I speak from personal experience; I received my first pre-approved credit card in the mail when I was 18 years old, of course it was only a few hundred dollars, so I thought. No one believes they can fall into credit card debt before the age of 25, but it happened to me, I had obviously not learned the responsibilities that came with the freedom of credit. In a few years those few hundred dollars became thousands and that firs credit card reproduced itself a few times over.
Having a credit card in your wallet to flash at the mall was impressive and ego boosting, it gave me a sense of superiority; it made me think I was in some sort of elite club. Platinum, Gold, the color or metal it represented did not matter, it only meant my credit limit would be raised and I would be afforded more to spend and so it went. By the time I reached my 25th birthday I was in about 25 thousand dollars worth of credit card debt, all my years of spending had caught up with me and I had nowhere or no one to turn to for help. I was a victim of my own ignorance, not ever thinking of rising interest rates, late fees or penalties, all this was foreign to me no more.
All my years of irresponsible spending had caught up with me, along with car insurance, rent, food and other expenses I was carrying a debt load to large to handle. I had no escape, back then the only concept around was debt consolidation with I had no idea about. I struggled to meet my monthly payments, sometimes skipping one payment to one creditor to pay another. I had forgotten the old saying that “cash had no enemies”, well plastic was my best friend. One day the solution to my troubles came in the form of a coupon, I opened up an envelope of advertisement and in the many fliers in the envelope there was one advertising debt consolidation services. I read it and thought what a wonderful idea, what if I could consolidate all of my unsecured debt? I had no idea what debt consolidation meant but I sure intended to find out.
I picked up the telephone and spoke to a consultant who asked me to have all my statements out in front of me and read her my balances, to provide her with creditor names and current interest rates I was paying. Within a few minutes she laid out a plan that would have me debt free in about four to five years and I thought my god that long? I had no other way out, it was either bankruptcy at the age of 25 or face the fact that I had not been responsible enough to think about what my spending habits would bring. I was told I could not miss a payment, that I had to include all my credit cards into the program and the best advice of all was not to open up any more accounts while I was in the program.
To make a long story short, I never missed one payment of my debt consolidation program, sometimes even sending two to three times the amount agreed per month. I took on part-time jobs, I cut back on my expenses, I wrote up a strict budget and wiped out 25 thousand dollars worth of credit card debt I had accumulated I less than seven years. It was a hard road back to redemption but it was worth it, ever since I have lived within my means, today I’m the proud owner of one debit card, credit cards are a thing of the past for me, I learned my lesson and got the help I needed, it all turned around for me the day I recognized I had a problem. Are you ready to recognize you have a problem?
Dan Delgado has been helping consumers become debt-free since 2000. A former debt arbitrator with one of the nation’s largest debt settlement firms, he is the author of “The Do It Yourself Debt Negotiation Manual”. The manual focuses on do-it-yourself debt negotiation & settlement methods designed to save thousands on unsecured debt. Please visit http://www.pemperandgartle.com for more details.
