There was a three-month period where my husband was waiting for a job that kept having its start-date moved back. It was going to be at a high salary, so we just started buying things. Ended up down $5,500.

I cannot resist a high-quality pair of shoes on super-sale. I cannot.

Clothes and eating out.

partying like a rock star with the salary of a burger-flipper

never did. I'm a "convenience user" (I pay my balance off every month)

The sad thing is that I hardly even remember. Living, I guess you'd call it, cost $4100

For some reason, a credit card company gave me a $10,000 dollar limit on my very first card. I immediately bought a DVD player--it was 1996 so it was around $700--then I proceeded to amass a DVD collection that rivaled the local Blockbuster. I have since paid off the debt and since the DVD format has managed to last a whole decade feel that my purchases were justified--except for the regular editions of movies that have since come out with super director's editions. I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune once this Blue Ray ackamarackus takes over. Sadly, unlike you, Rob, I had to turn to my parents for help to get out from Visa's thumb. Congrats on being responsible enough to pay off your own debt. Oh, and great job on 20/20. Dave

$1900 - remainder of a car loan and an iPod

I never accumulated credit card debt. My parents always said not to buy something unless you had the money saved up.

$1200 total

$500 insurance deductible after backing into a fire hydrant

$300 "4TH-5TH YR Advanced Exchange, TS and Parts with SystemSat" on my laptop

$389 gas, groceries and clothes

$11 lunch at Panera bread

It was those damn rice crispy treats that came pre-made. Man those are addicting.

books, beer, and not having health insurance

i needed horse meat for food... i got 10,000 dollars in debt, but man, all those horses were worth it!

$72,000 on multiple cards. This from furnishing my new house and starting an MLM business.

A few years after college was when my credit card debt maxed out... at around $12,000. (I also had $15,000 in student loans.) I got it by spending more money than I was making; I had a decent job, but I was living beyond my means.

Some of the biggest items that caused this debt: three computers (over eight years), a $900 camcorder (which broke into many small pieces in an accident), an $800 brake job on a car to get it to pass state inspection (even though it only lasted one more year after that)... and another used car, paid for with one of those checks that comes with your credit card statement. Also cigarettes caused thousands of dollars of credit card debt; fortunately, I quit smoking three years ago.

The good news is that not only am I now down to $3,000 in overall debt, but I'm on track to have it all paid off by November 2006.

Not working while in school and being a car owner. About $6000 at 5.9%.

unemployment/lazyness-&1600

$2500 - tires for my truck, medication (pre-health insurance), and a cruise to Alaska

That's my story! Except I'm still in college. And my birthday is October 14th, if that means anything.

Credit Card debt: $500 - University expenses... you know, food, books etc. Bank Overdraft: $1000 - University expenses... again... Student Loan: $40000 - Bachelor of Science in Biology... Thank you University of Auckland. Hire purchase: less then $200 - Will be paid of in 2 weeks on my next pay day :) Luckily my overdraft is interest free and New Zealand no longer has interest on student loans (because prior to this the compulsory repayments wern't covering the interest being charged)

Australian HECS University fees, $26,000 (AUS)

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.

I don't have a credit card. *blink*

I'm still in the process of doing it, by going to college. HOORAY!

I didn't. You look weird in that photo.

marijuana, taquitos, and cheese sauce... $2500

Buying crap off of ebay. So addictive! $2000

I'm 24 and I don't have a credit card. However I am £12,000 in debt because of my Student Loan.

For me it was a computer combined with several months of unemployment after college, totaling $3000

Err... About £5,000. Some of which is interest free, which is nice. Mainly on living expenses over university, mostly in the last year.

$8000, and I took a semester off and lived in New Zealand for 8 months... It was ABSOLUTLY worth it.

I got married to it. On November 27th, 2004 I married $15,472 of credit card debt. It's now $8,754. w.kone

Debt is for suckers!

I've never had a credit card so I've never had the debt. I was overdrawn once though: the purchase that tipped me over the edge was a copy of Therapy?'s single "Screamager" on pink vinyl. It was worth it.

My debt (which is now paid in full) was completely self-inflicted by discretionary spending. I think this is the reason for most people's big credit card balances, and most people won't admit it. Do you really need a 42" plasma TV? Do you really need that fancy SUV? (which has high monthly payments, so more of your other spending has to go on your credit card). Etc, etc.. I reigned in my debt (which approached $10,000 at one point) by just cutting out the fluff, and living within my means.

