mexican whores I'm scared of my credit card. I'm a college student. I will try to avoid using it for as long as possible... and yet, I realize that I have to ifI ever plan on buying anything of value. But debt terrifies me! I'm scared of my credit card. I'm a college student. I will try to avoid using it for as long as possible... and yet, I realize that I have to ifI ever plan on buying anything of value. But debt terrifies me! MLM get rich quick scheme. Those credit lenders also got me at 18 when I started college—with no job. Between that and my student loans I'll be paying forever, especially with the economy here in MI. Coincidently, the offers from these generous lenders keep rolling in to this day. I got the best email from my mom today about this topic. Love your site! I just cleared my credit card for the second time round. When I first moved into my home, I got a credit card to help pay for a new suite etc. Five years later, I was up to £6000 in debt. I have to admit, being a compulsive collector of movie collectables & spending too much time on Ebay didn't help either!. I eventually remortgaged to go onto a better rate of interest & payed off my card at the same time. Then, the last couple of years, I have had a new interest in Japan & have spent lots of money on books & importing Tokusastu (sci-fi film/tv) collectables. I just recently cleared that £2600 debt & will now try & stop spending so much in one go! I now have £200 free for spending money each month. I still have a pile of DVDs I haven't watched yet. So I shouldn't be in such a rush to buy new releases. By the time I finish watching the ones I have, they all would have come down in price anyway! Cheap malt liquor, cheap women, and thousands of dollars of bling in 12 karat dentistry. Oh my stars, with a $10000 limit on a credit card while a student at university, you wouldn't believe the debt. Got up to 5k - just living it up and drinking too much. How did I get rid of it? Got married, and my excellent wife showed me how to save. 4 years later, car's paid, have two kids and manage the mortgage, all on my income :) Hovercraft I'm proud to say that I have no credit card debt. Everything I own, I own outright. test Almost a grand (but I have TONS of school loans), mostly from the cost of gas and moving. around 250 right now from 700 - food and stuff, not even anything exciting! But, I wasn't working at the time and had just got the card. Hookers Giant breasts for my wife sunset donkey rides my husband racked up my credit cards and his own as well, and it was at least $28,000. i'm an easy sale. proof: i own a kirby (but i love it!) wow the debt free people are generally very snooty and judgemental. What credit card debt? I don't spend more than I can pay off. I wish I could accumulate a credit card. No credit sucks! Wal-mart won't even give me one! Wal-mart! sick cat-$2K(cat died); 5 years as a Raiders season ticket holder-at least $5K; recent trip to Montauk where I got engaged-priceless (ok about $6K) $6,000 now $0 thanks to Dave Ramsey telling me how it is. I think a lot of these other people need to take responsibility for their money and quit blaming things for their problems. I guess the d§$khead in the white house put a gun to your head and told you you have to go into debt. Me? $0 - With about $30K of available credit on my cards, I usually run up about $2K a month buying EVERYTHING on credit and then paying it off before it's due. I work hard, most weeks are 60 hours or more, and I rarely buy stuff that’s not needed. I’ve managed to build a decent savings and went with only a 15 year mortgage on the house to save a ton of interest. I figure I would rather work hard while I am young and get myself in a good position to take it easier later in life. My non-working live-in girlfriend? Well she brought $5K of credit card debt when she moved in (that I paid off) then spent the next two years secretly running up another $7K (19% interest) of debt that she hid from me and only managed to make minimum payments every so often by using money I gave her to get groceries etc. I was already paying for all of the bills, even for her car and insurance and doctor bills and going to the salon, etc. Only when she went away for a weekend and one of the statements came in the mail on a Saturday did I find out what was going on. Over the last year I've paid this one off too (I can't STAND seeing 19% interest payments even if she does deserve to pay it herself) and she is contributing a solid $50 every two weeks from her new part time job to the debt. And if you asked her about it, it is the hardest thing in the world to pay that much each paycheck. Meanwhile I've wasted over $10K because of her stupidity. If she does it again she can use her cards to find a new place to live. I don’t understand how people can be so stupid. I guess some would say the same about me for not kicking her out years ago. I have one but never ever use it. I prefer to pay for things when I buy them. My wife and I are have about $25,000 in CC debt and $250,000 in student loan debt. Believe it or not CC debt is down $10,000 from a year ago and should be halved again in a year or so. We used a card to buy a car about a year ago doubling CC debt. Why put a car on a CC you ask? Car loan 6% or CC at .05% for the life of balance. Half stupid stuff, half legit stuff. Like a $900 plane ticket to Prague beside $200 for medical lab testing and $300 for snow tires. I'm not telling you how high, b/c it's much worse than yours was. Single (divorced) mom supporting a kid. 'nuff said. I'm married now and my credit cards are clean. I got my first credit card to pay for a transmission replacement. I intended to use the card solely for emergencies. My definition of "emergency" soon began to encompass things that were merely inconveniences before. I accumulated $4,000 of debt before I eventually paid it off with lower-interest student loans. yes When is someone going to go ahead and blow up these credit companies. Tyrants, I say, whose endeavor is to enslave man through the abuse of simple necessity. NUKE THE RICH. I think I have three hundred dollars credit card debt by the bye. Car wreck, basketball injury and general bad luck . $30,000 by being a loser I just got my first credit card a few months ago, right after I paid off my student loans. I've been able to pay off the balance every month so far, but I went on a bit of a spree in the begining of the summer. DVD recorder, a nice Swiss watch, a few seasons of Arrested Development and Family Guy. And I just bought a new (used) car, so I'll have that to pay off too... hookers 1.3 million I always said when I was in college I was not going to get a credit card at all. That was all well and good until the day I could not get a cell phone because I did not have any credit. So I applied for a low limit credit card just to get some credit. I told myself I was going to use it just to buy gas, and pay it off immediatly. Well the card arrived in the mail the day before I went to Las Vegas for spring break. Ooops. I still have not payed it off. Now instead of zero credit, I have bad credit. I got up to 10 grand, When I was 18 I went on a lot of scuba diving trips to Cozumel ;) I'm down to 2300, and it'll be paid off by the end of next year. 4 yrs of dental school equaled $16k in credit card debt, plus $225k in Sstudent loans. So next time you bitch why the dentist is so expensive realize that he has a $240,000 debt im not in debt, im only 17. I have $3000 worth of debt, some from travelling, but mostly vet bills. I suspected my elderly dog had a rare adrenal disorder and needed $1000 just to have her tested for it. The medication of maintinance tests were also extremely expensive, but she lived 6 more months in comfort and luxury before dying in her sleep at the age of 16. Levitra I don´t have a credit card... yet. But I'm in debt for my car - About $9,000 payable in 4 years, interest included. gas, food, books, dates; $1,200 I have none - never had - and I never carry a balance. My mother added me to her credit card when I was 12 years old. My parents were divorced and had joint custody, but the agreement was that my mother was to buy my clothes. One day I was at the mall with my dad, found a piece of clothing I needed, and he refused to buy it for me. After that was when she added me to the account. She sat me down and explained the statement and what would happen if it wasn't paid off each month. I never abused the privilege, and once I had a card of my own when I went off to college six years later, I already knew better than to spend beyond my means. let's see, got pregnant and had a kid, so i stopped working, and forgot to stop spending! oh yeah, that and we just bought new couches last week and unfortunately have to finance them, so there's another 2500 to add to the bills. sigh... Lots and lots of Meat. 4th of July Meat. Christmas Meat. Arbor Day Meat. Way to much Meat. I got a job as a traveling circus midget clothes designer to pay off my Meat debt. My dad was real proud. Phoo. My credit went chiefly toward car repairs, a vacation, and as a "stop gap" emergency thing when either emergency expenses came up or I was in a temporary income shortage. Any which-way you look at it, I'm in up to $36,000. It's coming down, though... Buying Veronica Mars-related products; infinite. Zero. I pay it off every month. I can't understand all these people who live beyond there means. Their psychology is completely alien to me. And who the heck pays for porn anymore? (*cough* torrents *cough*) $30,000 due to medical and related expenses. I'm not sure that I'll be paying it off either... I may get a few more, since the disease they found is terminal and I'll only be above ground for a few more years anyway. Who says you can't take it with you? life. sex. 24000. Also College..... 