[GirlsDeadMonster]

I'm annoyed that we live in a world that has so much riding on your credit. And of course, I like so many others, were not as diligent with our credit in our youth. And now we're paying the price whether it be trying to get that car loan, home loan, or raising your score. But it seems like there is so much against you even when you are being responsible. I've been living on cash and haven't opened another credit card since 2000, and yet even though I thought I was being responsible I was actually hurting my credit by not having a credit history. Blah! And now, this year, I can finally say I'm completely debt free. Credit cards, student loans, and all other debt is paid off. And yet, those deliquent charges stay on your report 7 years after they have been paid, not from when they were first reported. I don't know, it just seems like our system is set up for failure. There is no more hard work and a handshake anymore. You are your credit score. It just makes you feel like a walking number, there are even some employers that won't hire people with bad credit or low scores, probably because they think you'll be a risk to them. As if my low score will cause me to be a criminal. I'm not going to rob a bank just because of credit issues. Yuck! Well, that's my rant. Anyone have the same stupid issues?

[theglassintheguvseye]

I feel ya sister. We're up to our eyeballs w/ no end in sight (well, there are several ends in sight but one, I won't take and the other has until August of 2014 to close on my house so I can use the equity). I was never in debt until 2008 outside of a mortgage and I find it to be suffocating. My credit is insanely good and I need it to run my business so I just keep having mini strokes hoping my buyer will close early.

Did you cancel the cards? If so, that's what got ya. You have to just tear them up and not use them. They want to see you having credit available to you but unused. It'll patch up quicker than you think though. 7 years is BK and even then, it only takes 3 or 4 of using credit responsibly to boost your score. And yes, the system stinks. In a perfect world, no one would need credit but that ain't how it works, unfortunately. Sorry you're having troubles. You're certainly not alone.

[theblackboxlies]

Congrats on finally being debt free. I can't see the day yet when I will be.

Mark of the beast 666. Got us by the junk they do.

We definitely have more debt than I feel comfortable with + looming school loan payments, but we manage. At the same time though I have 4 credit accounts with no balances completely paid off on all of them, and then my main one which is from an in state credit union that has great rates (6% for instate purchases + I do my regular banking through them) but I rarely use it except to make a big purchase, like a computer or something, then try to make extra payments to pay it off ASAP. It's kind of stupid how much credit I actually have, I'd never make huge purchases with them because it'd take me 5-10 years to pay it off along with all the interest. Fuck that noise. It's insane how much more of a house you can afford if you have only a couple hundred bucks less per month in credit card payments.

[mADAM Scorpious]

Omg I got a letter from the government saying that I owed them almost twenty thousand dollars, I almost had a heart attack, thankfully it was a mistake but shit happens. I do have a credit card with a $1000 limit, I pay half or the majority of my monthly debt every month but I use it to stretch things out, so it's a debt cycle, but hopefully by the end of the month aall of the holiday debt will be gone and things wwill be normal. A good way to build credit is to charge things that you already have the cash on hand for, then immediately after the purchase go to the bank and pay for the purchase. I also used to put money on my card ahead of time for an automatic monthly payment (I sponsor a girl in Ethiopia). One time I paid my mom's capital one credit card from my account they sent me offers of $5000+ cards like every month for 6 months afterwards.

[OMEN]

It's a way to control the masses.

It's a new form of slavery.


Ms o and I are about 90% debt free. I don't care it it hurts our credit but we don't have any credit cards. We have one car payment. And a house. Note.


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[TangoJ]

I can't even talk about this without getting a little sick to my stomach. We are absolutely drowning in debt.

[theblackboxlies]

Project Mayhem. Set everybody back to 0.

[Jenners]

I am 21 going on 22 and have never had a credit card. Since I don't have credit it is difficult me to get a credit card. Its just a never ending cycle of pain

[OMEN]

If you want to start credit get a secured credit card from a bank... Within 6 months to a yr you'll have credit. Get a cell phone account.

That's how I started back in the day. Now I have no credit cards. By choice.


