David Morey 
Swiping your credit card stimulates your brain’s reward system, which can get you hooked on spending more money more often.
This discovery comes from MIT, where researchers put participants in MRI machines to see what happens when people shop. Their study reveals people are more willing to buy more expensive items with credit. And, more tellingly, the area of the brain that releases dopamine lights up when they do.
This area is called the striatum, and it plays a starring role in the reward network of the brain. It’s involved with how you experience pleasure, and it shapes reinforcement learning and addictive habits.
Why Does This Happen?
According to MIT researchers, credit card purchases trigger the brain’s reward network for two reasons:
- You’ve come to associate your card with buying things that give you pleasure.
- Credit purchases put costs out of mind, as you won’t feel the immediate loss of spending money — this realization arrives later with your billing statement.
Spending More Leads to Tricky Financial Situations
You have to be critical any time addiction may come into play. But even people who aren’t shopping addicts should be wary of overusing their cards.
An extra latte here and a new pair of shoes there may not cost much on their own, but their combined costs can max out your credit.
Until you get your debt under control, your credit cards may not provide their usual safety net in emergencies. Unfortunately, emergencies can crash land in your life before you’re prepared. Next thing you know, you have to repair your car, or you won’t be able to get to work.
While borrowing money may seem counterintuitive at this moment, it can help you repair your car so that you can earn a paycheck.
Dealing with this cash shortage right away may be the right course of action for your situation. Jump online and research a website like MoneyKey to learn about online loans. Online loans include convenient installment loans or lines of credit that provide backup to your usual safety nets in emergencies. If approved, you can use your funds to pay for your car repair upfront and pay it back in small chunks over time.
Spending Less, Even with Credit
How do you wage war with the part of the brain that makes you feel good? Well, it’s not going to be easy, but it’s possible.
Track Your Spending
With credit transactions occurring online, it’s easy to lose track of how often you tap your cards. To get a clearer picture of your spending, start writing down your expenses. You can do this in an app, an Excel sheet, or a humble piece of paper.
Make Online Shopping Harder
Another big reason why credit makes you spend more is because it’s easy. If you save your payment details with your favorite retailers, you don’t even have to type in your card number to complete the sale. Needing only a few clicks to seal the deal, you can buy stuff half-asleep.
Interrupting the flow can be all you need to shake you out of your spending trance:
- Delete saved login credentials.
- Remove saved payment details from your profile and browser.
- Take yourself off newsletters and unfollow brands that share convenient links to sales.
Bottom Line
One might think you need to give up credit altogether. But this extreme option isn’t realistic in the modern world. You sometimes need credit to make online purchases or put down a deposit.
Credit cards are also a great way to build your credit history if you use them responsibly.
So, hold off on cutting up your cards and canceling your accounts for now. Try the tips you learned here today.
