Money Talk
I really hope everyone reads this. If you really think I'm wrong, then just skip it - don't reply and tell me how you do it... it doesn't work. I hope you can read this and listen with your heart and understand that I'm trying to help.
I have a credit card.
We've not used it in some time, since we started paying off our debt. We've paid more than $47,000 since January 2009, and have around $8,000 to go. We'll be done around October. SO EXCITED Not to have extraneous payments. How awesome will it be to have over $1.5k per month that's now leaving us going to debt (it's school loans that we're taking care of now).
I decided, a few months ago, that instead of buying FWA stuff with our money, I'd put it on the debit card - mainly to separate everything so it's easier to keep track (Plus I'm keep tracking in Excel!). Our CC is linked directly to our credit union, so we simply transfer money to the CC to pay the bill. We can see the bill online, and we looked at it every few weeks to make sure we were ok, and the numbers all matched.
It worked fairly well. I was able to float around $1k at a time to FWA (instead of getting a bunch of small reimbursement checks, or bothering TigerPaw to buy every little thing). Until something happened.
We got a finance charge.
It's only $2, but it's my $2. Ever with everything we were doing to keep our eye on it, they got us. They got our $2.
I said I was done. We watched. We were careful. I knew I was playing with snakes, but we were watching closely.
I didn't knowningly say "We'll pay this off over two months", we were paying it off, each month. Watching closely. We have the cash to cover it; That's not the issue.
These Credit Card companies spend BILLIONS (With a -B-) per year to figure out how to get your $2. Obviously, they're getting a lot more than $2 from most people.
How can that be!? No one buys a bunch of crap they don't need. No one uses the credit card to borrow money for more than just a few months. Everyone pays it off. Right?
THE MATH DOESN'T WORK.
I don't wanna piss anyone off. This is just my story. But I will plead to you that if you have the money, and just pay the card off anyways, just use your debit card. That's what I'm doing. We've set aside $1,000 (CASH!) for me to use on FWA stuff. I can use the debit card just as easily as a CC. It has a Visa logo on it - it has the SAME protection as a REAL CC!
I get all the excuses. I know all the plans. It's ok if you don't like my plan - I just wanna share my story.
So.. This credit card is going to be closed. We're changing our lives. I won't spend any more on debt, even if we have the money to cover it. They still got us.
-Tiger Nick
I have a credit card.
We've not used it in some time, since we started paying off our debt. We've paid more than $47,000 since January 2009, and have around $8,000 to go. We'll be done around October. SO EXCITED Not to have extraneous payments. How awesome will it be to have over $1.5k per month that's now leaving us going to debt (it's school loans that we're taking care of now).
I decided, a few months ago, that instead of buying FWA stuff with our money, I'd put it on the debit card - mainly to separate everything so it's easier to keep track (Plus I'm keep tracking in Excel!). Our CC is linked directly to our credit union, so we simply transfer money to the CC to pay the bill. We can see the bill online, and we looked at it every few weeks to make sure we were ok, and the numbers all matched.
It worked fairly well. I was able to float around $1k at a time to FWA (instead of getting a bunch of small reimbursement checks, or bothering TigerPaw to buy every little thing). Until something happened.
We got a finance charge.
It's only $2, but it's my $2. Ever with everything we were doing to keep our eye on it, they got us. They got our $2.
I said I was done. We watched. We were careful. I knew I was playing with snakes, but we were watching closely.
I didn't knowningly say "We'll pay this off over two months", we were paying it off, each month. Watching closely. We have the cash to cover it; That's not the issue.
These Credit Card companies spend BILLIONS (With a -B-) per year to figure out how to get your $2. Obviously, they're getting a lot more than $2 from most people.
How can that be!? No one buys a bunch of crap they don't need. No one uses the credit card to borrow money for more than just a few months. Everyone pays it off. Right?
THE MATH DOESN'T WORK.
I don't wanna piss anyone off. This is just my story. But I will plead to you that if you have the money, and just pay the card off anyways, just use your debit card. That's what I'm doing. We've set aside $1,000 (CASH!) for me to use on FWA stuff. I can use the debit card just as easily as a CC. It has a Visa logo on it - it has the SAME protection as a REAL CC!
I get all the excuses. I know all the plans. It's ok if you don't like my plan - I just wanna share my story.
So.. This credit card is going to be closed. We're changing our lives. I won't spend any more on debt, even if we have the money to cover it. They still got us.
-Tiger Nick