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Introduction | Reader responses: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
| I "accumulated" about $180,000 on the purchase of my house. I guess you could say it's an investment, but I as well am suffering from the pains of interest (almost $800/month!). -Daniel |
| ZERO DOLLARS. I pay it off each month. |
| I buy stuff I can afford, put it on the Discover card, pay it off with the money I saved to pay for the item in advance, and pocket the 1% cash rebate. If I can't afford it I don't buy it. I only have two cards total, and only use the Mastercard when the vendor won't accept Discover. My balance every single month winds up at zero. |
| I had a serious problem with dwarf collecting off the Asian black market. That intrest really accrued while I was in prison, let me tell you. |
| I have always paid my credit card bill every month. Treat it like a check card. Really. If you can'tafford it now, what makes yo think you can afford it, plus interest, later? |
| Well, porn.... glad that is over with, whew |
| $8,000 in traveling around the country! |
| It's all student loans. |
| I have none. :-) |
| college, like 3000 smackers dude. I didnt even graduate. I suck. |
| I currently owe a little under $4K. I had some financial issues in college, including a sick dog with a genetic disease, which racked up some of it. I also bought a new computer. I had wittled it down to nearly nothing when my car needed over $800 worth of repairs (the warranty had just expired). I just got dealt a bad deal, I guess. |
| Are tangents okay? I have never owned a credit card, choosing instead to use either cash or my debit card, which only let you spend money that you ACTUALLY HAVE. Which should be better, right? Except my credit is officially "bad" since I've tried not to dig myself into a hole. Apparently if I ever try to buy a new car or a house, I'm going to forced into getting a card somewhere down the line, lest I look like some kind of unseemly scallawaglette. |
| I don't carry a balance on any of my cards. |
| If you got a student loan, then you'd have student loan debt instead of credit card debt. I have exactly $0 of credit card debt, but because my wife paid for everything with her student loans, I have over $100,000 in student loans, for 4 years of art school! It's about $1000 a month. It's killing us. |
| Poor Rob. Your sad face almost makes me want to send a check your way, just so you can turn that frown upside down. Almost... |
| no debt! |
| College. Now down to about $2500 from $5000 on that blasted card. |
| College. One emergency TV set later and I was hooked on credit. 16k. |
| Outfitting my first apartment, buying utensils, rugs, furniture, etc. But I only managed to go into debt for a couple thousand, and paid it off the next year. Now I never have a balance over $500, and pay it off in full within a month or two. |
| paying for money management seminars |
| What has two thumbs and no credit card debt? This guy. I get one nice thing at a time, and pay it off. I do皜't make tons of money, but I have some nice stuff. Woo! |
| don't have any, and sure as heck hope to keep it that way |
| I spent all my money falling in love. I blew it all on my heart. I fell in love with good Scotch. Rum and I had a torrid affair. Oh, those cool beer nights under a hot Kansas summer-- it was true love. Bourbon was my passion, vodka was the one I returned to whenever I was hurt. Tequila was my guilty pleasure when I was in the mood to do something very bad. I almost drank myself homeless one summer-- I had this bad habit of starting some nights with a "First Down," slamming 10 yard-glasses of beer. Then I'd buy a round for the bar, leaning across the hardwood and telling Garson "whatever all these people are drinking, put another one in front of them." |
| Those were some fun nights, some terrible mornings. I'm glad I lived those stories, but I am glad they're over. |
| DEBT FREE FOR 15 MONTHS! |
| Currently, $1800, mostly my poor spending on things like clothes and furnishings that I don't really need. It was around $5000 when I finished university, from food, nights out, and 4 months in Italy when I didn't have enough cash for all of my living expenses and travel expenses. |
| Up to $8000... The thing that killed me was when I could start charging food and beer at the grocery store |
| I don't have any. |
| music CDs, travel. max $12,000, now gone. |
| I pay off my credit card every month! |
| Approx 25,000. Started with books in college, progressed to one entire semester of grad school when financial aid was cut off by mistake and the grand finale was starting a business which went bankrupt. |
| Cars. They are expensive to fix... $8500, but paid off now. |
| only -£700.. but i have £3000 of student loan to pay off already, which will hit £9000 by the time i leave university (although there is no interest on those, thank you student loan company) and i'm just 19.. heres to years of crappy jobs to pay back money! |
| I've never been in debt. |