My first sales job out of college required that I put tons of miles on my car, and my mileage reimbursement checks were slow to arrive. My plan was to pay for the gas with a credit card, and when the reimbursement checks arrived I would apply them to my credit card. However, because young and stupid (mostly stupid) I treated the reimbursement checks like found money and used it on babes and beer. I got about $3500 deep before I figured out that it couldn't continue.

About £2,000 ($3,700) due to techno-lust :-)

Rob, I want to see the other people's answers so I am entering this lonelt sentence. Thanks for opening up this line of discussion!

almost 7k myself, and halfway through a four year college course. A large chunk isn't from college though... it's from getting started in DJing! (vinyl's frikkin expensive!)

I have never gone into debt. I only ever charged what I could afford, because I thought that was all I was "allowed" to do. Once I realized I could go "over," the skill not too was deeply ingrained.

Millions of dollars in heroin and upper-class hookers.

We racked up over $30,000 in consumer debt when we first got married. We don't use credit cards or borrow money, except for a mortgage, at all anymore. We pay cash for our cars too and it's the best feeling. And I know the date that I paid our last debt too: February 17th! We love being debt free!

How? I got married. How high? $9000 on the cards I know about.

Stuff, divorce costs, more stuff, vacations, WoW subscription, even more stuff. I could not possibly remember where all my debt began. :(

Same as you, I reckon. It started with a computer, then I added in general living expenses. Then that cute girl at Target got me to apply for another card. Then I needed another computer... Now I'm up to about four grand. I'm paying one fifty a month, but I don't think it's actually going down.

I have about $3000 in emergency dental work I had to put on my credit card due to lack of funds. And that was with insurance. The new refridgerator in my new house might have added a few hundred, too...and the new area rugs and new carpet cleaner and landscaping equipment. But the dental work was teh bulk of it.

Food and gas when I was self employed. 18,000.00

£30000. Teaching snails to speak 15th. Century peasant French.

medical bills, since I don't have health insurance - $5000

How did I accumulate all that credit card debt? The Bahamas, baby! The Bahamas! Vacations are expensive! But I eventually got it paid off.

Never had it. Junior high economics class scared the shit out of me, and I never had a credit card until my last year of college, and even then I never used it.

No longer any more debt, but in the post college years I was upwards of 15k.

About $10,000 and I racked it up supporting a deadbeat husband. Thankfully, he's out of the picture now and the amount is slowly going down. Believe me when I say I'll never EVER do that again.

I owe about 13,000 in credit card debt. But 5,000 is at 1.9% interest, 6,000 is at 4.9% interest, and 2,000 at 9% that I will pay off in 3-4 months. The 5,000 is left over from grad school. I spent a summer in Italy. Because the interest rate is so low, I pay the minimum each month. The 6,000 is a combination of a computer, a treadmill, 2,000 pounds of terracotta clay, art history books, shoes and coffee.

$7,000 on a trip to Europe during college with my two best friends that I couldn't afford among other things.

mainly by paying for meals/beer and buying crap I didn't need. I straight up quit paying my credit cards about a year and a half ago. Then I started getting 4 or 5 phone calls a day from bill collectors, but now I only get one every couple of days. I pretty much sent my credit score through a shredder.

$7,000 -- renovating a 100-year-old home. That's expensive.

digital cameras and taking girls out to eat. 10k

I have zero credit card debt, but I do owe 13k skrilla for student loans.

Wow. 7k is nothing. I had just gotten out of law school. My fiancee at the time had just been laid off. I was working as a bartender and she as a sales clerk. We both went FAST from two great, well paying jobs, to two minimum wage joke jobs. We were putting everything on a card that we had to. Groceries, gas, RENT. Everything. It was terrible. We are in the process of paying through the nose to get back into good shape and get rid of thsoe cards. We think we can do it in two years. We both now have very good jobs. So here's the current tally: 5 credit cards 31,000 in debt And let's not forget student loans: that's another 50k And obviously the house. but that doesnt' count.

But I am proud to say that we haven't charged a single thing in almost a year. So we're definitely going to nail that debt!

