-
Because I was a stupid college student.
-
Because I was a stupid college student who was dating a psychopath, who in turn wasn’t a very good influence on me.
I’m paying it all off now, and no longer use credit cards at all.
and don’t forget being fat. We’re all fat and in debt
If you’re facing a large, unexpected and unbudgeted bill and your choice is to pay with a credit card, take a personal loan or use the provider’s own financing, the credit card may offer the lowest rate and the most flexible terms if you’re a good negotiator.
The guy, if he exists, who carries one year’s salary as a balance on his 21.8% credit card, yeah, make fun of that guy if he can get a better rate and doesn’t.
Oh yeah. I forgot to mention how fat i was too. But that is because I AM stereotypically lazy. 
Wow, Surreal, do you throw in the fat Americans jab every chance you get? That must really drive home your points and definitely makes people like you more. I for one felt my respect for you just positively skyrocket at being told I’m fat, lazy and unhealthy.
and don’t forget throatshot, you have no self-control, either and you really should thank our pal for helping you out, not just respect him!
Woooh whooo!!! I’m finally above average on SOMETHING!
When I was single, I paid my cards off every month and was socking away cash in a mutual fund.
Then I got married, honeymooned at Disney World, went to Hawaii twice and bought a house.
All in the time span of one year.
In other words, we lived WAY beyond our means.
Coupled with the fact that I melted like Ben and Jerry’s on a sidewalk in July when my wife “really wanted something” and my old financial ways were doomed.
Anyway, finally learned to say, “no!” and am now on my way to getting them paid off again. It is going to take years, though.
And my SO had about the same amount of CC debt when I met her as I do now. Her parents hit hard times her junior year in college and she put the last year and a half on plastic. Couple that with the fact that she has zero fiscal sense. I have had to get nasty in the past year to get it into head that her debt needs to go away ASAFP!
[quote}Secondly, why would a credit card company lend money to an individual (think: HIGH risk) when they could lend it to a bank (think: LOW risk) and get a higher return? In other words, the hypothetical makes no real-world sense and therefore adds nothing to this discussion.[/quote]
Not hypothetical at all.
I have a few thousand in credit card debt on which I pay 2.9% interest. (love those balance transfer offers that last for the life of the balance). I also have a CD for quite a bit more than my credit card balance that pays 4.4% interest. Cashing in the CD will cost me more in penalties and foregone interest than I’m already paying. Plus, I’m unlikely to be able to save the money again once i use it to pay off the credit card
Why would a credit card company lend me money at 2.9% when they could loan it to a bank at 4.4%?
-
My credit card is issued by a bank, but a different bank than I have my CD in. Perhaps the credit card bank pays less on their CD’s
-
Everyone doesn’t get the 2.9% rate. Most customers probably pay in the double digits.
-
The credit card company no doubt hopes I will close the account which originally had the balnce, and exclusively (or at least mostly) use the promotional card. *New * purchases have a much higher interest rate.
Doreen
Well shit, I’ve got $4,000 in credit card debt that I have no intention of paying off until next March. 'Course, it’s a balance I transfered from one card to a brand new one, taking advantage of the “0% interest for one year…” deal they had.
See, when I got LASIK this March, I used FLEX spending (money taken from your paycheck pre-tax for use for virtually any medical expenses) to cover $3,500 of it so I got a lump-sum check for that amount a few weeks ago from my account, and paid the balance of the procedure myself. I charged all of it to my Discover card, so I’m getting cash back, then I transferred that balance to the new card. The $3,500 I got back from FLEX I have invested.
So, yes, I have “debt,” but it’s debt that isn’t going to cost me a thing while I’m earning interest elsewhere. Probably not the norm, especially since I have liquid assests to cover about a years worth of expenses, should the need arise.
Oh, but then again, I’m not fat or lazy, but I am an American.
Well, a good chunk of my credit card debt comes from when I was unemployed for a couple of months, had no income, but did manage to rack up quite a chunk of change in doctor bills, prescription medication, as well as paying my basic expenses (food, shelter, stuff like that).
Right now I’m playing musical introductory rates, getting those 0% cards, using them to pay off my higher interest cards, then paying down the balance until the higher rate kicks in, then getting another introductory 0%…
I’ve gotten rid of quite a bit of my credit card debt this way. When all is said and done, I’m going to cancel all of my cards except for the one with the lowest fixed APR- I’ve got one application for less than 10%, once the introductory rate expires…
Whew…sounds like my story - to a point. Only I was stupider. I was a stupid college student who dated a psychpath - and who desperately wanted to hold on to that psychopath. :rolleyes:
Then I graduated, moved to Mom & Dad’s (because this was 1995 and I couldn’t find a job), barely managed to pay the minimum. Got a job in February 1996, moved out on my own in May 1997. Had to furnish the place. Then moved again after a burglary - and ended up paying too much rent and not having the ability to pay everything each month. Then got promoted, moved, and spent five days a week on the road, and proceeded to completely quit paying them.
I have one card left that I’m paying off from that time. It’s a slow process - but by the time I start grad school, it will be completely gone. I have no other debt apart from student loans (I came out of college with $20k in student loan debt, $10K in credit card debt and within a year had another $7k in a car loan. I still drive that car), and I now pay for everything with cash or the debit card. I am extremely careful with the checking account, and I learned my lesson the hard way. I will pay the consequences for years to come, but there is no way to change the past, only my future actions.
