Credit

I have had a credit card since I was 18. I first used it in 1983 to purchase a rather fabulous black flamenco skirt in Miss Selfridge in Liverpool.It cost 20 quid. I was in my first year at university and said skirt saw me through a multitude of interesting experiences and along with my Cafe Society black baseball jacket became one of my most loved items of clothing. After my initial hesitation at going down the credit route I became a very proficient card user and remained so for many years. My Malaysian experience has lessened by enthusiasm for all things retail but I enjoyed the security that having a card gave me. Options.I can use it if I choose to and feel very virtuous when I don't. I can book a flight and go home at a moments notice. I could run off to Argentina if I wanted to. I could buy a Moto Guzzi Breva V 750 I.E. if I felt like it( + the card was empty and they increased my credit limit) Options. Until Tuesday when I had to sacrifice it in the name of motherly devotion. My son is off to Brazil on a football scholarship in a month, Costa Rica and Nicaragua in February, probably the US in the summer and University next September. For his sense of security and ours he needs a credit card, just in case ... A complication of expat life is that for now, at least, he can't get his own and as we can only have 2 cards from the account and the account is in my husband's name mine has to go.When push comes to shove there is nothing that I won't give up for the boys, but I have to admit to feeling more than a little put out. I have accepted that as it was my decision to give up my job + the work permit that came with it, I cannot complain about being here on a dependent visa - though I frequently do, but the loss of aforementioned card seemed a step to far in the independence department. I told my mother, who by being understanding made me feel better and decided to get over it.
I shall be liberated from the tyrannies of credit thus also removing guilt from my lexicon.