Credit Cards-Pay off your Debt!!

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 29 May 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

crystalmoon	29 May 2002
I apologize for this posting but I am on a Mission to help anyone I can with this information who carries a balance(not paying it off everytime you get the bill). I am 20k in credit card debt and have researched paying off debt and wanted to pass it on with everyone who owes on credit cards. http://www.bankrate.com/crt/news/cc/19990308.asp http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/19980713.asp Those are 2 good links to read. 1st always try to send more than just the minimum due otherwise it'll take forever to pay them off, 2nd instead of sending 1 payment send a payment twice a month instead,IE; if you send 60 a month send 30 twice a month(read the links!!). Becasue interest basically accrues on a daily basis it saves you money and helps pay them off faster( read the link). This is hard to explain in writing w/o being able to personally talk to you but I'll try. Example: let's say you owe $3000 on one card with a 14.99 rate and do a balance transfer of $2000 for 5.9 for 6 months, everything you send will go towards the 2000 and nothing towards the other one so you are probably not saving anything by even doing the transfer. I have been doing transfers for years and thought I was saving money but I wasn't. Also if you are in good standing with the Co's call them at least once a year and ask what they do for you, such as lower your interest rate, they will almost always lower if they have a lower rate avail and you pay on time!! If you already knew all this good for you if not I hope I helped. If this was confusing please PM or email you and I'll try to explain further. Please read the links they will probably explain it better than have. I hope this has not offended anyone I am just passing this one to help people realize just how long it can actually take to pay those credit cards off especially if your like me and keep using them. Good luck Blessed Be!

Umbrae	29 May 2002
Folks, this information is huge (meaning REALY BIG). I have to tell clients all the time, pay off the debt first! You cannot save for retirement, if your debt exceeds your assets. If you live in the USA, you cannot depend on Social Security, unless you want to be a bag lady (or man). (Yes, I admit it; I am in the Financial Services industry). This issue is much larger than and has far more impact than you think. Pay off the debt. NOW! Crystalmoon, damn good post.

crystalmoon	29 May 2002
Thank you Umbrae

truthsayer	29 May 2002
i have to support what crystal moon and umbrae are saying. in 1994, i was around $25,000 in debt. i almost didn't have enough money for utilities and food every month and i had a good paying job. loans and credit cards were killing me. but i was living below my means. i went to a free service supported by my state's better business bureau called consumer credit counseling. it took 6 years but they helped me get out of debt. they helped me when new unexpected bills came up and they counseled me when i felt i couldn't stick w/ the debt management program they put me on. they talked w/ the bank and credit card companies for me. they were nothing short of wonderful and it was free! so if you go somewhere that offers help for a fee, please don't accept b/c there is free help out there. i read somewhere how the US economy would crash if everyone stopped living off credit and started paying cash instead. 50+ years ago, if you couldn't pay cash then you couldn't get it. amazing how times have changed. when i worked, it was simply amazing the number of ppl out there who lived paycheck to paycheck. when some emergency came up, they were unable to financially deal w/ it. one case i saw was a nurse who made $4000 a month after taxes the there was her husband's salary. when the husband got sick, they were so overextended her family had to eat w/ her mother b/c they couldn't buy groceries. they couldn't afford for him to see a doctor or buy medications b/c they hadn't had the foresight to get medical insurance. then i found out about the high standard of living they had. they had 2 new cars and a very nice house. the kids were in private school. it was really easy to see why they didn't have money for extras. originally, i felt sorry for them and tried to help them but when i found out she made more than twice what i made and still couldn't make it, my sympathy ended. it was simply a matter of greed. my bills came from costs i ran up in college and the costs of just trying to make it. i didn't have any frills. in fact, the credit counselor couldn't believe how much i had cut out-down to cutting my own hair! i could have done well on their income. so i suggested they lower their standards of living so they could pay the medical bills-sell the expensive house and cars and get ones more in their price range. get consumer counseling and pay off the credit cards. i think they were angry at me b/c i suggested such a thing. but the husband managed to find a job after i stopped helping and they started to manage on their own. it takes will power but you can get out of debt if you choose. my husband always says that as long as you are in debt then you are a slave to your debt. i think he's right.

Umbrae	29 May 2002
As long as you are paying someone else, you cannot save or invest in/for yourself. If you run a business, you pay the employees first. If you cannot pay the bills, you cannot pay the employees. You will lose the business (regardless of how critical or cool your product is). It is time to begin thinking of yourself as your own little business. If you cannot save/invest for yourself AND pay the bills, you have no business. (And the big corporations OWN YOU). Folks kvetch about the big evil corporations all the time…and then send their money to them…ponder this. Slavery is leagal… Scared yet? What are you going to do about it?

Umbrae	29 May 2002
In addition! If you pay off your debts, you can afford to purchase more decks! And books! And those really cool crystals you have wanted… And a set of ‘singing bowls’!

jema	29 May 2002
Quote: Originally posted by Umbrae And a set of ‘singing bowls’! ...or as my friends say: "singing bowels" hehe. good and sound advice though. i am in the process of getting a non-credit credit card:) a card i can use to buy stuff but with no credit on so i can only buy things when there is actual money on the account. my sense of finances are terrible and i got serious debt and no job so i doubt a bank would ever give me credit even if i wanted it. well, there are always those: borrow 10.000 swedish krona without security by phone today! and they want and arm and a leg in interest.

Umbrae	30 May 2002
Here in the states they have these “fix your credit now” joints. They are loan-sharks. Also. Contrary to popular belief (never pay off your mortgage, because of the tax break). If you understand math, the numbers do not work. If you pay off your mortgage early, you can use the money that you would be paying, and invest it. So you think the market sux? It all depends on how you are positioned. Also. There is such a thing as ‘Green Investing” and ‘Socially Responsible’ investing. So pay down your debt. Buy some more tarot decks. Invest wisely.

Umbrae	30 May 2002
Most folks think that they just do not have enough to pay off their debt. Remember this, the next time you draw the 7 of Cups and/or the 4 of Swords. Doing nothing, is doing something. Doing nothing about the way you are handling your money is another way of telling yourself that the way you handle money is just fine. Back when Adam Smith and Karl Marx were writing, the world had not yet even become monetized. . Thomas Aquinas cited Aristotle stating that money was a medium of exchange and not a store of value. The feudal empires were non-monetary. Usury laws forced lending into the hands of the Jews to assuage the Christian conscience. In the early 1800’s, there was still a deep mistrust of banks and lending. Some state legislatures outlawed banks. The bank scandals of the 1800’s are a great study. Andrew Jackson, in 1832, stated that the “Only money God made was Gold”. Further, paper money was “The work of the devil”, that the “Monster Bank (the U.S. Bank) was the seat of a conspiracy as far reaching as popery”. Paper money “Fueled the growth of urban centers, stockbrokering, foppery and iniquity”. Money, as an accepted store of value, and a medium of exchange was a new concept when John Maynard Keynes was born. The Greenback, in 1878 was finally tied to gold. Monetary America was born. By the time of WWI, the entire economy was monetizing. Industrial workers received cash wages, and the monetary holdings of a new broadly based middle class gradually became the primary source of finance capital. The concept of ‘money’ in a global sense is about one hundred years old…and folks, it is not taught in schools (“Let the government take care of you. And we all know how well that works; regardless of what country you are in).

Kellinator	30 May 2002
Thanks so much for the links, Crystalmoon, and everyone for the wisdom. It really is food for thought.

crystalmoon	30 May 2002
You are quite welcome:)

The Credit Cards-Pay off your Debt!! thread was originally posted on 29 May 2002 in the Chat board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Chat, or read more archived threads.