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How very true! (Reply to this comment)
by telynor,  in Personal Finance
My ex-husband, who I tend to think of as The Weasel, ran up huge debts when we were married, and I was the one who ended up paying for it all when it came time for the divorce. It took me several years to clear the debt away, and now -- well, I am debt free, and intend to stay that way. I check my credit report regularly, and keep an eagle eye on the budget. My motto these days: Pay in cash, or do without. Works really well, too. -- Telynor
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Aug 20 '06
9:51 am PDT
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Actually, ... (Reply to this comment)
by Arthur.Rubin
Starting this year (2006), credit cards are required to set the minimum payment as interest + 2% of the balance. This means, if you don't use the card, it would be paid down by half in 3 years or so. Not really fast enough for debt reduction, but it can no longer be totally out of hand.
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Jul 08 '06
9:48 am PDT
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About Credit Reports (Reply to this comment)
by thepremier
Many things go in a "credit report" other than simply paying off "credit bills".
If you have ANY type of loan, and most of us, it would be a a car loan, or more significatnly, a student loan - regularly paying those off when scheduled automatically gives you a very good credit card rating. It doesn't take much for someone to get a student loan, but paying them off sure does rank up the positive points.
So does paying your ordinary bills on time - utilities, phone, internet, all of these are monitored by credit card rating companies.
I'm 25 and have never had a credit card and don't plan on getting one any time soon, and I have a credit rating of "Good". I have a modest Roth IRA contribution automatically debited from my checking account every month as well as a contribution to a higher yield money market account debited every month. Treat your savings like they are a mandatory expense - like electricity. You will never miss that money.
No credit card - so I can't get a Blockbuster Video card, - big f'ing deal. At least I can sleep at night.
The best financial advice is delayed gratification - save up for something and then buy it.
Every time I get a credit card offer, I always stuff EVERYTHING (including the envelope it came in) into the postage-pre-paid envelope and send it back to where it came from. This does a couple of things...
1) Make the credit card companies actually pay for that postage (more money for the US Postal service!). Remember the post office charges by weight, so feel free to throw in some hard candy too! Suck it, Visa.
2) P!ss off the people working there (get a real job instead of hawking debt, you sickos).
3) Make their municipalities pay for the recycling or disposal of that TRASH.
Asbestos. Tobacco. Enron. MasterCard. It's only a matter of time before the evil debt hawkers are exposed for the malicious, predatory vultures that they are. Have you seen them on college campuses? It's like they're selling ecstasy or cocaine with their free crap sign up gifts and their spin the wheel and get a prize bait traps.
Sorry for the long comment, but this stuff really burns me.
The most endangered species in America is the middle class, and this is one reason why.
Dino
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Jul 06 '06
11:56 pm PDT
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I remember credit card debt (Reply to this comment)
by carl_lazarevic
I was a couple of grand into debt once, and it took me around 2 years to pay off too. My philosophy was simple. If I'm paying the minimum off each month then the banks will leave me alone. So I paid off as much as I could each month, and never stressed about myspending. (so long as the ammount went down a little each month I that was) It's only money afterall, in the long run what would I have done with the interest but spend it on something I don't need?
I'm very easy going that way.
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Jul 06 '06
4:55 pm PDT
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Re: Excellent job! (Reply to this comment)
by captaind
Hi Suzanne
You never know, I may start writing in this section regularly :-D
I know a lot of the info here was pretty basic, I was just giving my own angle on it and presuming that those who had their credit cards under complete control probably wouldn't bother reading it anyway other than out of morbid curiosity.
Cheers,
CaptainD
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Jul 05 '06
8:57 am PDT
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Re: Good advice (Reply to this comment)
by captaind
Good point, I don't think I even had a credit rating before I got my card!
(The first card I applied for was a charity one because I hadn't been intending to get a credit card at all - they turned me down!! :-O)
CaptainD
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Jul 05 '06
8:55 am PDT
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Excellent job! (Reply to this comment)
by Mom2TyZick
and such good advice, even though it may seem elementary to some.
Good to see you over in this category!
Suzanne
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Jul 04 '06
9:06 pm PDT
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