After college I took a job as a VISTA volunteer (kind of like the American Peace Corps). Because of this vow of poverty ($125 a week was my pay) I was not only able to apply for and receive food stamps, but I was also able to rack up a considerable amount of debt on my credit card. You know, frivolous things like gas, car repairs, clothes, beer, etc. After two years of 'service to America' I bailed out for another low paid job - start-up restaurant owner. I figure during that time I amassed $5-$7000 in debt. If it was not for a small inheritance from a grandparent's estate ($4000) I'd probably be paying it off to this day! These days I keep my CC debt to under $2K and pay it off regularly...usually...

I have never had Credit Card debt. I have always paid off my full balance even during college years. Being a golf course caddy allowed me to rack up tons of cash every summer so I never came across the debt problem.

$3500 goofing around

Boob Job $2500 (mom paid for one boob...THANKS, MOM!)

No debt at all, I lived cheap and worked whenever I wasn't in class.

College, trip to Europe, marriage- $20,000

My credit card debt hit a peak of about $3500, and was a combination of cash advances to pay the rent that my roommate was skipping out on, bus tickets home, and the occasional grocery bill.

Drug-addicted Ex. $15,000

My girlfriend dumped me and kicked me out of her house. My unused credit card came in very handy for the drinking problem I was about to develop.

We owe The Man somewhere around $10,000, pretty much all of which was racked up in about four months at the end of my wife's medical school. It was the only way we could afford to move for her residency.

beer, babes, and broccoli 15000

I have now paid mine off - but I got into it while Renovating a house (any house you can buy for under $30 g?and....probably shouldn't be bought!)

Women. I have always paid off my credit cards every month. However, I did once have a girlfriend who was the epitome of the irresponsible spender. She applied for all the "student" credit cards, somehow got approved for all of them, and then went on a wild spending spree and maxed them all within about three weeks (clothing, mostly, plus a plane ticket to visit me at school). She then spent the next five years avoiding creditor's nasty phone calls and having her credit rating screwed as she couldn't keep up with the mounting interest payments. Add to this the vast amount of student loans she was accumulating. Last I heard, she still hasn't paid her credit card and student loan debt even though she graduated over 15 years ago. Beware the credit card interest payments!!!

none. only spend what you have, foo'

Computer hardware... Aquarium stuff. porn.... Actually, I don't pay for porn. The internet is for free porn. Hmm, food too. Currently in debt a few grand. And I'm graduating soon. SLATE of masterslate.org

I produced a play for a community theater company, and Violated Max Bialystock's first rule of producing. "Never put your own money in a Show!" But of course, it wasn't really mine, it was Citibank's $2500.

Divorce and reckless spending on booze, clothes and charging everything from gas to groceries! About $28,000.00 in total from about 4 different cards.

getting married....and moving to a new city. it's been steady hovering right 'round $10K for a couple years now. every time we make progress, something else happens and we have to resort to the ol' cc again. but, 3 years into marriage - starting to see the light!

I spent my money doing research for my PhD. I haven't finished yet, but I recently took a student loan and knocked that crap back!

Medical Expenses... 3 in the family with asthma and allergies. Even with good health insurance we still average +$700 per month for medical expenses. No end in sight.

In response to the guy who bought weed on credit.... What type of drug dealer accepts credit cards? SLATE of masterslate.org

no CC debt (I worked), but $100k tuition debt (and counting)

College, restoring my pickup truck, traveling, and my wedding. Yep, mostly the wedding.

I owe about 3 grand. Mostly on my Office Depot credit card. Thats a new camera and a laptop. I also owe about $300 on my Apple credit card for a macmini.

2,600.00 total credit card debt. 600.00 dog, 500.00 dining room set, 500.00 medical bills, 1,000.00 misc (i.e I don't remember!).

$1500 for a bad transmission on a used car i bought 1 month earlier

Not too bad, $1600 on $6800 available. It's a college thing. I used to work my ass off and be well employed and it wasn't an issue. Then I office spaced on my job a couple months ago and, not surprisingly, am broke.

0$ Now! Thanks, Dave Ramsey Was $17,00 dollars 1 year ago!

Food, trips, clothes, golf, you name it. Seth, WV

Decided to live on my own during college, then I needed some books and of course food and computer games, etc. Came up with a total of $3300.

Almost word for word the same story you tell, except it was about 4 grand, it was January when I mailed my last check, and none of it was for books.

