My debt is repaid.

Five years ago I got into trouble with credit-card debt. After engaging a trustee and making a ‘consumer proposal’ (one step short of bankruptcy, but you repay part of the money), there were almost five years of repayment.

I am very glad to say that my last debt payment cleared my bank account yesterday. When the trustee receives official notice from the bank, they will issue me a certificate of completion, and I can then contact the credit-rating agencies to update my information.

Starting next month, I will now have significantly more money in my bank account (it had been hand-to-mouth at times), and I can begin saving… for a secured credit card, and trips to visit friends and family scattered across this fine continent. And maybe a few other places too. Like the World Congress of the Esperanto-Speaking Peoples in Italy in 2006. :slight_smile:

Yay!

Speaking of “credit” cards, something that I have long anticipated has gone on sale in Canada: a prepaid MasterCard called MyCard. You buy it, load money onto it, and you can then use it wherever you can use a MasterCard credit card.

It was not until I had no credit card that I was able to discern the difference between the credit card as grantor of credit and the credit card as payment system. I did not need credit, but not having the MasterCard/Visa payment mechanism available was a major pain in an age of online shopping.

Problem is, the MyCard card (linked above) is very expensive: $30 to buy (actually $40, but $10 goes on the card). After that, it’s $6 per month, and it expires after a year, so you have to buy it all over again.

There are additional costs for loading money onto the card ($3 for each load theough pre-authorised debit or online banking, though not at a MyCard retailer); it has a maximum load of $2000, but you can only load $500 ($350 at a retailer) at a time.

I might get it anyways, but it’s not the slam-dunk it would be if it was, say, half the price.

MyCard cardholder agreement.

Congratulations! :slight_smile:

I’ve never had credit problems, but I do have just a little more debt than I probably should. I’d love to be out from under it someday … I mean, I will be out from under it someday!

As for the MyCard: does Canada have debit cards? My credit union here in the States gives me a debit card tied to my checking account that works as a MasterCard. No fees, and the limit is only as big/small as my checking account balance. If you have a similar option, I’d recommend that. But if you don’t have a similar option, this sounds like a legitimate – if pricey – way to keep you from having to carry cash around all of the time, and to facilitate online shopping (as you said). Good luck!

Thanks!

Yep!

Thanks!

Canada has debit cards. Boy, does Canada have debit cards… but they do not look like credit cards. They are not Mastercard or Visa.

Instead, Canadian debit cards are a completely-separate system that is basically ATM cards on steroids. All the banks and almost all merchants participate in Interac, a nationwide clearing system for “cash disbursement” (money machines), transfers, and point-of-sale. When I say “almost all merchants”, I mean “almost all”: not just big ones in big cities. The convenience store in East Yak Breath, Manitoba (pop 210), which hasn’t been renovated since 1947, will have an Interac terminal.

You use a PIN with the debit card. The terminal connects, and the transaction is verified on the spot. Since all the money machines are connected, you can use any card in any machine, usually paying an additional fee if you use a machine not belonging to your bank. This has led to an industry of third-party money machines where everyone pays. Shopkeepers and especially bars buy/rent them, for instance, and charge what the market will bear in machine fees (and I’ve seen a few ripoffs…).

Everyone uses debit cards, more often than cash, even.

There aren’t that many big banks in Canada, and they’re all nationwide, and they all support the Interac system.

Interac is connected to online banking as well, and has recently brought out Interac Email Transfer: from your online banking screen, you can now email money to anyone with a Canadian bank account as well. The email contains a link to a third-party company that accepts the money from the sender and holds it until the recipient tells them what to do with it. All through online banking, and no credit cards in sight.

Here on the boards, I was quite confused when people talked about “check cards”. Eventually after much discussion I got it through my head that they were debit cards that used the credit-card infrastructure, but did not need a PIN or signature. I think.

Congratulations!

So I guess you want to get started paying off my credit cards now, eh?

This is fun.

:: looks at list of places in location field ::

Um, can I get back to you on that? :slight_smile:

Yay!

I had a prepaid credit card. They’re helpful if you can’t get or don’t want the regular kind. But the fees are always pretty high.

I hope it’s easier to get your credit rating back up in Canada, than it is here. We did something similar to what you did. It was supposed to be erased from the credit record after 3 years. It’s been 12 years and it’s still causing us problems.

As I was told by my bank (they are available up here through the bank) you can use it as either a debit card, or as a credit card.

That is you can swipe it like you would a debit card and use your pin or you can have it swiped as a credit card and give a signature (you can also use it online where the issuer is accepted). The only difference is, the amount comes directly out of your account (or in however long a check would take to clear in the case of using it like a credit card) instead of recieving a statement and having to pay at the end of the month.

Yay for being out of debt! I finally paid off the shit that former roomies ran up on my credit, now it’s just my student loans that I’m racking up right now.

Yay!
I paid off all accounts that were or had been delinquent several years ago, but I’ve been very hesitant about applying for credit. Two years ago, I got an unsecured Mastercard, and I was pleased that I was approved - sure, it wasn’t a 0 percent interest, but I got it.

Last summer, before I had a conference to go to, I got an American Express green - the one that has to be paid off every month.

What I’d kept avoiding was checking my FICO score - I was positive that it would be bad, really bad. I broke down and paid for it today before I left work. They’re actually MUCH better than I thought they would be. Not perfect, but well into the better than average range, even with a couple of those old accounts still appearing (although they do show as paid in full, just that I wasn’t paying them as I was supposed to for a while).

So YAY for you on getting them all paid off. Now be careful with future credit (I’m sure you will be - it’s a lesson that many people learn, but most of those don’t have to learn twice).