11,000 dollars worth..... most expensive piece of paper (that I don't even use), I ever bought...... oh, sure, I use the skills and things I learned, but the paper just hangs on the wall..... next time I let myself get screwed over like that, I'm gonna get a piece of paper that at LEAST knows how to do the dishes....... porn! Luckily, I have been able to avoid credit card debt so far. I noticed that a lot of people that responded to this that have no cc debt seem to think highly of themselves and consider all the people with debt to be fools. That's not true at all. The credit card companies are in the business of fooling consumers into spending more than they should. They will do whatever it takes to get people into the debt trap. I feel sorry for those in debt, not superior to them. I didn't, because I did work more during university. $0. NO DEBT. I've been employed since I was 14 and saved every penny I could in hopes of someday going to college. My first and second years of college tuition were paid for ($93,000 total) by financial aid and scholarships (no loans), my third year I took out a $3000 student loan (financial aid and scholarships covered the rest) but paid it off by doing work study and my forth year I did work study and used some of the money I had saved to pay off a $5000 student loan. Now, as I begin my graduate's degree, I have NO CC DEBT, NO LOAN DEBT and close to $10K in the bank! And all I have to thank is my teenage self! Hooray for saving money! Jill I only use credit cards to save myself money; ie, signing up for an HBC cc to get 20% off the purchase of new matress set (which was pd off in full w/ in first billing period, and haven't used the card since), or my citibank/petro-can MC, which gets me .02 off/litre at the pumps (also pd in full every month). However, I also have a $3,532.96CDN balance on a bank car loan, which by the time I've paid in full, will have been for a depreciating hunk of metal worth less than 1/4 of what I initially took the loan out for and paid for it. I have since paid it all off, but once upon a time I amassed around $36,000 in credit card debt by moving from NYC to San Francisco without being licensed to work in CA. (I'm a freelance court reporter.) I lived in SF for six months without working, and being flat broke, I moved back to NYC for two months to work. Subsequently, I re-took and passed the CA licensing exam, and then moved back to SF. I also had the misfortune of having someone "steal" my bank card number somewhere along Route 80 on the way back out to SF, and this "person" then charged around $2,500 worth of plane tickets to the Dominican Republic, not only cleaning out my already lean savings, but also dipping into my already taxed overdraft and causing me to bounce checks all over the place. After the bank concluded its investigation the plane ticket money was put back into my account, but no one reimbursed me for the bounced check fees or the interest on my overdraft. (Thanks, Chase Bank! Love ya!) I worked like a dog for a solid year and paid off as much as I could on every card, at some point combining the balance onto a low interest card, which I finally paid off. I have never carried a balance since. It's just too *&$^# easy to accumulate huge debt thinking, "Well, I'll pay it off next month and then I'll never do it again." Famous last words. stuff My car died, and needed $2000+ to be moving around again. I need the car to work, and I need to work to eat and pay rent. So, regardless of whatever super-useful advice people may have on spending money I don't have, I used all my money to repair the car. Everything that money would have paid for then went on my card (things like eating and utilities). Now there's $300 on it that I can't seem to get rid of. It all started when I was making around $37,000/year at a job that I hated in a city where everyone I'd known had moved away (including my beau, who had joined the military, and so was away at boot camp, etc.). Then, after about a year, he finally got posted to our current location, where we bought a house and settled down. However, I was unemployed for over 6 months, and then got a crappy job that paid less than my EI was. But I was still spending like I was making $37,000, when I was bringing home much less than half of that. And we got married. Now, excluding the house & car payments, we have about $11,000 in debt. My solution? I've stopped carrying the bloody credit cards with me, and I use them only when I absolultely must, and if I can't pay them off right away I transfer them to my line of credit, which has a lower interest rate. I'm learning... I never accumulated credit card debts... I'm from Brazil and the interest rates here are gargantuan. If I had a debt of $7,000, the monthly interests would climb up to $840, which would be suicidal. $1300 from dental expenses, paying the bills for a month when I had no job, and replacing my stupid monitor when the light inside went out. I didn;t even know that could happen. Sorry, this one doesn't apply to me. I am one cheap individual. The only reason I use my credit card at all is for the 1 percent rebate. I goed to school and get loans from the govberment. They make me pay them back. I pay them back 16,000 in a 2 years so no more debt. No more debt foreber. $200,000 on hookers and blow I have no credit card debt. My dad taught me that if you don't have the money for it, don't buy it. I have gone without a lot, still do. I paid it off every month, but when I moved to CA for grad school, I put a lot of the trip (hotels, gas) on the CC, as well as initial moving expenses (mattress, desk). Hit about 3k, it's paid off now, took about 2 years. Could have been quicker if I hadn't bought crap I didn't need (although the $1000 in car repairs WAS needed) $0. Never had any, never will. 9K. was 7.5K and was able to manage ok. bought a house = downward spiral Compulsive purchases, buying stuff for family (airline tickets mostly), trips for myself, and it's up to $14,000aud... credit cards are evil things. At the highest, it was $16K. I racked it by living beyond my means for 13 years, and every time I started to dig myself out, some emergency came up. My credit card debt started with the Macintosh Performa 200 I bought in 1993. To a certain extent, I owe my career to the credit card which enabled me to buy my first computers and teach myself the practical job skills I didn't get in college. Often the best option is to borrow as much money from the bank as possible and pay off whatever you can. The bank interest is almost always lower than credit card interest. It started when I needed to replace an engine in my car. Then I bought a ring for my (now) wife. Then we used a student loan to buy a computer. Then another student loan for a clothes dryer. And more stuff. Little things here and there. Then, after 7 years of not making much of a dent in our payments (and being quite frugal) we had enough. On New Year's Day, we each took a pair of scissors to our credit cards. We paid them off, and then over two more years we finished out the student loans. I've shifted from owing money, to saving. We've saved $25,000 for a down payment and for emergency expenses (you don't need a CC for emergencies). I've even LOANED $5000 and earned 5.5% interested. Now my savings is in an internet bank savings account MAKING 5% interest! I'm won't ever own another credit card. Or, better yet, a credit card will never own me. I ended college with $30 in credit card debt, and no student loans. My husband, on the other hand, has $4500 in student loans to pay off, so I guess it's my debt as well. He's in a PhD program now, so we have another four years before we even have to start making payments. I'm not dumb - I pay it off very month. credit card debt free... but there is still the mortgage and that $6k from dear old Dad. I was given 5 credit cards by unscroupulous banks when I was about 20-23. I managed to charge everything including rent. I claimed bankruptcy after 20 grand was racked up. Stupid...but live and learn. College - the period of time after I accepted a job and knew how much I'd be paid, but before I started the job. Turns out that a lot of money to a collegiate is not a lot in general. $8k. $4200 for designer parakeet food TJ hookers, baby - life in Cali is sweeeet! about $4000 I only have a student loan, and they are now interest free in New Zealand. W00t. Between my junior year of college (2001) and this past November (2005), I racked up $14,000 in credit card debt. Quite a bit of it came from an eight-month dry spell in graduate school when my monthly stipend from my assistantship was covering only my rent -- everything else went on my card, groceries included. But let's face it: I suffer from a disease known as "Oh, Let Me Pay!" For example, I bought a $400 dinner for nine on my own birthday, as well as countless trips out to various and sundry locations with my boyfriend, tipping handsomely all the while. Then, of course, there was airfare to Boston (twice), oil changes, new brakes, you name it. Once I passed the five-digit mark, even dropping $1,300 on a new computer seemed a matter of no importance. Finally, as a last resort I had to move back in with my parents just to put an end to it all. As of now, I am down to $6,000, and will be completely out of debt by Christmas. Well, almost completely. Three cheers for student loans! Just so you know, this is the first time I've been completely honest about how I managed to rack up that much in debt. Remember that part about grad school? That's the story I always use, making sure to play up how poor I was. It may be true, but it probably only accounts for about $3,000 of the whole mess. For shame. Trevor Watkin Rancho Cucamonga, CA http://www.xanga.com/excoloradan No Credit Card debt, but around $8,000 in school loans. I know I should be using the money on tuition, but I want a computer. So that number will be bumped up to $9,000 pretty soon. At least I'm not unemployed anymore. i think about $1600--mostly books for grad. school and flights to fun places. Zero debt. We use our redit card for EVERYTHING so we can buy free airline tickets with the miles. It is paid off every month. We don't spend what we cannot afford to pay off each month. About $1,000 while I was living and working in France. Skipped the country (France) not paid back. I had $15,000 in credit card debt just from buying too much stuff that I didn't need. But I have it paid down to $7000 now, and I have been paying 0% interest for the last 5 years by taking advantage of new credit card offers every year or so, and transferring the balance. So at least I'm not paying interest Wedding in Florida for us and several family members. We are from Scotland. Nice restaurant and THREE limos seemed like a good idea at the time.. We will be in debt for a long long time. How much? Probably over 6-7000 pounds, whats that 12000dollars? But it was all worth it honey! (she might read this, you know..) running away to Mexico for six weeks + general financial irresponsibility =$13,000!!! Me - $13,000 in student loans & $2,000 in Credit cards for living expenses. My debt is zero. I pay it off each month... Please don't hate me. I also married a guy who owes close to 100,000 in student loans. AND his credit card debt is around $20,000. The minimums are killing us, even though he has a terrific job. I want to puke when I think about how long it is going to take to pay it all off. Especially since it wasn't mine, but it still affects me. Our house is $130,000worth of debt, but that at least I can justify. $6,500 - computer and surgery at 0% $20,000 - student loans for masters and undergrad study abroad at 4% but I paid off the car 2 months ago (YAY!) and another $3,000 card earlier this year (DOUBLE YAY!) and that income