One Nation, Under Debt
In Civil Court, One Nation, Under Debt
Excerpt:
How did he run up $1,400 in debt?
“I heard about this 800 number you could call to get a card,” he said. “I was working as a security guard in Herald Square. It was several years ago.”
What did you buy?
“I bought some shoes,” he said. “My son was young, we got Pampers, things like that.”
At the time, he was making about $11 an hour. How much had he spent?
The shoes, he guessed, were $40. The other stuff was $400 or less.
“They gave me a $500 spending limit,” he said. “So it was less than that. The rest to get it to $1,400 was interest, fees.”
Comment: I'm amazed how ignorant most are about debt, savings, and investments.
That truly is sad, but it just goes to show you have to read the fine print. I got a letter a few weeks back from Chase wanting me to change my CC to some platinum one. It looked great, and perhaps could have worked. But as usual, if it is too good to be true it probably isn't. So I read the back and right about in the middle it started talking about all these extra charges I would have to pay not to mention the annual membership fee. Needless to say, I did not sign up for their 'platinum' CC.
ReplyDeleteI think some people need to go to cash until they get a handle on their finances. I did right after I graduated from college. I think I had like 8k in college bills and another 4k in CC debt. In the end I think my total debt was like 15k. I went straight to cash and paid it all down. I could have kept using my credit card, but I wanted to see my CCs go down not up and down.
Truly, it comes down to self-control. And if something happens that is unexpected, contact your CC company immediately to see if they can work with you on payments. (I have heard most CC companies will work with you if you contact them first)