| I only have 300$ in credit card debt because I learned from my parents' multiple bankruptcies that it is never a good idea to have more than one credit card, to never pay off a credit card with a different one, and that it's not free money. We have one credit card with a 500$ limit. We rack it up and pay it off every few months to build credit. Once our credit is in the Good range, we aren't gonna use it so much anymore. |
| College and unexpected car repairs: $3500 |
| While going to night school, bought a house, got married, totaled a car, had a kid, lost my job, totaled a second car. When I lost my job I had between $6,000 and $8,000 in credit card debt. About 3 years later it had ballooned to over $70,000 spread over several cards. Didn't really make any large purchases in that time, but continued to use the credit cards. Also my wife was paying the bills, and when things were getting really bad she'd skip a payment evry month, but she'd always skip a payment on a different card. This had the effect of maximizing the interest rate on every single card we had. We filed for bankruptcy and now have only ONE credit card with a $3,000 limit (which is really higher than we need, I plan on having that lowered) |
| I quit a high paying job to go back and finish college full time. Unfortunately, I didn't stop living the high paying job lifestyle. I ended up $40K in credit card debt. Fortunately, after college, I learned to live in a more frugal manner, cutting my debt down about a quarter. And then the company I had joined went public and my options were worth enough to get out of debt and put a down payment on a house. Now the mortgage is the only debt I carry. |
| My wife got into debt right out of high school when cc companies sent her unsolicited cards (not applications, actual cards). She was a summer missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention and used the cards to buy clothes and food for people in need. |
| We got married and I was determined to pay off her debt. I had just graduated college and was getting great zero percent offers on cards, so I transferred her balances onto my cards. |
| Then the "tech bubble" burst and I was laid off in early 2001. I was able to find a job doing military contracts. In September of 2001, the military froze all contracts to pay for the war in Afghanistan, so I got laid off again. (Twice in one year.) |
| I didn't have much savings and after they were spent, we had to live off of the cards until I could find a new job. I peaked at about $30,000 in unsecured debt. |
| I'm now down to about $20,000 and have a strategy which will have all the debt paid off in about three years. I should be debt free by 2009 barring any further crisis. |
| I only have about $1500 in credit card debt. Most of that is from a vacation to St. Kitts in February, 6 months of personal training at a gym(you save money if you all all at once), and airline tickets to visit my family in Indiana next week. Every dollar spent has been worth it. |
| All of the debt is at 9% interest or lower. I plan on having it paid off by October. |
| But - don't get me started on the $32000 I still owe in college loans - just for 2.5 years of Graduate School. But I have 28 more years to pay that off! Amanda in Alexandria, VA |
| I invested heavily in kitten disposal devices. |
| About $5000. It started in grad school when the loan money ran out at the end of the semester- apparently the pizza guy doesn't like the barter system. After school... well, I just like things. Usually expensive things. |
| trip to london, beer, trips to portland, or (damn ex girl friend) to high about 5,000 |
| I've got ~$2000 on a maxed American Express. I pay it down to about $1000 every six months then go out and buy more stuff. Mainly music equipment. |
| I just pretend its not there. Gotta pay my taxes first! Chris L. |
| I have $2500 in student loans and my future wife has $12000+ and is currently applying for more against my advice. Someone please shoot me! - S. Long |
| Vet bills, unexpected expenses |
| I lived on the CHEAP in college. Ate only on the meal plan, drank in frat house basements for free - no fancy bars for me! I got through college with ZERO credit card debt, no school loans and money in the bank (thanks to a small inheritance). I thought I had it all figured out . . . until I married a woman with $200,000 in school loans. So far (8 years later) her cooking is my meal plan and I am drinking frat-quality beer until we're out of debt. Rinse, repeat. |
| no credit card debt, suckers!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| Me? Well it all started with my cars. I'm a custom car and truck builder, so I just kept buying parts, and tools, and miscellaneous crap. Then I paid it all off. Years go by, and I get back into some credit cards so I can repair the problems I had previously. I'm now "supposed" to ring up the tab, and then pay it off - I just forget about the last part. Now I've added my girlfriend's debt into the equation, but on the flipside, we've also added her income. We're about $10k in debt right now - $7k hers, $3k mine - and every month we're paying off one card or another. Can't wait for my October 13th. -Kevin www.kevinwhipps.com |