Accumulated $30K debt paying tuition and buying useless junk. Took four years to pay off, at $1000 per month. Coulda bought a car for that!

Amazon,Ebay, Bath and Bodyworks ,ANY ONLINE STORE!! :) the total is around $2500,between 3 cards.

I accumulated the bulk of my credit card debt by putting an emergency flight ("evacuating" under orders from my government from Pakistan after 9/11) on my Visa. I didn't have the money to pay it off when I arrived home. I'm still paying it off now, almost 5 years later. The total was about $5700 at one point. I hardly ever used or use my credit card, so it was all interest payments and trying to pay down the flight. I'm now down to a manageable (ha) $3000.

I have zero debt (other than student loans) and I am sworn to keep it that way. I had a crap ass SF landlord who evicted us and took all of our posessions after having to replace everything that we owned we had a lot debt. Not to mention our life looked like an old navy/ikea ad. We got out from underneath it with the help of a website that did the math for us. A lot of my friends have huge amounts of credit card debts (one of them has >25,000 just from a purely credit month long trip to Australia). They all ask why I never go out to bars and clubs and spend 200 bucks like them. It's cause I pay cash for everything.

NO DEBT!!!

I did the student loan method instead of the credit card. Much worse idea. (In Canada) Student loans do not erase your debt after 7 years (like credit cards) - and they can track you through tax returns (even though it is illegal for other companies to do the same)

sex, drugs and rock and roll

I have no credt card debt... yet. I hope to learn from all of your experience how to avoid it.

My wife and I got married and instantly were hit up for all those "free vacation just for watching us tout our wares" things. We bought a very nice set of pots and pans, and thus started our credit balance. (note that even today the pans are great, and were worth what we spent on them - but we shouldn't have spent the moeny on them that early).

I was working full time and going to school, and also operating a computer consulting business. I let many of my customers pay for the computer or upgrades when they received it, and between the time I purchased the items and then received payment I was paying interest. It's not bad if everyone pays on time and if all the purchases are small, but when people are getting thousands of dollars of equipment, and not paying until a month or two after I purchase the equipment I started getting a balance just off the interest.

I was (am?) not a good business person at that point and the interest alone grew as I wasn't charging my customers enough to cover it after other expenses. It grew. My wonderful wife is great at juggling credit card balances (and the credit card companies love us - we have great credit) so generally we are paying 0% interest on our large balance. A few years ago we had credit card debt of over $17,000. We are now below $8,000 and have a plan to get rid of it completely within this year. Learning how the credit card companies worked, and how to juggle balances saved us thousands of dollars. The biggest annoyance we discovered is that if you transfer a balance to a new 0% credit card, then use the credit card for regular purchases those purchases gain interest at the regular rate, and any payments go to the 0% balance. So let's say you start off with $4,000 at 0%, rack up $2,000 afterwards at 10%, and pay $2,000 within 30 days of the purchases. You now have $2,000 at 0%, and $2,000 at 10%. They've just converted half your 0% balance into a 10% balance! Now that we know we juggle a little differently, and I don't beleive we've paid/accumulated any significant interest on our large credit card balance in a few years.

Lazy ex-girlfriends who couldn't hold a job, alcohol, drugs.

I ran up the plastic on drinks, eating out, vacations and generally not keeping a budget. When my balance hit $10K, I finally realized that I was supposed to spend LESS than I earned. It took 3 years to pay off. Hope your question ins?ires people to learn this lesson sooner than I did.

Ohmygod...the credit card nazis knew exactly what they were doing sending me a credit card. FREE MONEY!!! or so I thought. Books, eating out and gasoline were my downfall. What a numbnutz I was. One bankruptcy and a Dave Ramsey later, I'm under control and actually saving!

I have about $4,000 in credit card debt... mainly from ordering pizza!

buying useless shit. i managed to pay off one card that $6,500 thinking i really was gonna get enough frequent flyers miles to fly my ass to iceland, but no... i paid it off and cut it up!

currently i've got $2,000 on a card that was mostly moving from the states to the UK. i hope to have it paid off in the next 12 months then i'll work on clearing my husbands credit card debts.

as far as college is concerned i still owe in the ballpark of $22,000 for both my undergrad and masters degree. i hate paying those every month and figure i'll be able to pass them on to my children since the dickhead in the white house has totally f*cked our country's economy and interest rates so i'll never get a head...

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?'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.