrowing, which by the way will save me around 1500 right off the top - because of the factory incentives -, plus the bank fees and interest, my expenses will be a little bit lower than they would be with an older car, but that is almost entirely because of gas prices, not maintenance).  

It isn't easy to do all these things and it certainly isn't required to be a "good person," but I think these are skills that will help you survive and thrive into the future, which looks to me as if it will be even more demanding, than the present.  


So, if you lack the discipline, foresight and resources to do what I did, then I would suggest you work on developing those traits, rather than running down to the money lenders for your "easy" money.  

That's great if you pay your credit card off at the end of every month and you get a nice fat rewards check back!  On the other hand, credit cards seemed designed to take advantage of people's weaknesses.  In that regard, they seem to me like hanging around a donut shop;  sooner or later, you're going to get a donut :ready-to-eat:

Part of it too is that we are so materialistic nowadays, it's just hard to not want to buy "everything!"  I think we're sort of taught/encouraged to worship things, like a car or a watch or something stupid like that.  

I don't think it's sinful if done out of necessity.  To borrow irresponsibly though could be sinful but you're not in danger of that from what you say.

Personally I really dislike the idea of taking out a loan on anything, because with loans come interest. I liken interest to flushing dollar bills down the toilet. Interest rates are outrageous and I feel indignant about paying such ridiculous sums to users.

Buying a family home these days, it would be very hard to avoid. But for things like vehicles, I think loans are avoidable if one is willing to drive a car that is no frills, and only serves to get from point A to B. I've known for a couple years now my car is going to bite the dust at any time, and during that time I've saved up a couple thousand to buy a car that will do. I'll pay straight up, no strings attached and be done with it. I know I'd never be able to do that with a house or land though unless I married wealthy, and I'm not banking on that at all!!

Congrats on your new little one!!

First off, thanks for the congratulations.  She's not "new" anymore, almost 7 months old!

I really have no problem with people who object to debt simply because they have a personal aversion to borrowing money.  That's a person choice, and morality doesn't come into play, so it's fine.  My questions arise when people insist that no Catholic incur debt under pain of sin.

I do have to question your first sentence though.  You say it's not sinful if done out of necessity, but is sinful if it is irresponsible borrowing.  What about debt that isn't incurred out of necessity, but it isn't irresponsible either?  For instance, if a couple wanted to add an addition on their home.  They don't need it, but it would be nice.  They don't have the cash to pay for it all at once, but they can afford monthly payment for the next few years.  For me, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this, but I'll gladly recant if the Church has condemned this type of borrowing.

I'm really looking for Church teaching on this.