I remember my very first credit card. I was 16 and it was a Macy's card with a $50 limit. And I had to pre-pay to use it. Yes, that's right. I had to put $50 onto the card and only then was I able to spend...$50. Why exactly would I CHARGE an amount that I had in CASH, you may ask. Yeah, I have no idea. But, that's exactly what I did. Again and again.
Just to impress my friends I'd wait until the clerk was about to ring me up and then I'd sniff "I'll use credit" whipping out the little gold card with pride. "Wow", my friends would say, "You have a Datsun and a credit card." Yes, well it's good to be me.
I have a sneaking suspicion this is where I was steered wrong.
Fast forward 13 years later and you get this:
What's that? That's hell on earth, my dumplings.
There isn't any pre-paying going on. Hell, there's hardly any post-paying. For me, credit cards provide a false sense of security. I feel safe knowing I have $X "available". You know, in case of an emergency. In the last six years of using credit, the only emergencies have been this. And also this. And about fifteen pairs of these.
I'm tired of getting up in the middle of the night and going to my computer to check the balances. I'm tired of the sharks circling. I'm tired of spilling blood in the water. I'm tired of coming up with clever little tricks like this (HINT: the answer always along the lines of "I've never needed a Smores Maker more!") and failing miserably.
You know how many times I've looked through these statements and thought 'What the hell are we buying? Monogrammed toilet paper?'. The blood letting stops here.
I'm sending these to the credit card companies along with my final payment.
As soon as I'm
this.
Maybe I'll include a link to my blog as well, so they know what kind of mental instability they're dealing with.
