How I got in and got out of the Credit Card Trap.

I believe I am not the first one around here to write about credit card miseries. I have always spent my parent’s money, it was always a nice feeling and hey you don’t have to pay them back- they are too good to ask you to repay. Coming to US changed it all. It taught me responsibility but it’s not a pleasant ride I might add. I came to US at the end of 2003 and got my first credit card with a limit of 1000 dollars in Jan 2004. I was happy to add some plastic into my wallet - little did I know what was in store for me. I was fortunate enough to get an assistantship after the first semester. My assistantship paid me 721.** every month and I had a credit card for 1000.00. I did not realize at that point that what’s going out of my wallet is more than what’s getting in. I was very careful not to spend much and paid off whatever I charged on my credit card.

My score was 740 within a couple of months. I was proud of myself. As I got around the city spotted where my favorite places (Malls) to spend time are I went easy on my wallet spending like crazy on clothing and food as I didn’t have a tomorrow. I always used to tell my self I will make it up by not spending in the next month. The sad part is that day never came until later when I had to tell myself to cut the crap and take charge. When the CC bills started coming in I panicked and hated my self for being so ignorant with money. Oh I forgot to mention that by this time a year has passed and my credit card limit on all the 3 cards was 5000 dollars. I was activating the cards without reading the fine print that carried ridiculous APR’S and you know what I was majoring in Finance-How Ironic?. I managed to repay 2 of the credit cards that had smaller limits. I was so angry with these companies that they were charging high APR’s( Clout was one of them). I closed my accounts with them not knowing how it would affect my scores. As the CC I closed down has been activated the longest it affected my credit score real bad. My score came down to 450. I was graduating, I didn’t have a job in hand and my credit score is all ruined up.

During these years I met my husband and I remember him telling me that one of the reason he wanted to get married to me is because of my good credit score(I believe he was not as serious as this sounds). He had to go through a rough ride like me and still is trying to work on his score ever since. Even though I don’t have a job right now, my husband helps me in paying my monthly charges and I have gained control on my spending and credit score. My score is now 642.

I am happy that I have learnt from my experiences and hope what follows in my next post will help you.