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Cash or Charge?

Cash or Charge?

Date: Dec 02 2004

Intro

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2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Do you have any credit cards? If you do, you might understand how hard it is to say ‘no’ to things when you go shopping and don’t have the cash to buy them.
It’s especially hard at Christmas time because we want to buy nice things for our friends and family.
Here’s what John and Steph have to say about credit cards.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Steph

John

John

Steph:  So with Christmas around, ya know, it’s getting pretty tough with the credit cards.

John:  I know. I finally got my credit card bill all paid off. And now I’m just gonna charge it up to the max again.

Steph:  Isn’t that crazy? We do that every year. We max out our credit cards.

John:  I know. I, I’m kinda thinking about just going straight cash this year.

Steph:  You should probably do that. Just maybe set a limit on how much you spend.

John:  That’s a good idea. And then I don’t have to pay all the interest or the finance charges on the credit card. But, it’s so much easier just to pay with the plastic. And then pay a hundred dollars a month for the next year.

Steph:  I know. Especially now that they have these zero interest credit cards.

John:  They trick you and then they end up being really high later. But, I dunno. If you have the cash, it’s definitely smarter to use that.

Steph:  Yeah. But then if you use cash and you buy a cheap gift, all of your friends and family think that you’re a cheapskate.

John:  Yeah. Well, it’s best if you have the cash to buy normal gifts, I guess. But, it all depends on your situation, ya know, how much money you make.

 

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Discussion

You definitely have to exercise some self-control when it comes to credit cards. If you don’t, you will be paying for it for a long time. I try to only use my card in emergencies.
In case you were wondering, new shoes can be an emergency if they are really cool.
With that in mind, be good and take care of yourselves!
Steph

 

Comments

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kimnga

kimnga

Viet Nam

I agree with John that it’ll depend on our situation when we buy gifts for somebody. It is not a good idea if  because of being afraid to be called a cheapskate that we have to buy a very expensive present while in reality we cannot afford to do that.

06:45 AM Sep 24 2014 |

ali al-shahri

Oman

ddddd

06:33 AM Jan 03 2011 |

_enigma_

_enigma_

Germany

I prefer pay cash but i do not like to carry a bunch of bulky cash with me.Undecided Besides(plus) paying money back, it is funny shopping with plastic(credit card).

Thanks for lesson.

09:40 AM Dec 11 2009 |

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