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[Trillian]

I'm annoyed that we live in a world that has so much riding on your credit. And of course, I like so many others, were not as diligent with our credit in our youth. And now we're paying the price whether it be trying to get that car loan, home loan, or raising your score. But it seems like there is so much against you even when you are being responsible. I've been living on cash and haven't opened another credit card since 2000, and yet even though I thought I was being responsible I was actually hurting my credit by not having a credit history. Blah! And now, this year, I can finally say I'm completely debt free. Credit cards, student loans, and all other debt is paid off. And yet, those deliquent charges stay on your report 7 years after they have been paid, not from when they were first reported. I don't know, it just seems like our system is set up for failure. There is no more hard work and a handshake anymore. You are your credit score. It just makes you feel like a walking number, there are even some employers that won't hire people with bad credit or low scores, probably because they think you'll be a risk to them. As if my low score will cause me to be a criminal. I'm not going to rob a bank just because of credit issues. Yuck! Well, that's my rant. Anyone have the same stupid issues?

I recommend getting Your credit score by Liz Weston.


She has a lot of sensible advice about building/rebuilding credit.

[theblackboxlies]

If you want credit cards be prepared for loaaaddds of junk mail credit card offers from American Express, Discover Card and.. who knows what else haha. At least a few per week.

[Jon W]

<shakes head>

Let me see... three secretive companies. You don't get to 'know' what the formula is. They can (and do) ignore disputes to credit history stuff (I've got incorrect stuff on my credit history that the credit bureaus have flat out told me that they aren't going to do anything about it). And it is an absolutely CRITICAL thing to enjoy your life in America...

And to add insult to injury, we are *product* to them. All those "junk mail" offers come to your mailbox because the credit bureaus SELL your address to the companies that are sending those offers.

Makes me throughly crazy.

At this point, I have one credit card, for emergencies. I'll finance 'big' purchases, but everything else runs off of cash.

[theblackboxlies]

That's like the apparent lapse in my auto insurance coverage, which apparently happened, when I had auto insurance and was driving around, then switched to a new carrier, and then 2 months disappeared off the record, affecting my ability to get lower rates. Ugh.

[theblackboxlies]

Oh and don't sign up for that FreeCreditScore.com crap. Or if you do make sure you opt out after 30 days, which they weren't very clear on back then. And "FREE" Credit score as a name is misleading. Unfortunately I got tricked into signing up for it to find out my credit score, I dunno... 5-6 years ago and didn't read the fine print, cause I had the dumb back then, and after my "trial period" was charged like $15 a month for a year before I finally was looking over my bank statements and was like "Hey.. what's this weird charge every month?" Yeah. Really smart, bro. Not that it was a ton of money, but still. I could have bought myself some nice effects pedal for my guitar setup.

[GirlsDeadMonster]

Omg I got a letter from the government saying that I owed them almost twenty thousand dollars, I almost had a heart attack, thankfully it was a mistake but shit happens. I do have a credit card with a $1000 limit, I pay half or the majority of my monthly debt every month but I use it to stretch things out, so it's a debt cycle, but hopefully by the end of the month aall of the holiday debt will be gone and things wwill be normal. A good way to build credit is to charge things that you already have the cash on hand for, then immediately after the purchase go to the bank and pay for the purchase. I also used to put money on my card ahead of time for an automatic monthly payment (I sponsor a girl in Ethiopia). One time I paid my mom's capital one credit card from my account they sent me offers of $5000+ cards like every month for 6 months afterwards.

Holy crap. I think I would have peed my pants if I got that letter. Good thing it was a mistake.

[Valleyaggie]

Yeah. We're in a lot of debt too. I didn't realize how much until hubby and I were having our issues; for years, I did all the bills and so I knew the numbers and he didn't. Then he took it over and now he knows the numbers and I don't. So, when school gets out later this week, I'm going to sit down with him, look at all the bills and come up with an agressive plan to pay it all off. Sigh.

[theblackboxlies]

I can't wait until I pay my car off, but I still got a little over 2 years left before that's done. And by that time I'll probably have to trade the damn thing in for a new one because I'll have a ton of milage on it. At least I wouldn't have negative equity though. That happened when I bought my Kia, because I owed more than my old Buick was worth, even with the trade-in value. But I was at the point with my old car that it was going to cost more to fix than it was worth. My car's accelerator developed a mind of it's own somehow and would just .. go. It was kind of scary haha. Damn cars. Anyway, I'm hoping I can at least drive my Kia around for another year or 2 after I'm done paying it off. At least then I could save a few grand to buy another car.

[OMEN]

Ill drive my truck till the wheels fall off. I got her with 7 miles in 2001. It's a 2002 with 235400 miles on it.