tax interest deduction on the mortgage makes me feel nominally better about that big hunk o' debt. Bought a sweet new $2600 mountiain bike, which was then stolen from my house in Chico. Ray's Liquor and Bunz also had my number memorized, never good. Beer Heroin. The big H keeps calling my name. $1,600AU for an Olympus digital SLR camera. Paid half of it back already. I suck at being in debt. tee hee i dont have that for another at least 4 years I never owned a credit card until recently, and I haven't used it yet. I only keep it for emergencies, and since it has no monthly fee just for keeping it, I have no credit card debt. However *we* do have some credit card debt, my husband handles it. It is due to the cars, the house, the student loans. NOTHING that wasn't essential. My husband is diligent about paying them off. I accumulated my credit card debt by deciding to pay for my own wedding...it came out to about $7,000, but I've gotten it down to about 5,000 in just over a year. - Jess Let a friend use my card. Bad idea. Approximately $8,000. Mostly whiskey and women. Squandered the rest. One crazy weekend in Vegas. Abortions. More abortions. Even more abortions. A la Spike Lee, I financed the greatest movie that I could muster directly out of film school. I racked up $60,000 quickly. But, the film bombed. I was lucky enough to have opened the credit cards with my neighbors information (swiped applications from the recycling). I now work at Blockbuster, where I get to watch all the preselected movies I want! By charging what ever I wanted of course... I now have about $7000.00 in CC bills. Yeah Me! I was involved in several ponzi schemes, and after the companies issued chargebacks on my card, I was left about $4000 in the hole. If I had not been a retard, I would have saved the profits I made earlier in the ponzi (totalling about $5000). To the person that said: "Despite paying for 4 years of University on my own, I've never carried a cent of credit card debt. I don't understand how people who do can look themselves in the mirror in the morning." It would be interesting to know what sort of background you have. Where I am from people aren't always so fortunate to have the means to pay for four years of college without a little help unless their family was very well off or the job they had paid nicely. Out of those that have the jobs that paid nicely, their parents usually got them the job in the first place. As far as looking myself in the mirror...I can look myself in the mirror because I know the debt I am still in the process of racking up will lead me to a time and place where you are interviewing to work for me and I hire someone else who does not require mommy and daddy to wipe their ass for them. I don't have any credit card debt! Don't buy things if you don't have the money for it, unless it's a house or a car, or school, and in that case, get a loan! That's an incredibly inconsiderate thing to ask! It's practically impossible for a young person to get a credit card here in Finland, and has nothing to do with my habit of waiting 'till third notice with the bills I get from the bike lease company. I need a motorcycle to get to work, okay?! My "Wife" had several credit cards, as did I. She suggested one day that we consolidate. I went and got the loan and once all the credit cards were paid off she divorced. slick. $27,000. I learned the hard way in college about credit cards. I racked up over $5,000 of debt after interest kept accruing. I finally managed to get things under control and got everything paid off. Since then, I keep a couple of cards to build my credit, but I pay them off every month. Now the only debt I carry is my mortgage. I don't even have a car payment - hooray! I wish I could have learned that lesson without the years of trouble and tons of interest. As for all of you who get yourselves massively in debt and then declare bankrupty I say "PFFT" to you! You're the reason the rest of us have to pay ridiculous interest rates. If you have the poor judgement to get into debt in the first place (like me), then get yourself out of it too! Mine is all gone, but I went through a period right after law school where it ballooned to about $13 grand. It all started when I put my post-bar-exam vacation on a card. I thought I "deserved" two weeks in Hawaii. I didn't. I should have been responsible and not started down that road. It took several years of up and down balances to learn my lesson. Rob, I think the people who write "I don't have any debt, because I'm better and more righteous than you, and if you have debt I don't know how you can look yourselves in the mirror every morning, much less restrain yourself from committing suicide" -- anyhoo, these people should shut their pie holes. Seriously, sometimes things just happen. I mean, I certainly didn't ask to be hit by an uninsured driver, or develop MS symptoms, or have to drive home when my grandma got sick. No I am NOT blameless, and I shouldn't have bought that plane ticket to London on credit, but sometimes THINGS HAPPEN. End of rant. I got a credit card in college with a way too high percentage rate and I had student loans as well, I was $10,000 in debt by the time I left collage 9 years ago. I paid off the student loans in 3 years, but did not pay off the rest until about a year ago. On a side rant, I think it is horrible how the credit card companies take advantage of the poorness and naiveté of college students by offering them those really high interest cards, not that I don't take responsibility for my mistakes, but the temptation is overwhelming when you are living off top ramen. Impulse buying. (45,365) I got divorced and had to rebuild my life..$6000 at the moment, was like $10,000 beginning of year. :( Stupidity. First thing I bought was a knife, a cheesy knock-off Ghurka from some shop in Pidgeon Forge, TN. It snowballed from there. Highest total credit card debt - $20,000. Re-fi'd a couple of years ago on the house and added that debt to the mortgage. Got on the Dave Ramsey plan and cut up credit cards. Only have the van & house to pay off. Credit cards suck... Actually, I don't have any credit debt. I always try to spend less than I make. Credit card debt is evil. Years ago I had credit card debt and student loans to pay off. So I got a consolidation loan and paid off the credit card and the loans. I was still in debt, but my monthly load was much easier. Then, I was stupid and racked up another few grand of credit card debt. Then guess what I did? I got *another* consolidation loan, paid off my credit card, and then I was *totally* stupid and racked up even *more* credit card debt. I've carried a balance for years, always being within a few hundred dollars of being maxed out. And so drastic times call for drastic measures: in June I moved into the smallest, cheapest basement apartment I could find and have resolved to tough it out there for a year to get out of debt. As of July 1, I have $5400 on my credit card. That sucker is going down! While some people might say "that's not that bad", it's bad enough for me! How did I accumluate all that debt? I wish I had something specific to point to, but it's all stupid stuff: Amazon, porn, clothes, gas while on vacation, porn. I swear on a stack of Bibles that once I pay off my credit card, I'll never make the same mistakes again. Illicit Drugs $1000000 $0 credit card debt thanks to a full scholarship. Thank you state-supported university! In college, it was up to around $5000 - I built a darkroom and bought a lot of art-related consumables. I paid it off after a few years, but recently racked up an addtional $1000 for my new Mac. meat. By paying off my other credit cards. $12,000. Three kids, one salary. i don't have a credit card yet. fuck that noise. i am still in school up in canada and i have 7000 and rising How did I accumulate the debt? Simple: I let my husband keep his credit card instead of confiscating it. His card now has a balance of over $1200, mostly spent on stuff like tools, computer equipment, movies, and basically anything that he thinks might be cool when he's suffering from a fit of boredom and forgets that he already has a bunch of stuff to play with at home. This card will never finish being paid off, thanks to his equally heinous decision to get a Bally's membership, which extracts payment from our Mastercard monthly. None. I make $50,000/yr, live with my parents and don't buy anything. I may be a loser, but I'm a rich loser. Suckas. Mine isn't bad because I pay it off every couple months. $500, most of that is dirtbike parts. I don't have any credit card debt. I am 28. $12,000 from a McDonalds' binge Never had any. Always paid 'em off. I prefer mortgage debt. Mmm, fun mortgage debt. $0. I am a cheap bastard. $46000 for a wedding. You know that country Iraq....well lets just say things got outta hand.....G. Bush How: 9 months unemployed. How much: Only a couple thousand, but I was borrowing money from my parents for rent the last couple months. They paid of the card and added it to what I owe them. Down to $6000 now, but interest free. Love you mom and dad! various ways: buying furniture,computers, gifts; traveling; moving 1000 miles; being a full-time student in a big city with a high cost of living and a low-wage part-time job. Plus I can't resist clothes and shoes on clearance (and internet shopping doesn't help). I've got at least $15K on my credit cards. With my student loans and now a mortgage I doubt I'll ever pay it all off..... wooing my girlfriend $3200 - bad math when traveling in Europe, eating out at nice places too often, buying clothes (that was necessary), a couple of weekend car rentals, and $300/month of aesthetics treatments (totally necessary, and not of the relaxing variety). I'm working on a budget to have it all paid off by Christmas. My wife and I got married while I was looking for a job. It only took three months on one income to turn her $2000 of credit card debt into $10,000 just covering household expenses (i.e. eating out, going to the movies... just enjoying being newlyweds). We've learned the hard way but now I'm working, we don't use the card anymore, and are paying 20% more than the minimum payment to get rid of the debt. NONE to all of you who say "no debt. don't spend what you don't have" or "no debt. i have no CCs", life is gonna catch up to you and bite you in the ass one of these days. like when your cat needs a dental procedure and ends up getting inhalation pneumonia during surgery and then spends a couple of days in an oxygen box for a grand total of $4000 (happened to my sister) you'll wish you had a card to pay for it. you don't always have large sums of money lined up for emergencies, that's what the card is for. also, no cards and you'll have very little credit to go on for important stuff like cars and houses. if you pay it off in full, you are not gaining much credit either. you need to carry a bit of a balance to earn credit. i owe like $700 now from a peak of $3000 or so. applying to med school and going to interviews is not cheap. also, 0% intro interest is great for large expenses (big car repair) you know you can pay off in a few months. $3,000 in college. Mail order clothing, fast food, rent and candy. I accumulated my credit card debt by paying my other credit card debt with my credit card. Living beyond my means. 