September 17, 1999

Credit cards suck. I suggest that you never get one. Of course, not having a credit card in today's electronic society is becoming increasingly difficult. Try reserving movie tickets or theater tickets or a hotel room or just about anything, without a credit card. Try buying something online. Try renting a car.

When I was a freshman in college, I applied for one of those student cards. You know, the ones that have applications stuck to bulletin boards all over campus? They have a really great interest rate for like the first six months, and then it skyrockets. But hey, they'll give credit to just about anyone. They gave credit to me.

I got it just so I'd have it for movie tickets and stuff like that. I wasn't going to actually use it. This is when I was a freshman and all my financial struggles were ahead of me. I was naive. I couldn't help it.

Sophomore and junior year were a little tougher, financially. I started using the card to get groceries. I used it to buy books. I used it for a lot of things. Did I mention that it had a $500 limit and that by this point I was well out of the low introductory rate? It wasn't long before I was paying the minimum requirement every month just on interest.

During my senior year of college, I was a financial wreck. I paid my rent late 8 out of the 12 months I lived in my apartment. Some weeks I didn't have enough money to buy dinner at Taco Bell, much less go see a movie or do something expensive like that. The credit card was totally maxed out, and I was having trouble even making the payments on the interest.

When the electric company called me to tell me they were shutting off the power if I didn't send them some money to let them know I still cared (it was May and I'd last paid the bill in, uh, September, oops) I sat down and made a list of priorities. The credit card bill was low on the list. I paid the electric bill (with a little help from my sweetie, who obviously loves me very much). I did not pay the credit card bill.

I stopped checking my mail. I would let stuff sit in the mailbox for weeks, because I couldn't stand to look at more bills I couldn't pay. Graduation waited ahead of me like a golden prize -- one more month and I could just leave all this behind me!

Do you think I was speaking figuratively? I wasn't. When I moved, I didn't leave a forwarding address. I spent three months of bliss in my new home, and my credit card company didn't contact me once. It was wonderful. I managed to forget I even had a credit card. My credit card existed in those dark money-less days of school. I was out of school now. I had a real job. Credit card? What credit card??

Remember my piano adventure last weekend? Well, the company that we tried to apply to for credit sent us a report of why we were turned down. Suddenly, I remembered my credit card. I remembered why it's not a very good idea to leave credit card bills unpaid for five months. I remembered that someday I'm going to want a new car and probably a house, and well, I called up my credit card company.

They told me I owed them $735.46. That's a lot of money to owe on a card that had a $500 limit. But you know the best part? This is the great part. I didn't pay my bill for five months, and I'd been delinquent with previous bills, and I was obviously just not a good risk, but the nice lady on the phone told me that as soon as I got this amount paid off, I could use the card again, no problem! No problem at all!

Credit card companies are evil. I got off the phone, consulted with Keith about our finances, called the bank to see how much I had in checking, and called the credit card company back. I paid the balance in full over the phone and told them to cancel the goddamn thing. She was like, "Oh, are you sure? Credit is really important".

Bitch.

I told her, no thank you, just cancel it, please. No credit for me for awhile. It's evil and bad and it will lead to your downfall. At least, it will if you can't pay the balance at all. Credit isn't a substitute for money, it's just a way of postponing the inevitable. Trust me on this one.

But I'm all paid off now, and I feel free, free, FREE! No more debt looming over me like some monster that's about to eat me alive. Now all my money is mine, and it belongs to me and not the credit card company. It's a good feeling.

In other news. The jigsaw puzzle is coming along nicely. I'd take a picture of it and post it, but y'know, no scanner. Also, we took a break from puzzling last night and Keith painted my toenails. It was just like Bull Durham, seriously. Then I got inspired and painted my fingernails with my glitter polish, so today I'm all polished up and ready to go.

I'm thinking of visiting Chicago again at Thanksgiving. Danny really wants me to, but for me it's an issue of finances. A round-trip flight to Chicago would cost me about four hundred bucks, and that's four hundred bucks I could spend on a scanner, or a new bed, or lots of stuff we need. It's hard, weighing Lots O' New Stuff against seeing all your friends again for a weekend. I'm thinking that perhaps I should just put off my visit until later in the year when I'm more financially stable. I don't know.

Anyone out there got a plane ticket they're not planning on using?

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