It wasn’t a gift card for me. That’s the way it read, all right, but it actually appeared as some money directly on my card three days after I called in the confirmation code. Looks like this on the statement:
"12/13/2007 12/13/2007 Adjustment Amazon Statement Credit Miscellaneous $-30.00 "
However Watch out for the fine print on balance transfers. They hit me for
“12/14/2007 12/14/2007 Fee TRANSACTION FEE Miscellaneous $69.98”
I called and complained, though and they reversed it.
These days it pays to call every time you get a fee. Turns out most are reversible because they really want your long term business.
One thing I’ve discovered is that most cards don’t ask any info that would confirm your income, like who your imployer is. So you can put in a big number and get their best rate. (That tactic could backfire, of course, if you ran up a huge bill and then declared bankruptcy, since a bankruptcy judge could reinstate the debt. Nothing is simple when you weave a tangled web.)
It’s the focus on psychological feelings at the expense of mathematical ones that gets people into serious and unmanageable debt in the first place. You’ll feel a whole lot better psychologically if you think mathematically and pay down your most expensive debts first, thus relieving your overall cash flow burden.
Thanks for the advice, Cunctator, but we’re doing just fine. We haven’t used credit cards in over a year, and the smallest bills are gone and we have less than $1000 to go on the last one. Paying off the smallest bills first creates a debt snowball, so by the time you get to the biggest one, you’re able to put big chunks of money on it. We’ve been doing this for almost a year, and it’s amazing how quickly things go once you’re focused on it.
Ivylad just bought a new ShopVac today…by writing a check. It is so freeing knowing the credit cards are gone…I cancelled my Sears card earlier this year, and it felt great!!
Not quite. Moving the debt from high interest to low interest is more like moving the chairs to balance a capsizing boat. It gives you more time to bail and a bigger bucket. Money that would be going to interest is now paying principal.
But you do have to keep bailing or that ship will go down no matter how well balanced and how neat the chairs are.