15 G's -Car repair (ironic since a chick rear-ended me last week and totaled it, thus negating my careful maintenance practices without negating the debt therein incurred) -Home repairs -Gas -Groceries I accumulated about $10,000 almost exclusively on 1) car repairs; 2) vet bills, and 3) self-improvement workshops. So I've worked on my 'issues' but I'm broke. 2 chicks at the same time man $10k, mostly on 6 years of heavy drinking and a couple of trips to Cancun. My mother lost her job and all of the jobs she was qualified for were outsourced. She couldn't even get a job at McDonald's because she was too old. I have been supporting her for about for years (I'm 22), and the first year I tried to remain in school - I currently have $12,000 in students loans and about $10,000 in credit cards. I work full time and will be going back to community college this fall, and my mother is finally getting back on her feet. $5,000 Pool table, medical bills and phone bills my husband, rob, is addicted to making crappy Halloween costumes. he spends all of our money on googly eyes and PVC pipe. my 15 month old daughter, June, doesn't have any toys. he sold them all for hot glue sticks. too much porno drugs, gotta have drugs $17,547.45 -- It's those darn garden gnomes. Somehow, I accumulated nearly 43.61 in Credit Card debt via PayPal, buying some cockeyed stuff on ebay. I hope to have it paid off within 3 years, but, it might take 4. Tuition is rather expensive. And I am also addicted to buying records. My father always ingrained into my head that I shouldn't get a credit card. The lessons started in grade school, and pretty much stuck with me. Credit card = bad. Also I pretty much understood that if I don't have money now, I probably won't at the end of the month. Last year of college and I'm 25,000 in the hole, (no idea how I'm going to pay it off). Got a Best Buy card a couple months ago to get a camera giving me about $300 in CC debt. Right now only $184 left after my last payment (clothes as I've gone down two sizes since February). Worst I've ever been at is $2000, and I paid that off within four months (computer + part ofa trip to England). Mom and dad always taught me to be verrrry careful using credit. Right after college I bought a house with no money down (because I didn't have any) then sold it a couple months later, that paid for all my college expenses.... Hey, I have a duplex in Citrus Heights, if your interested in advertising it on your site I will give you $7,000 if someone buys it through your site. If your interested you can call me at 916-223-3486 or brent346@hotmail.com none. no credit card. damn not being old enough... $8000 on women, beer, pot, cocaine, meals in restaurants, and a TIG welder. The rest I just wasted. Hookers, beer and high-colonics. $7000. Had to pay a college tuition bill, federal loans were maxed out, couldn't get the money through any other source in a timely fashion. About $7k total. A violin, and kids, and only one income. We slowly pay it off as we pass it around to various no-interest credit cards. I had a trust fund (I know, boo-hoo poor baby) and I had arranged payments with a couple credit card companies so I could pay every three months when I received a check. Well, I crammed 4 years of school into 6.5 years through shear will and excellent time management skills and in year 5 the money dried up. I had $32,000 in bills and just over $12,000 in the bank. Whoops. Ten years later (and a law degree to pay for) I'm down to about $3,000. No credit card debt (yet) but 16,000 left from a stafford loan. Ug. I borrowed my fiancee (now husband)'s platinum card and maxed it out without him knowing about it. Don't worry he knows now. $10,000.00 est I got married, and let my wife take care of the bills. We were two payments ahead on each of our cars, but only making the minimum payment on the credit cards! That's when I found out she didn't have to take an economics course in high school. I took over the budget, took a loan out agains my 401k, and paid off the $6000 in credit card debt. over 15K because I lost my job and it took over 6 months to find a new one 305,500 peak. Formula Atlantic, paid for by MC, Visa, AmEx, and Discover simultaneously. ChampCar contract covered it, though. - J. Villeneuve Renovating a house - we are at about 50k and counting... student loans, beer, fast cars, hospital bills 11,500 dollars (estimate) student loans:4,000 beer:2,000 fast car: 3,000 hospital bills: 2,500 learning that beer + fast cars = hospital bills: priceless College, food, veterinary surgery. Currently? 5kish, I think. I wonder why we do this to ourselves, sometimes. pule auctions Supporting myself during college. Sadly, two jobs did not cut it without parental support. At the most it was nearly $8K with late fees, etc. Now my credit is ruined but I don't have any credit cards and have paid it all off! The credit card companies are even sending me love letters again. I thought they'd forsaken me for a few years there, but I guess they came to their senses! YO LIEK I BUYYZ THE GOLD RIM 4 MY HOOPTYS YO ON TEH VISA CARDS GOT LIEK 90G ON IT BITCH Hookers. For me, it's not that high, just $300. College textbooks, new car (yes, I purchased a car on a credit card)/ car repair, computer / computer upgrades. The highest the balance ever was was probably $8,000-9,000. It is precently $0. (Only because my grandmother passed away a few years after I graduated college and there was enough money left to pay off my $7,000+ debt.) Back in the late '80s, I got a GEnie account and discovered online RPGs for $6/hour. I was just maxing out my second credit card (total around $5000 IIRC, paying about $350-$450/month) when they hired me as a GameMaster and I got a free account. Whew! I can't complain, though -- one of the people I met in the game is now my husband and we'll be having our 10th anniversary next month. :D Definitely worth it. I don't have any now, but about two years out of college, I had paid off all my debt (about $5k) and saved enough to buy a used BMW. I plunked down a big down payment, but then I had to go on this white-water rafting vacation my friend's girlfriend had arranged for his birthday, and it cost big bucks, so I started carrying a balance on my credit card, about $1000, but it took me a year to pay off. Never again. Maybe you should look into Dave Ramsey, he seems to have some good ideas (although extreme) about how to reduce credit card debt. Hope this helps, sorry for the (verbosity? loquaciousness?) length of this email. Drew Hevle www.hevle.com I didn't. My parents were cheap bastards who raised me to fear credit cards. But my roommate racked up $3000 in credit card debt buying Magic: the Gathering cards. I currently have about $5500, down from about $7500 just two years ago. It also came from school, not only was I barely making enough to live off of while working a full time job, but I owed more than financial aid would give me, thus the usage of credit cards. Now I have that AND loans to pay off. Go education. I accumulated about $2500 in credit card debt the last year of college. It was mostly spent on premium gin in my gin and tonics. These days I can afford that much alcohol, but my body can't keep up. Got into $5000 worth of debt in between the ages of 18-20. Shopping for shoes and clothes and anything else I wanted. Paid it off after a couple of years & now I don't have a credit card. I haven't had one in 10 years. It is possible not to have one. I don't have any credit cards because the creditors don't trust me with them. 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"$ ***$*"$" .$ e$$.$$$$e *$ $ *e $ *==* "" "" .$$$$$$e $. $ $. $ .$$$$$$$$.$$ " $ *$ ..ee$$$$$$$$$$ $ $ *. $e .$$$$$$$$*$$C$$$$$ $ $ $ "$ .e$$$$$$$*$$e*"""*$$$ $ " $ $ ..e$$$$$$$***"" "*C .e e $e *$ e$$$"""" "*" $e. *$ $ $$" ..e.. $$$e. $ *$ "*. .e=**"""""$$. ...$$$$$$.. e $. $ e*" e$$$$$eeeeeee$$$$$$$$$$$$$e $ "$ $. ..e*" .e$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $. *e """""" .ee$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$e $ $ .$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ C *e $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ "$ $ .e*"$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $ $. .$* $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ C $$.e*" $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $ " "$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$" "$ .$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$**" i have about $3,000 in credit card debt. while still stupid enough to use things, i bought a sequencer, a bass amp, and about 4 million meals. this all totalled up to about $800. the rest is interest and fees. don't get a credit card. I'm 28 and I don't have a credit card, the times when the bank tried to give me such one I refused to take it. If I can't afford it simply I don't buy it. I lived very cheaply through college, worked during the summers, and didn't have a credit card. When I finished, I had 0 debt. It may have been weird to other people that I didn't go out spending money I didn't have on things I didn't need during that time, but it sure has made things a _lot_ easier since then. I have approx. $1500 in credit card debt from buying too much crap from Ebay auctions. 300 $6000 left. Ugh. Living overseas after college was paid for cleanly, but coming back to the states without a job, transportation, a place to live, and my deferrment on student loan payments running out was a bad combination. Most of it was just for food and clothes suitable for work, and a chunk to move to somewhere with jobs. I ask my wife all the time how she managed to rack up $13000, but I still can't figure it out. Hi Rob, after I quit my job in television and went back to school, I quickly accumulated about $8,000 in debt. I simply did not realize how much I was paying in interest when I made only the minimum payments. I wished I'd made more of an effort to work part-time and pay more attention to that debt. One of my recent jobs was teaching people about credit and money management. For ANYONE who carries a credit card balance, I recommend visiting www.BankRate.com, and using the calculator for the True Cost of Minimum Payments. It will scare you into paying off your credit cards as quick as you can. Matt Was up to about $10,000. Weddings are expensive. Paid off this year, but I still owe about $3,800 on the car. I'm 29 and I've never been in debt. Admittedly, I did not go to a 4 year college and only have an AA degree, but even so, I've owned only a few credit cards at any one time, and have NEVER carried a balance. You know how I did it? I never bought anything I couldn't afford. I can't believe how many people live beyond their means. 