Crawling out of the self-inflicted financial hole...

No wonder BYH has PMS around the 14th every month.

 

Dude, the 14th is behind us, so we ate filet mignon tonight!!!

Actually, I lie. We just had Burger King.

 

Would you like a soda?

 

Sure.

Do you have any F.........anta?

 

We're all out, jerk.

Time to die.

 

Already?

 

...

 

It ain't time for Death to make his return, is it?

 

I agree with everything BYH said, but the bolded portion. Sounds like it worked well for him, but NEVER, EVER give a credit card company access to your checking account. They are SCUM and if you, for some reason, don't have the cash to cover the withdrawal, the next time you look at your account, there won't be any money in it.

Happened to me when I was a teenager. I ran up a credit card, got on a plan and gave them my account info. I didn't have the cash to cover it on the 15th (the specified date). When I looked at my account on the 1st, they had taken my entire paycheck.

Granted, I was a dumbass teenager and wasn't money savvy, but they took my entire paycheck.

 

Just a little add to what I posted above.

As is the case with many members of what I laughingly refer to as the 'artistic middle class,' I've been through this myself. And I've been through it on a pretty large scale. And for a pretty long time. How you get there doesn't really matter. In my case it was a long series of major medical expenses that I was paying out on behalf of another family member. The consequence of which was a deep, dark credit hole I inhabited for the better part of a decade.

But I was able, slowly, to work my way out - and without a hit to my long term credit rating. And if I can do it, you can too.

Again, good luck.

 

I echo what the others on here have said about calling the company on the interest rates .have a credit card that was roughly 9 percent interest that I paid at least the minimum for every month, if not a little more. One day, I open up my bill to see that the rate was jacked up to 12 percent for no reason.

I immediately called the company, and was told that they raised it because the Fed raised interest rates. Itold them that in no uncertain terms that I receive at least one offer from another company per day, and that they were to put my interest back to what it was or I was switching companies. The lady at the other end finally got me to agree to 10 percent.

Next month, I open my bill, and see that the rate was cut to 8 percent.

And one other piece of advice I can offer, always make sure you send your payment in at least two weeks before the due date. Card companies love to hold your payment up for days at a time and process them after the due date, charging you fees and interest, then claim that your payment was late when it wasn't.

 

Maybe it's an exception to the rule, but a friend of mine used one of those non-profit counseling agencies twice. He said the hit to his credit report was short-lived, maybe about a year before it started climbing again.