HS
Emergency Funds: “Oh Sh!t” vs. “D@mmit”
14 hours ago
Discover Card Balance
Our Discover card balance is back to $0.00! We met our goal to have this paid off in February. Hopefully we don't have to use the card again, I am ready to be credit card debt free.
HS
HS
Reader Question
Sharon from Musings of a Midlife Mom asked:
Hi HS,
I was just wondering. You have a large amount in savings that can pay off all of your debt. Why haven't you done that? Just curious.
Sharon,
We had an insurance settlement for $10,500 due to damage from Hurricane Ike. I did not think we had any damage but our agent insisted so I took the money and put it in the savings account. The wife and I don’t think this is our money, so I’m not really sure what to do with it, I guess If we have any major home emergencies then we can use this money but for now it can sit in our savings account.
I should be able to pay off all my credit card debt before April 2009, I don’t want to take any shortcuts, I want to remember how difficult it is to pay back credit card debt.
HS
Hi HS,
I was just wondering. You have a large amount in savings that can pay off all of your debt. Why haven't you done that? Just curious.
Sharon,
We had an insurance settlement for $10,500 due to damage from Hurricane Ike. I did not think we had any damage but our agent insisted so I took the money and put it in the savings account. The wife and I don’t think this is our money, so I’m not really sure what to do with it, I guess If we have any major home emergencies then we can use this money but for now it can sit in our savings account.
I should be able to pay off all my credit card debt before April 2009, I don’t want to take any shortcuts, I want to remember how difficult it is to pay back credit card debt.
HS
Retail Store Credit Cards
I was forced to close American Express card last week and lately I've been thinking about closing all our retail store credit cards, we currently have:
Fry's Electronics - Got this card 4 years ago and I bought one item since then, a 22 inch Samsung LCD monitor. Card still active, credit line is $3,000, this one needs to go...
Best Buy - I can't part with this card!! I keep thinking I might need this one day... please convince me to close this account!!
Macy's - I won't even try, my wife loves Macy's and she will not give up her card, she gets all kinds of perks like free gift wrapping etc.
Roomstore - Look around for posts about this card, this one needs to go, there's no reason we should be financing furniture at our age.
So my goal for this week is to close the Fry's credit card and the Roomstore account.
I hope there's no impact to our credit scores since we will have closed 3 credit cards over the last couple of weeks.
HS
Fry's Electronics - Got this card 4 years ago and I bought one item since then, a 22 inch Samsung LCD monitor. Card still active, credit line is $3,000, this one needs to go...
Best Buy - I can't part with this card!! I keep thinking I might need this one day... please convince me to close this account!!
Macy's - I won't even try, my wife loves Macy's and she will not give up her card, she gets all kinds of perks like free gift wrapping etc.
Roomstore - Look around for posts about this card, this one needs to go, there's no reason we should be financing furniture at our age.
So my goal for this week is to close the Fry's credit card and the Roomstore account.
I hope there's no impact to our credit scores since we will have closed 3 credit cards over the last couple of weeks.
HS
American Express Blue Card
So it had been a while since I used my American Express Blue card, so last Saturday night I decided to make small purchase with it, to make sure the account would not be closed and to maintain my $5,000 credit line.
Bad idea, on Sunday morning I got an email from the Amex team letting me know they cut back my credit line down to $500.00! WHAT!? $500! What a joke! Never late, never missed a payment, never paid them any interest, my account was always in good standing. I don’t understand why they waited until I used the credit card to notify me of the changes? What if I was out of town and didn’t check my email? Maybe they wanted me to go over my new credit limit and charge fees?
I am completely disappointed with Amex, I am now forced to close this account, hopefully this is the last post you read about American Express.
ANGRY!
HS
Bad idea, on Sunday morning I got an email from the Amex team letting me know they cut back my credit line down to $500.00! WHAT!? $500! What a joke! Never late, never missed a payment, never paid them any interest, my account was always in good standing. I don’t understand why they waited until I used the credit card to notify me of the changes? What if I was out of town and didn’t check my email? Maybe they wanted me to go over my new credit limit and charge fees?
I am completely disappointed with Amex, I am now forced to close this account, hopefully this is the last post you read about American Express.
ANGRY!
HS
Chase Credit Cards
Back in 2004 we opened a Chase Master Card, back then we used to move money around credit cards instead of paying them off. We thought debt would somehow go away one day using this method. I remember our balance was around $5,000 and our interest rate suddenly went up to 32.99% for no reason. We were never never late, never over the credit line etc. I called and got the Universal Default BS. The next month I transferred the entire balance to our current CITI card, PremierPass.
To this day I don’t understand why Chase did that, I hope they read this site one day and realized how much money they lost since all that interest for the past three years went to CITI (still paying as of this post). One year we paid well over $2,000 in interest alone.
Why I’m I writing all this? Because I keep hearing about this new Chase $10 Service Charge they are adding to credit cards, to customer accounts with good credit. They also continue to raise interest rates and minimum payment calculations.
Who is the idiot at CHASE (JPMorgan Chase) that came up with these new changes? Why upset your best customers and lose money, especially during this recession?
We will never own any Chase products again in the future. No credit cards, no bank accounts, no mortgages.
If you’ve had any negative experiences with CHASE please comment below, I would love to hear your horror stories.
HS
To this day I don’t understand why Chase did that, I hope they read this site one day and realized how much money they lost since all that interest for the past three years went to CITI (still paying as of this post). One year we paid well over $2,000 in interest alone.
Why I’m I writing all this? Because I keep hearing about this new Chase $10 Service Charge they are adding to credit cards, to customer accounts with good credit. They also continue to raise interest rates and minimum payment calculations.
Who is the idiot at CHASE (JPMorgan Chase) that came up with these new changes? Why upset your best customers and lose money, especially during this recession?
We will never own any Chase products again in the future. No credit cards, no bank accounts, no mortgages.
If you’ve had any negative experiences with CHASE please comment below, I would love to hear your horror stories.
HS
Best Buy Credit Account
Watching the Super Bowl this past Sunday felt a lot better after receiving confirmation that our Best Buy payment was received:
The TV is finally paid off. This debt started last year around January, I decided I needed to spend over $1,900 on a new HDTV, it had 0% financing for 3 years. Little did I know it would only add stress since it required making a minimum monthly payment. The last statement showed $248 of deferred interest. Imagine that amount after 3 years. We will never finance furniture or electronics again, instead we are going to have a separate savings account for big purchases.
Congratulations to the Steelers for their win and Don't forget to get your free Grand Slam at Denny's today.
HS
The TV is finally paid off. This debt started last year around January, I decided I needed to spend over $1,900 on a new HDTV, it had 0% financing for 3 years. Little did I know it would only add stress since it required making a minimum monthly payment. The last statement showed $248 of deferred interest. Imagine that amount after 3 years. We will never finance furniture or electronics again, instead we are going to have a separate savings account for big purchases.
Congratulations to the Steelers for their win and Don't forget to get your free Grand Slam at Denny's today.
HS