0; too scared of the interest rates $10,000 + $15,000 in student loans. All within 2 years of college not working My hemo-dialysis center doesn't take cash for my treatments, so I put it all on my credit cards. My state-paid health insurance agency is a bunch of goddamned liars... A kidney transplant will cost me about $22,000. Almost made it out of college without any debt whatsover, but then I got a card for 'emergencies' my senior year, and damn it all if they didn't keep raising the limit, and now I'm in about $4k deep, mostly from not being able to spend any actual cash during some shakeups with moving apartments. Delicious NYC restaurants and alcoholism also helped put me in the hole. On the bright side, I'm gradually and steadily paying it off without adding any more on it. I'll get out of the hole someday. Well, I decided I REALLY needed a MacBook Pro. But there's only about $1500 left and it's on a line of credit, not a credit card, so I'm not doing so bad. I really want some beer and burritos now, though. :( I am 16 years old, I have no credit cards I went a little nuts when I turned 18 and racked up about $5,000 in a year or two. I am now 24 and have paid it all off and I don't even have any credit cards. I'm contemplating getting one for emergencies but I don't entirely trust myself to be responsible with it yet. living expenses when I was unemployed for ten months =$6400 Hookers and blow. I got up to about $8,000 mostly with the help of a romantic interrest. She didn't help me pay it off. Forget credit card debt. I'll be paying off student loans forever Before we gor married we were in debt for about $60K, we saved up and paid for our own wedding, paid off our cars, and even had enough for a down payment on our home. We have been debt free ever since and only owe on the house. Push comes to shove, we would be able to liquidate our assets and finish the mortgage with $30K left over. OBTW, thanks for my fifteen minutes, Rob. Our relationship has blossomed over the year. I started with sending you a bathtime basket for June's birth and karma returned me a pgae in that "life's little annoyances" book. I also got on CNN being renacted by the anchor. Cockeyed made me famous! --CB $0. & my credit score is 788 :) ( I'm 21 ) I maintain my balance at no higher than 30% of the available balance on that card, and pay it off before any interest accrues. Mine is about $2200, and I still have two years of college left. (Eek!) Most of the debt is from trips to Chipotle and Target. Eating the wrong duck. It is a gerund, look it up (kind of. well, it is a verbal of some sort. sue me.). $5k. Food, beer, smokes, one-legged midget hookers, and gas for my truck. I just calculated all of my debt. It stands at $15545. 3 Credit Cards and 1 broken sports car. I currently am in a place to have it all eliminated in the next 18 months. A little of this (ill-fated attempt at college), a little of that (dead-beat boyfriend who could not afford to buy groceries for himself). Factor that in with the fact that I was a super-depressed teenager who believed that her day-to-day existence was contingent on $300 skirts from Anthropologie and I had over $30K in debt by the time that I was 22-years old. (In sum: Blatantly stupidity.) Have since stopped acting like a complete moron and am intelligently managing my debt via a consolidation program. Two more years to go and I'm free! A new marriage Wedding, Honeymoon, Grad school and first baby (combined with first layoff)... maybe $20K ugh. i have so much credit card debt. 13k to be exact. 3500 of that is for some dental work i got done this year. the rest of it is just credit from all my years of living and not being more aggressive in paying it off and still using it. hopefully, one day i can mail off that last check to pay it. Red Sox tickets, $220 I have no credit card debt - my paycheck goes straight to Coors. Oh NO we have to use credit cards for emergencies - instead of having money in an account for that specific purpose. If you own more than one television, own a television bigger than 20", own a car worth more than 2000 dollars, own a house worth more than 30,000 dollars, and you have credit card debt, you are living beyond your means. That money that was well spent and not above budget until you had your accident should have been in a bank account. Sorry to be bitter but the savings rate in America is 0 - because of idiots that think credit cards are for emergencies. $4000 college. too much I wish I could say I bought an exotic pet or splashed out on a designer bag...mine came from school expenses. I live in Canada and was attending grad school in US. Most of the time it was online but sometimes I'd have to come to the States. Hotel, books, booze that killer monogrammed shirt that totally looked like it had been bedazzled which I HAD to have...Also the odd vacation to NYC or AZ (why I thought spending all that money at Sephora was a good investment is beyond me)and the gym. That $30 a month really adds up if you aren't acutally working out. Now I'm just fat. Oh and my cell phone. Stupid phone. So easy to talk. So hard to pay. Same story. I currently am carrying 5Gs from 5 years of school and still going. I got a good internship that pays well but all my money goes to sex drugs and rock and roll...leaving the credit card for car, food and books. I always say I will pay it off when I graduate, this is a bit of an eye opener...maybe I will cut out the drugs...or food...or not. Wow! A new credit card? For ME???!!! Oh boy, more toys!!!! uhm.... Gee. I'm paying the minimum and I don't have any money left for anything else... No problem, there's space on my NEW credit card!!! $13,000 in debt later, I got smart and contacted Consumer Credit Counciling and Education Service in northern Virginia. They helped me work out a repayment plan with my creditors and I got out of debt after a few years. They also didn't charge me anything! hookers $0 i have never had more than $100 in credit card debt. i worked at least 25 hours/week and had student loans instead. in retro-sepct i should have racked up credit card debt instead. it appears people who put themselves in hock when they were younger have a better credit rating than me - including my recent ex-roomate who lived on credit cards for three years while he barely worked, slept late , and drank almost every day. i dont pay finance charges don't have any School (art) supplies, Bus and train tickets, General Art supplies,Clothes. £3,000 all paid off 3 moths ago :-) college debt. it's in loan form now but it's around $58,000! $0. I don't own a credit card! :) And somehow I pre-qualified for a $500,000 mortgage from my bank. Go figure... debt incurred b/c of income to spending ratio exceeded. i'm at about $8k at least. My Little Ponies, fireworks, yarn Hawaiian Shirts, $15,000 having a baby and a car wreck at the same time- 10,000 I pay my card off every month, but my sister-in-law has quite a story. Her husband fell back into doing drugs without her realizing. He was in charge of the finances for their home and for their business. He was using all his cash on drugs and whatever people on drugs spend money on. Meanwhile, he was paying all their bills, including the mortgage and their employees' salaries, with the credit card cash advance checks. When sis finally figured out what was happening, they were over $80k in debt. She divorced him and had to sell their house to pay off the debt. When I first met my husband, I was making more money than he was, and yet he paid for a lot more. We went out to eat, and away for the weekend, etc. After about a year, he had racked up about $5,000. The main tactic we used to pay it off was to make an aggressive payment right after payday. Then, if we ran out of money before the next paycheck, we would use the card to cover any bare necessities. That way we ended up paying a lot more each month than we otherwise thought we'd be able to afford. Oh, and of course we looked at the credit card offers in the mail, until we got on with 0% for a year. That helps, if you're actually going to pay something off in a short time. 1995: New baby + me quitting my job to stay home with her + husband with one semester left of law school = ~$5000 of credit card debt. It took us about 3 years to pay it off. Ugh! Much like yourself, and a lot of other college students, I ranked up a large credit card debt prior to graduation. My parents were nice enough to split it with me (as a graduation present) and my debt was subsequently reduced to $10,000. I was making minimum payments, moved out to the West Coast, and got into a motorcycle accident - without health insurance. That added another $24,000 to debt load. Throw in my company going under and having to live off credit cards for another 3+ months, and my debt balooned to a total of $42,000. It was monsterous. The interest was killing me, and it was all I could do to pay my bills month to month. I considered filing for bankruptcy. When a good friend of mine (one of those financial genius types) decided to help me out. Instead of filing for bankruptcy, he told me just to default on my debt. Without any assets, he called my creditors on my behalf (after I signed over a limited power of attorney), and started to negotiate. They didn't budge. So my friend asked me if I felt an obligation to repay my debts, or if I would allow him to get nasty. I'll be honest, I wanted to pay my debts, but after calculating how long it would take me to pay them all off - I really didn't feel like I had much of a choice! It would've taken me 10 years to pay back $42,000 at 18.5% interest. So, since my creditors weren't willing to negotiate, we decided to get nasty. Check this out. We sued them!!! My buddy started by sending them requests, and they didn't comply with some obscure reporting statutes - so I ended up not paying them anything!! NOT A DIME. It was the most unbelievable feeling, going from a massive and depressing debt, to being totally debt free. Much like yourself, and a lot of other college students, I racked up a large credit card debt prior to graduation. My parents were nice enough to split it with me (as a graduation present) and my debt was subsequently reduced to $10,000. I was making minimum payments, moved out to the West Coast, and got into a motorcycle accident - without health insurance. That added another $24,000 to debt