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[theblackboxlies]

Haha awesome. I've heard Kia's last quite a while, so I could have mine for years to come. My old neighbor apparently had one of those small shitbox Kia's that lasted him to 250,000 or something. Mines an '09 with almost 80K on i, came with 13.6K, so I've put around 66-67K on it in the past 3 years. So by the time I pay it off I'll be around 125K. So hopefully it lasts to the 200 range without any super major expenses to do maintenance and repair. haha.

[mADAM Scorpious]

Holy crap. I think I would have peed my pants if I got that letter. Good thing it was a mistake.

Yeah, I wasn't too worried though, I mean I called the government and got it all straightened out but they would never been able to get it from me, maybe with my life insurance policy. And if ness id live off the grid.

[theglassintheguvseye]

I am a drive 'til the tires fall off person, too. I bought a 10 y/o Volvo last year w/ 120K miles on it. It's been a great car and I expect it to make it another 100K miles at least. I will likely never own a new car again. My debt is totally unrelated to vehicles. I own 4 outright and a tractor. I like the tractor the best next to the Volvo. It's my child.

[GirlsDeadMonster]

<shakes head>

Let me see... three secretive companies. You don't get to 'know' what the formula is. They can (and do) ignore disputes to credit history stuff (I've got incorrect stuff on my credit history that the credit bureaus have flat out told me that they aren't going to do anything about it). And it is an absolutely CRITICAL thing to enjoy your life in America...

And to add insult to injury, we are *product* to them. All those "junk mail" offers come to your mailbox because the credit bureaus SELL your address to the companies that are sending those offers.

Makes me throughly crazy.

At this point, I have one credit card, for emergencies. I'll finance 'big' purchases, but everything else runs off of cash.

It does make you feel like it's pointless to argue the point. They don't seem to want to help and the only advice they can give to fix your credit s to open more credit cards? What's the point in that? Credit cards got a lot of us into this mess along with student loans and medical bills. How is opening more lines of credit beneficial? I guess the fact that I got my credit report, called every account on there with balances and zero balances, made payment arrangements with them all, disputed any zero balances that should come off, and live on cash for the last 12 years doesn't seem to matter to them. Ahhh!! When will it end?

[Stan]

Credit is like any other narcotic. Never take more than you need. I had a bad experience with credit cards early in college and have aggressively lived since then. Our only month to month debt with interest in 13 years has been the mortgage. With one or so rare exceptions (every couple years) the cards are paid off in full every month, and we pay cash for aggressively shopped and negotiated used cars. The last area is probably the one people fall into most, car payments. Once I figured out that you would end up paying $25,000 for a $20,000 car which was devalued the moment you signed the papers by 10-15%, it made a TON of sense to not do that. So we look for a used car (price guides show clear value drop points after x number of years), and get mileage where warranties still apply, or negotiate a free extended one as the seal-the-deal-or-walk point (and yes, we have walked from this when they wouldn't).

I mean, a minivan could be $30,000 new plus financing, or $14,000 out the door a few years old with a 85,000 mile warranty. How much security and confidence have I lost? Same with repairs, I learned brake pads because it was $200 to have them done at a shop, and $35 to do them myself. The $165 saved buys my Beloved She-Who-MUST-Be-Obeyed some beautiful flowers and myself the occasional G.I. Joe WITH the Kung-Fu grip.

It, like all financial decisions, means keeping eyes and ears open, and buying the right thing for the right price at the right time, not waiting for something to happen which put you in a bind where you HAVE to act, or falling into compulsive shopping.

And oh yes, 99% of all debt can be aggressively negotiated down if you can act on what gets agreed upon quickly.

Never treat yourself to something that puts you over the edge, that's like jumping off a cliff without a parachute because you earned the rush! Living within your means doesn't sound like a ton of fun, but it can be, just live it and don't focus on the things you can't do.

Recommended reading: The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas Stanley.

[theblackboxlies]

I think I'll be getting a used car next time around. I've had mine for 3 years and have about 2 years left of payments on it. Luckily I haven't had any major issues, and I'm hoping to drive it for another couple of years after it's paid off. But yeah not having a car payment would help a lot. Once the Mrs. and I sell our condo I've come up with an aggressive plan to pay down our credit debt within 14-15 months. So hopefully this damn condo sells soon! Haha

[OMEN]

Ill drive my truck till the wheels fall off. I got her with 7 miles in 2001. It's a 2002 with 235400 miles on it.


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Just today I hit 246000


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