| Rob, I Don't own a credit card! Here in Australia(the land of the suckaroos!) the credit debit is in the thousands per capita! How can this be when the only person I care to mention (being me) owes nothing on a credit card |
| I'm not in credit card debt. I pay both of them off completely every month. People who are well-off and yet get deep in debt amaze me, but I still sometimes feel sorry for them. |
| Never, NEVER, Let a girl use your credit card. Oh sure, we were going to get married, but that makes no difference. STUPID STUPID STUPID. Oh yeah, getting mono and being out of work for 4 months didn't help. |
| None, Zip, Nada,... I know better. |
| fancy stage lighting... $1,700 car loan... $12,000 credit card debt...priceless |
| Don't have any, never have. |
| Parking tickets in Boston, Mass. + 8 months of unemployment in Los Angeles (I couldn't even get a job at the grocery store or a temp agency) = about $8,000. |
| well, we have about 30grand... some of it stupid over spending while the wife and I were dating... about 5000 for a car, 8grand for my wife doing mary kay (you could od a whole expose about that along with the herbalife) Various vacations and crap for the house is on there too. Lukily now I have a job that pays pretty good bonuses, so if we stick to our plan it should be all payed off in 2 years. It just sucks to basically already have spent 2 years woth of bonuses. |
| I bought too many boomarangs and didgeridoos in Australia, about $1,500 |
| I got into the credit card for about $3000 to buy an engagement ring. I paid it off within a year, though. |
| Dental bills + car repair: $2000 |
| None. Sorry. |
| porn and cheese whiz |
| Pubs, Beer, Women, Porn, and the odd herb. $7500 CDN |
| £0 - I don't have any credit card debts, I'm far too sensible |
| Partly while going to school, and party while being unemployed after graduating. I'm at $3200 and I feel like I'll never pay it off... |
| I'm smart! no credit cards for me!!! |
| i dont even know |
| all the beautiful things to go inside a new house - $12,000 (CAN) getting your credit card bills every month and not being able to afford the MINIMUM payment, on *any* of them - priceless |
| got married. |
| I grad school, I had about $15K of credit card debt. It got out of control when the transmission fell out of my car and had to be replaced. But it was paid off within 18 months of finishing my Ph D. |
| Britains biggest false boobs on a man, £50000 |
| Most of my debt was a result of Stereo equipment, and auto repairs. And maybe some gas for said auto. That amounted to over $3,500 worth. In retrospect, at least I'm still enjoying the stereo equipment. The car is another story. |
| to much guitar/recording equipment- $79,000. 5 guitars, orange amp, recording gear, sound proofing equipment, MAC computers, cables, cheap pizza. all the necessities for success... |
| ACL reconstruction... 5000 |
| We accumulated credit card debt with household items, computer, furniture, cash advances. We had a Sears, Zellers, Capital One, The Brick, Future Shop, student loan, The Bay, and a few other store cards. At it's worst, we had almost 23,000 in debt, and when my husband started our business, we lost a lot of income for the first year or so, and payments were non-existant. Fortuneately, up here in Canada at the time there was a program called "Orderly Payment of Debt", in which through a court order you get protection from being hassled by the creditors, all your debt get put into one monthly payment, and the agency distributes the funds. Interest is frozen at 5%. We paid $400 a month for nearly six years, at which time we were offered the chance to pay it off on a lower settlement offer. We took it, (for a savings of approx $3000), and it went well. Except for The Brick, whose financing company refused to acknowledge the debt being paid, despite us having legal documents showing it being paid off. I fought with them for a bit, then finnally just went through Equifax and Transunion, (credit bureaus), to get the darn thing removed from my credit file. I think they still think we owe them money, but I haven't heard from them for a while, and they have about 10 copies of the docuemnts showing they are paid off, so I think they should get the message soon. Needless to say, I won't set foot in a Brick store again! |
| My credit card debt was about 3000 grand which isnt really all that high. However I had a roomate that was a compulsive liar and later I found out she was on drugs took my money and didn't pay her own bills which I had to cover for a few years because it took me a while to stop feeling sorry for her. My 3000 dollars in debt climbed to over 6000 because of interest and late payments. I finally kicked her out and was able to pay off my bills. The lesson I learned: Trying to fix crazy people is expensive and doesn't usually work! |
| New Computer, new HDTV, and vacation this year to the tune of 3500 bucks |
| $5000 racked up inside of three months. It's amazing what being unemployed in New York City costs. |
| Comic books. lots of em. |
Introduction | Reader responses: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
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July 8th, 2006