load. Throw in my company going under and having to live off credit cards for another 3+ months, and my debt balooned to a total of $42,000. It was monsterous. The interest was killing me, and it was all I could do to pay my bills month to month. I considered filing for bankruptcy. When a good friend of mine (one of those financial genius types) decided to help me out. Instead of filing for bankruptcy, he told me just to default on my debt. Without any assets, he called my creditors on my behalf (after I signed over a limited power of attorney), and started to negotiate. They didn't budge. So my friend asked me if I felt an obligation to repay my debts, or if I would allow him to get nasty. I'll be honest, I wanted to pay my debts, but after calculating how long it would take me to pay them all off - I really didn't feel like I had much of a choice! It would've taken me 10 years to pay back $42,000 at 18.5% interest. So, since my creditors weren't willing to negotiate, we decided to get nasty. Check this out. We sued them!!! My buddy started by sending them requests, and they didn't comply with some obscure reporting statutes - so I ended up not paying them anything!! NOT A DIME. It was the most unbelievable feeling, going from a massive and depressing debt, to being totally debt free. Much like yourself, and a lot of other college students, I racked up a large credit card debt prior to graduation. My parents were nice enough to split it with me (as a graduation present) and my debt was subsequently reduced to $10,000. I was making minimum payments, moved out to the West Coast, and got into a motorcycle accident - without health insurance. That added another $24,000 to debt load. Throw in my company going under and having to live off credit cards for another 3+ months, and my debt balooned to a total of $42,000. It was monsterous. The interest was killing me, and it was all I could do to pay my bills month to month. I considered filing for bankruptcy. When a good friend of mine (one of those financial genius types) decided to help me out. Instead of filing for bankruptcy, he told me just to default on my debt. Without any assets, he called my creditors on my behalf (after I signed over a limited power of attorney), and he started to negotiate. They didn't budge. So my friend asked me if I felt an obligation to repay my debts, or if I would allow him to get nasty. I'll be honest, I wanted to pay my debts, but after calculating how long it would take me to pay them all off - I really didn't feel like I had much of a choice! It would've taken me 10 years to pay back $42,000 at 18.5% interest. So, since my creditors weren't willing to negotiate, we decided to get nasty. Check this out. We sued them!!! My buddy started by sending them requests, and they didn't comply with some obscure reporting statutes - so I ended up not paying them anything!! NOT A DIME. It was the most unbelievable feeling, going from a massive and depressing debt, to being totally debt free. Much like yourself, and a lot of other college students, I racked up a large credit card debt prior to graduation. My parents were nice enough to split it with me (as a graduation present) and my debt was subsequently reduced to $10,000. I was making minimum payments, moved out to the West Coast, and got into a motorcycle accident - without health insurance. That added another $24,000 to debt load. Throw in my company going under and having to live off credit cards for another 3+ months, and my debt balooned to a total of $42,000. It was monsterous. The interest was killing me, and it was all I could do to pay my bills month to month. I considered filing for bankruptcy. When a good friend of mine (one of those financial genius types) decided to help me out. Instead of filing for bankruptcy, he told me just to default on my debt. Without any assets, he called my creditors on my behalf (after I signed over a limited power of attorney), and he started to negotiate. They didn't budge. So my friend asked me if I felt an obligation to repay my debts, or if I would allow him to get nasty. I'll be honest, I wanted to pay my debts, but after calculating how long it would take me to pay them all off - I really didn't feel like I had much of a choice! It would've taken me 10 years to pay back $42,000 at 18.5% interest. So, since my creditors weren't willing to negotiate, we decided to get nasty. Check this out. We sued them!!! My buddy started by sending them requests, and they didn't comply with some obscure reporting statutes - so I ended up not paying them anything!! NOT A DIME. It was the most unbelievable feeling, going from a massive and depressing debt, to being totally debt free. You know Rob, you should do a report on credit reports!! Those companies are really evil. No accountibility. Wouldn't it be great if you had a dispute with your bank, car loan, or credit card company - and you could put them out of business with just one phone call? That what these credit reporting agencies do. They take the word of one party at face value, and without any verification process whatsoever, they ruin the life of the opposing party - meaning you and me. That's why I think it's only fair that we fight back. These credit card companies induce us to spend! They make a living off of putting us (and keeping us) in debt! It's financial servitude, and these companies prey upon the ingorance of youth. College kids who don't know any better. Well I say what's good for the goose is good for the gander. I'm just thankful that I had a friend who could help me out. You should look him up, his name is Alexander J. Goodwin, and (just like everyone else on the planet) he has a MySpace account. He'd give you great information for a story. He told me a bunch of his stories from other friends and clients he's helped, and they're totally insane. Anyway, good luck with the rest of the article you're working on - I totally love your site!! Keep up the good work!! I don't have any CC debt, unless $104 counts as "debt." Granted, I pay most everything in cash, live at home, don't have a car, have no social life or girlfriend to spend on, and I only download the *free* porn. I'd always avoided getting a credit card because I'd seen how damaging they can be. I finally got one because my bank wouldn't overdraft from my savings account, only a credit card. It's now maxed out at $4000. Which isn't much, I admit, and would be fine if I didn't also have a couple of loans equaling over 12,000. Not including my 140K mortage, of course. Yikes! Tina d. Don't have any! I carefully didn't. I dipped out quite a lot, and sometimes I had to sell stuff so that I could eat, but I got through with a thousand dollar overdraft (with no interest) and no credit card, right up till my last year of uni, then I blew out to a $2000 overdraft, of which $1000 was interest free. I was also very happy when I paid that back.... Cheers Bitches, all those bitches. 3000 dollars. Secret military missions into the Congo none :) Vet and car bills - $9,300 By never paying them back. They kept adding a late payment charge AND a charge or being over the limit. EVERY MONTH. I would have paid, but I had lost my job and had no means to pay. I ended up owing 300% more than my actual credit limit was. Robbers. $4000, during college. It went for books, beer, and fun times in expensive cities. Worst part? Realizing that every time I forgot to make a payment ("oh, no biggie, I'll just pay it tomorrow"), they jacked up my interest rate by 5 points. Lesson learned: procrastination + credit cards = a lifetime of wage slavery. Highest mine ever went was 1450 (within 50 of my limit) How you ask? New brakes/rotars for the truck, insurance on the truck, insurance on the boat, gas for both, gas for my car...now we have to sell the boat to pay it off...its at about 700 now... Economical by nature and a smart and frugal shopper, I've always paid my credit card bill in full each month. But this afternoon I committed $300,000 to a house (my first!), so my experience with debt begins.... A Funny Story About Credit Card Debt When my wife and I were teenagers we went to the same high school. Afterwards, she went to college at Florida State; I joined the Navy and was assigned to a submarine in Washington, near Seattle. After that time being apart we "met" each other again and we became engaged; I flew down to Florida and proposed to her, spending about a week in Tallahassee. All in all the trip cost me about $1500. Being in the Navy, I didn't have much money so I put the cost on a credit card I had just acquired, which pretty much maxed it out. The first deployment after our engagement had a port visit in Hawaii. My new financé understandably wanted to come over to visit me while I was off during that time. She was with me in Washington but was going to work in Florida while I was gone. "Okay," I said, "we still have some of the trip to Florida to pay off. If you continue working and pay it off, and save enough for a flight to Hawaii, you can come over." I wasn't too worried, we'd get two days tops because of the schedule, so even if she failed to make it would not have been a big deal. Sure enough my ship arrived in Pearl Harbor, and I was so proud to see her on the dock with the other girlfriends and wives. It seemed like a long time before we tied to the pier and set up our land connections, but finally we were together. We picked up a rental car to get to the hotel we were staying at. At one point I said, "Sweetie, I'm very proud of what you did, paying off the credit card and saving enough to get to Hawaii so we could be together for a few days." She looked kind of crestfallen, and finally she admitted that while I was gone the credit card company sent me a letter saying that because I had a balance and had been paying it off on time I was eligible for a new $2500 limit, which she in turn used to pay for the flight, hotel, and car rental in Hawaii. I think at some point we maxed out at $6000, just being stupid for lack of a better term, but after I got out of the military we were able to pay it all off, to the point where we were finally able to get our own house. We're still married after just recently celebrating six years together, and I wouldn't give her up for the world, but I always kind of laugh when I think of that story. A Funny Story About Credit Card Debt When my wife and I were teenagers we went to the same high school. Afterwards, she went to college at Florida State; I joined the Navy and was assigned to a submarine in Washington, near Seattle. After that time being apart we "met" each other again and we became engaged; I flew down to Florida and proposed to her, spending about a week in Tallahassee. All in all the trip cost me about $1500. Being in the Navy, I didn't have much money so I put the cost on a credit card I