We have a couple grand in credit card debt. I’m not too worried about it: I should start teaching full time in September, and our household income will suddenly triple, and we have no student loan debt. Mind you, we will probably add another thousand paying for a move before then: I just can’t bring myself to abandon my books. But if we continue to live at the standard of living we have grown accustomed to, paying it off shouldn’t be too bad. And I play the interest-rate shuffel.
For us, most of the debt came about through wanting events, not things. While we were both in college, we had just enough money to cover our expenses, and no wiggle room. There have been two out of town weddings in the last two years, and both of those cost several hundred dollars: gas, hotel, tux rental all add up, and then all the other people in the wedding party are in the “we can afford to eat out” tax bracket, and there is simply no way to bow out of that without maknig your friends feel uncomfortable. We could have gone down to rice and beans and no internet for a year to pay those sorts of things off quicker, but frankly, cutting back 10% on our style of living is a much bigger sacrifice when we are college-poor than cutting back on our style of living 10% when we are lower-middle class will be, even if that is more money in absolute terms.
I’m really envious of the people who are saying they will be able to pay off their debt soon. Good for you. I wish I could say the same things…sometimes I feel like I have an albatross around my neck, growing heavier by the day. But we pay our MPD every month, never miss a payment, and one fine day, we’ll be out of debt…then bring on the student loans!
:rolleyes:
I would honestly like to think that all of my, oh, $8,000 in credit card debt has been mostly unavoidable. I would suspect that for most Americans, the mountain of debt starts in college, with books and whatnot. Then eventually it gets to the point where you’re not paying on time, so you get even more debt.
I also faced the unfortunate task of moving long distances five times in the space of one year. That really, really puts a financial burden on you, especially when you spent four of those months getting paid next to nothing in an incredibly expensive city.
Thankfully, I am now to the point where I actually am paying them down regularly, at twice the minimum payment. It’s amazing the difference it makes when you go well above the minimum payment, really. I figure the debt will be erased in a couple years, assuming I get a raise or two between now and then.
Then there’s the student loan debt… oy… at least the government isn’t that mean of a bill collector. But, pepperlandgirl, I do feel your pain.
I had the same problem, only my best friend of 10 years was the psychopath.
Honestly, when I went away to college, I was mailed like 5 credit cards that I never even applied for. No, I didn’t understand the interest thing. I didn’t know how to balance my checkbook either. I was excited about having money, so I spent it foolishly. That was three years ago, and both credit cards I used were cut up long, long ago. I had a small credit line through my bank for emergencies and books, but I paid it off a few months ago and haven’t used it since.
I have about $3000 in debt from that first year in college - and unfortunately, a lot of the money is from not making my payments on time and exceeding my limit, which I did during that first year. Sometimes it keeps me up at night, but I make my payments on time now and try not to think about it. I will have it paid off eventually, and I’ve certainly learned from my mistakes.
Right now I’m considering applying for a personal loan from my bank to see if I can get cheaper interest rates, but because I wasn’t responsible way back when, my credit rating is mediocre. All I can do now is be responsible and realize that eventually, I will have it all paid off.
I have about $1,800 in credit card debt. I don’t think a blanket statement that “credit card debt is bad” can be made. There are many factors: emergencies (like the $1,200 car repair bill that I charged), are collection agencies banging at your door, are you panicked over what you owe, are you borrowing from one to pay another, are you using the card to buy necessities like groceries because you don’t have the cash…on and on. People with cc debt are not losers (we may be fat, but we are not losers). There’s nothing wrong with having a manageable debt, be it a car payment, mortgage or credit card.
Just a couple grand in debt here. It’ll be gone in just a few months. I love my gold card, it forces me to pay the balance every month.
I too had a psycho ex who had no concept of money. He ran up about $4,000 of my credit. That got paid off about a year ago. Two years after the relationship ended. Yikes!! That is a mistake I’ll never make again.
Oh, and I am fat and lazy too, but don’t tell that to the weeds in my garden.
Well, my wife and I have a few grand in credit card debt, but it’s been going down steadily, since we pay at least double the monthly minimum, and we transfer balances (if it’s free) to lower-interest accounts when it works. Right now the debt is on a 0% account until next March, which gives ten months to really get the principle debt down without any interest accumulating.
No, we’re not stupid, nor are we fat. We are both college-educated and quite intelligent. The fact that we are both teachers with pretty low incomes enters the equation. When cars need repairing and you NEED a car to get to work, you really have to put it on credit. Maybe the OP has thousands of dollars available in a checking account to pay for such things, but we don’t. I guess that makes us fiscally irresponsible, stupid, and fat, right?
(bolding mine)
What? And take away his only way of formulating opinions?
Stereotyping, Zipper, seems to be Surreal’s only offering to the SDMB thus far.
Well, I’m not fat, American, or lazy. But I do have medical expenses (minimal).
Why do I have credit card debt?
- Trying to plan for a wedding - down payments on invitations, the DJ, the caterer, etc. that’s the biggest contributor at the moment.
- Surgery on my cat. Not essential - unless I wanted him to live, and I did. But I definately paid for it.
- Down payment on an extended warranty for the car I drive 120 kms a day in.
- In the past, plane tickets to help maintain my long-distance relationship with my fiance. Again, not necessary - unless I want to prevent that relationship breaking down, which I did. This was originally the biggest contributor.
My regular spending is minimal, I buy new clothes about 3 times a year. I buy alcohol every couple of months. I do eat out about once per week (this could either be a restaurant OR fast food.) I pay my long distance telephone bill, my rent, and other maintenance costs, like gas and prescriptions.
So, tell me Surreal, where did I go wrong?