had just acquired, which pretty much maxed it out. The first deployment after our engagement had a port visit in Hawaii. My new financé understandably wanted to come over to visit me while I was off during that time. She was with me in Washington but was going to work in Florida while I was gone. "Okay," I said, "we still have some of the trip to Florida to pay off. If you continue working and pay it off, and save enough for a flight to Hawaii, you can come over." I wasn't too worried, we'd get two days tops because of the schedule, so even if she failed to make it would not have been a big deal. Sure enough my ship arrived in Pearl Harbor, and I was so proud to see her on the dock with the other girlfriends and wives. It seemed like a long time before we tied to the pier and set up our land connections, but finally we were together. We picked up a rental car to get to the hotel we were staying at. At one point I said, "Sweetie, I'm very proud of what you did, paying off the credit card and saving enough to get to Hawaii so we could be together for a few days." She looked kind of crestfallen, and finally she admitted that while I was gone the credit card company sent me a letter saying that because I had a balance and had been paying it off on time I was eligible for a new $2500 limit, which she in turn used to pay for the flight, hotel, and car rental in Hawaii. I think at some point we maxed out at $6000, just being stupid for lack of a better term, but after I got out of the military we were able to pay it all off, to the point where we were finally able to get our own house. We're still married after just recently celebrating six years together, and I wouldn't give her up for the world, but I always kind of laugh when I think of that story. Buying books and computer games. And also paying rent. Currently just under £2000, I'm not sure what that is in dollars... maybe $3500ish? buying things on the internet - $200 $6000 in around 6 months My Toyota 4x4 Pickup blew a head gasket. So I bought a used 89' Toyota 4runner because my pickup's engine had about 400,000 miles on it. The 4 runner blew a head gasket. So I bought a new engine for my original pickup. The irony is, 6 months after I bought it (warranty expired) it blew the head gasket. 2000 I have about 2000 in credit card debt. Its just from being irresponsible, but I'm working on paying them off now and I will not use them after that, its too much of a stresser and waste of money. a laptop and regular ol' expenses It's paid off now, but my approx. $5k came to me exactly like yours did. Paying it off was a beyotch and I already have my speeches planned for when I drop jr. off at college. I think you already published all the responses you received, but I thought you might enjoy reading mine anyway. I have no debt, well my mortgage for my condo, but does that really count? Why? Simply put, I followed all the suggestions on how to build credit (I now have a credit score way above 800) and not get into bad debt. Bad debt being debt you can't pay off. Good debt is owing money and slowly paying it off. I got a checking account right out of high school with a credit line of $500 (counts as credit), and my first credit card which I paid off every month, then a personal loan to but a cheap used car. Once I paid off the personal loan (at a very high interest rate) I learned that you don't build your credit with credit cards where you always pay off the balances every month. So I started floating a $1k balance on the one card (not difficult since there are always things you want and can't afford) and just paying any charges above that. Yes, the interest sucks, but this is how you build credit. Then a new car loan, a few other credit cards to start the floating $1k balance with for diversity of credit and then my first mortgage for a condo. Then sold the condo and got a mortage for a house. I still have a balance hovering around $1k on one credit card (got rid of the others years ago after they served their purpose), but use my debit card for most purchases. Because like some of the other posters state, you are really only paying for what you can afford since the money automatically comes out of your checking account. I have sat down with many of my friends and family and spoken frankly with them about all the ins and outs of credit and how having great credit gets you low rates on everything from credit cards to mortgages and how having bad credit means you may not even be able to get the phone or other necessary utilities turned on. I have had a number of friends that have had their homes taken away from them, alot of them have filed bankrupcy (one person twice), and the smart ones have sought out credit counciling and debt consolidation. If you tell your mortgage folks that you are having trouble they WILL listen to you, so will most creditors. They would rather get SOMETHING than foreclose on your house or take you to collections. In the end, when they do this, they lose money, you get crappy credit - everyone loses. I know this is way too long to be posted, but again, I thought you might find it interesting Pushing $40K. This is a husband and wife team debt, we both came with our own (mine was worse but she has school loans and I don't). And what a litany of poor choices. I couldn't tell you much about hers pre-relationship (well, I guess I can note there's no degree to go with those substantial graduate school loans) but I can exactly pinpoint when my own path began - summer of '93, after Junior year, when that chemistry internship fell through, and I couldn't bear to go back to home (tiny town) and live with the parents (saw older sister and brother do it while in high school, dreadful). So I took an apartment in the city, discovered real work still sucked, burned through my savings and put my first persistent balance on the ol' Discover card. Fast forward to my first real job, and I foolishly thinking my 27.5 salary was big money, buy a stereo, a television, my first VCR. Pay it all off in a year, sure. Fast forward to that period of intermittent employment. That "business" I started. Couple of REAL BAD personal decisions I'd rather not talk about. Get married. Honeymoon in Hawaii? Why not. Buy a car. Buy a house. Premature Baby? Stay at home dad! The truly sick thing is while it is stable now and we no longer shop with money we don't have to spend, due to the credit frenzy of the bottom of the interest cycle and our superb credit due to a wise home purchase at the same time, plus (despite just terrible financial decisions all the way through) being absolutely dedicated to always paying at least the minimum on time, I was inundated with low rate, fixed rate balance transfer offers, carefully read and selected the absolute best ones, and now it is the cheapest debt we have. Average is less than the house, less than the school loans or home line of credit, cheaper than everything but the car before it was paid off (.9%, pre 9-11 year end clearance or that would have been nothing). So the incentive to pay it off is much harder to muster. I shudder to think how much I'm going to have to pay for that stereo before it is finally eradicated in about 5-7 years (c'est la vie!) $20,000 Hookers, gin, and student loans Rather than a credit card, I use debit. Late night food delivery to my college and martial arts movies have depleted my savings. I'd guess about 1500$ has gone into that after two years of college. Buying a house. I don't want to know how high it is. Really. No, please, don't tell me. My current Credit Card debt is only about 1600$. The highest it's gotten was a little over 3500$ (After a year of dating and conventions). To this day I've paid almost NO money in intrest. ALL of my payments have been to the principle amount owed? How did I do this? Simple. I took advantage of those moronic companies and every year I'd get a new 0% intrest credit card. Some cards allow you to transfer the initial balance for free. Others charge a small percentage. Overall I've saved thousands in intrest payments by playing the industry and beating em at their own game. moving to new york. living in new york. getting married in new york. i had it down to under $2000 (working for years to get it that low) and then i got married this summer and its back up to around $4000. sigh never had any. i never put money on a card unless i could pay it off. the only money I currently owe is my mortgage. I used to be a bartender three nights a week, and lived a very high-faloutin' lifestlye. Fancy brunches, impulse purchases, etc. After I quit that job to focus on my real career, it took me a long time to adjust to the sudden loss of $300-$500 a week. By the time I got a handle on things I was $5000 in debt! Plus I had to buy a new engine for my car and a bunch of studio gear for my band. I think I might have to get another bartending job to pay it all off. My husband and I experienced several years of scant work opportunities and relied on credit cards for food, clothes, and the usual to get us through those months-years of $10/hour. Also my husband is from a "3rd World" country and didn't have a good grasp of how credit cards work so he tended to get a little out of control with them. We got a good slap in the face when we decided to buy a house and got a hold of our credit report. At its highest the debt was at around $15,000 and we had to use a debt reduction program to get it under control. Curse those damn cards!!! Now, however, everything is cash-and-carry and it's so liberating!!! Hey Rob. This is an old one, but I was looking over the site today and decided to add my two cents. After my wife and I got married, we accumulated a boatload of debt (around 8-9 grand). It took us about 4 years to pay it off). Then we had kids and accumulated another $4,000 in debt which I paid off today (yippee!!!) Hookers I don't owe a penny to anybody any more. Same as you. When I was in college I worked several jobs and had help from the family, but it was tought living on $6.25 an hour, especially if you like to wear clean clothes, drink beer, and read porno mags from time to time. By the time the wife and I graduated we owed about six grand. Withing a couple of years of working fulltime and setting up a household we were out of debt. That's been a decade now and we've never gone back. We have figured out how to "cheat" the credit card companies. We have a MasterCard that gives liberal rewards - cash back, trips, very nice gifts - for each dollar we spend. We put EVERYTHING we buy on the card, from groceries to the gas bill, and pay it off each month with one bank draft. At that rate, we earn those incentives pretty quickly and we haven't paid out a dime in interest and fees. For many years I had a credit card with my local credit union. The card had no annual fee. Then one year, they decided to charge me $35 for the use of the card for a year. What happened to free? I called them. They told me there was a voucher for the fee in their next newsletter. Now I am not much of a game player, I hate rebates, and I like things simple, so I called them up and canceled the card. The next month the debt was in place, I got a bill from them for $0.03. I thought it was funny, I showed it to a few people. I was a bit surprised when I got a similar bill the next month. The credit union was clearly making moves to collect. Still, I held out. Every month for the rest of that year, I got my monthly bill for $0.03. Years past, the decade past, girlfriends came and went. The house was paid off, and still every month I got “the” bill. Then one day they changed their billing system. The bill was no longer the little “letter” sized envelope, but a full legal sized envelope. They still wanted their money though. Then perhaps the next bill, or the bill after that I got a letter. They had finely given up on the debt, and where just going to write it off! My heart sang with joy. I was now debt free again. After something like 14 years they gave up on paying first class postage on me every month to get their three cents. $10,000 on a vacation, $4,000 on new kitchen cabinets, and $2,000 on that damn sleep number bed (I hate it, but at the same time, I sleep so well!). We're waiting for kids until we get those things paid off. I think we'll be putting off kids for awhile. I didn't have credit card debt unitl I had my children. I had a plan to pay off a major purchase each time I used my credit cards but something else always came up. I have now racked up $9,000 in credit card debt. I have had it down to $3,000 just last year but another emergency came up YET AGAIN. However, I take advantage of every 0% interest offer so it hasn't been too bad on me in interest. 30 large Divorce.... 9 years later, it is finally not gone, but absorbed into a mortgage. Right now....I, rather we, have about $55,000 of credit card debt. I cannot tell my husband about it and I never will. We have plenty of money to pay it off, but he controls it. I pay more than the minimum on one every month and just the mins on the others...and he puts it right back on. He loves to blame me. This has been going on for years....He never "wants" to know...The stupid part that I have played is this....When our "joint" card would get too high, I would take a credit card offer and transfer the balance, so it would look better on the joint account...But then we would take a trip, spend and spend and soon..guess what...now the "joint" card is right back where it was to start with. He loves to "not know" so that he can blame it all on me.....Here's the other truth....I haven't used a credit card in 3 years. I am merely paying off the load that has been spent in the past. I pay enough, so that he will never be denied, but damn...I want to end this right now. I am sick of being the secretive liar that I've had to become. I love him...We've been married for 17 years, but at this point, the lies and the bad feelings and the boredom of being in debt is starting to show. What to do....It bites! Graduate School - books, office supplies, computer hardware/software, thesis binding, etc. Also, medical expenses, car repair/maintenance, gas, furniture. Grad school was a trap where they tried to keep you there as long as possible to use you as both free and cheap labor and to take your money through prolonging years of tuition payment. Although used with restraint the years of accumulating charges and interest added up. So disgusted with the unprofessionalism of the field studied am working in another area and have paid off 1/2 5 digit credit card debt. LESSONS: 1)If the individuals working in a field have the reputation of being crazy it is most likely not an old wives tale. 2)Graduate school is expensive and most people will not make enough extra money in the chosen field to offset the cost of having gone to graduate school. 3) credit and student loan debts are virtually unavoidable for grad students (everyone I know from this program has combined debts of 6 digits). 4)Graduate school costs can financially cripple people for years. $267,450,000,000. Plus tax. Rye and Gin... $3600 College...I had $3,000 after two years. Then, in 2005, two weeks into the fall semester, my mom died; four weeks later, my dad quit his job. I granted access to my credit cards for...rent, food, utility bills, auto insurance, auto repairs, gasoline, etc. My dad found a new job but was driving over 100 miles daily in a 21-22 mpg car when gasoline was well over $3.00/gallon. Then, my dad persuaded me to borrow $4,000.00 to open an IRA to reduce my tax bill (so he could claim me as a deduction). Thankfully, I haven't lost money in the IRA. Except my dad then charged his taxes, plus fees, on my credit card. Augh. Fast forward a few months. Interest is accruing on the cards with a vengeance. After months of desperately pleading with my dad for repayment (as originally promised), my dad kept avoiding me and trying to get me to forget about the debt, so I dropped out of school (plus, I had problems with financial aid due to bureaucratic issues, e.g., forms and papers disappearing and reappearing). Currently, I sit on $17,500 in debt (thankfully at rates no higher than 12.25%). However this is compounded by $13,500 in federal education debt and $14,200 in government indebtedness (I dropped out of a ROTC program a little too late and got slapped with recoupment). Lesson learned: never borrow to lend to a family member because chances are fairly good that they will not pay you back. $120,000 from not having health insurance. I received major injuries (all kinds of internal bleeding, broken bones, ruptured spleen) after being hit by an SUV while walking across the street and the driver didn't stop after hitting me. He wasn't ever caught so I was on the hook for all the medical expenses. As high as when god gets stoned and shoots himself into space i invested it all in herbalife! School I didn't rack up CC bills. But those fake cards they send are great for scraping up kitty barf! Around $1000 of it is Macbook Pro, and the other $1000 is beer, cigarettes, and Burger King. 25K-Travel, consolidating me and husbands debt--and too many dinners out!! 25K-Travel, consolidating me and husbands debt--and too many dinners out!! titty bars $200 I'm in debt of $20,000 from college expenses, car hobby, and various things on ebay that I just had to have at the time. And now I am not having any kind of good time because of it. $7,000 for school really isn't that much. I'm proud of you!! I have: VISA: $14,990-$1,500(<---LIMIT) Best Buy: $1,100 Lane Bryant: $800? NEVER get a Best Buy credit card. They like to do you in the butt without asking. Christmas on plastic...... About $15,000 exclusive of Student Loans. I actually put my paralegal school (a year at a tech college) and certification on my credit card, because I was damned if I was going to take out another student loan (5 years of undergrad @ approx. $20,000 [total] - I lived at home and commuted. And then I got married right away. SMRT! First big ticket item, Lasik surgery which was worth every single penny to me. The second, longer story - Back in 1967 dad bought mom a beautiful new Lincoln Continental convertible which we used as our every day car. Later, the car went into storage, much later mom and dad divorced, and dad remarried an evil woman. He divorced the evil woman about two years ago, BUT NOT BEFORE signing over the Lincoln and his 45 foot Hattaras to her to avoid some collection agencies. Dear old dad passed away last year, and the woman SOLD me the Lincoln for $6,500, a car that was really my mother's to begin with. Despite being in debt now for a car I can only drive about 4 months out of the year, it really is a kick ass car and I'm glad I have it, not her. My wife has racked up $43,000 in credit debt. Things were coming up unpaid, and when I started digging I found all these hidden credit card bills. Jesus God! I'm going to the bank tomorrow for a loan. 7% or whatever beats the hell out of 25%. And then I'm closing all the accounts. Oh yeah, she did the same thing a few years ago to the tune of $30,000. And a few months ago she complained to me about my $15 a month XM Radio bill! Reality, what's that? You'll do better asking someone else. Send me some money, my address is 237 Delusional Drive in LaLa Land. I currently have $5000 on one card and another $10000 on another. How did my balance get so high you ask... I put my wife on as a joint account user. I never had so much debt until I got married (and she discovered Avon, Tupperware and Victoria's Secret - well the last one I can't complain THAT much about). One way to eliminate that bleeding artery is to go into her purse, take the card and then call it in as stolen. Then call the credit card company and tell them you are going through a divorce and put a hold on the account. When the new cards come in, do not activate them, just lock them up. Apply for a new card in your name and your name only! not even in college...im just a spending whore...i want ..i procure...at least 3000.00 in debt...no reason...im just a charge hound...BTW ..im 36 I\'ve always been the kind of guy that is really concerned about interest/wasting money needlessly. So here I am, 21 years old, never owned a credit card. I recently came into some money and I\'m looking to get a house, but since I have no credit (never bought anything on credit in my life, I\'ve saved up to pay for anything) I cannot buy a house, despite having a $25 000 downpayment, because the bank doesn\'t trust that I can pay it back. What the hell is this world coming to? Boyfriend took my credit card usually without asking. I\'m not saying I didn\'t do a fair portion of the damage, but I did yell at him a ton for constantly getting groceries from 7-11. Oh and getting me restaurant food on my card while telling me he was paying for it. I paid for food, more food, restaurant food, movies, the junk that I needed... So, right now, my cards are maxed out - $12000. I\'ve got a payment plan. $3000 as of January, it\'s down to about $2500 now. I lost my job, have had a hell of a time finding work (Yeah, apparently degrees from good universities don\'t do much during a recession). Paid off my $12k student loan last summer. Visa\'s in collections with NorDon. Trying to make payments. They call, threaten legal action, blah blah blah, but I\'m paying abut $100/mo now until i get back on my feet. Debt is manageable, and if you go to collections, don\'t worry. They\'re bullies. They\'ll lie their way in and scare the bajeezus out of you. It\'s their job. unfortunately. Just keep the faith, keep making payments, you\'ll all get there in the end.