What's the most credit card debt that you've ever had at one point in your life?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I knew a bunch of people would come in this thread to lecture and pat themselves on the back.

So true!

[Anonymous]

There are some real braggarts here

[Anonymous]

If I told you how much credit card debt we racked up while I was unemployed for two years, you'd kick me off the Money and Finances forum.

We still haven't made much of a dent in it, but we're no longer putting anything on the cards.

[Anonymous]

I had none but married a guy with 40. It took 7 years to pay off.

[Anonymous]

Zero. My folks were older when they had me (50 and 40) and I'm 48 now, so they lived through The Great Depression. I was taught to never get into debt.

We even own our house with no mortgage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Zero. My folks were older when they had me (50 and 40) and I'm 48 now, so they lived through The Great Depression. I was taught to never get into debt.

We even own our house with no mortgage.

Seriously, why bother posting in this thread? Despite having no debt, you clearly have other issues.

[Anonymous]

I got up to $9K recently because our renter moved out, we couldn't replace her for a year and I had a ton of unexpected car repairs. ($4-$5K.) I don't want to break into my emergency savings because they're already low after a tree fell on our house and insurance didn't cover a lot of things that needed to be done.

We have another renter, so I can knock it out in 6 months.

[Anonymous]

$23K during my 20s, as my lifestyle was mismatched with my salary. #socialworker problems

It took me a long time to pay off, but I started with the highest interest cards first and knocked them out one at a time. Felt great once I was finally debt-free! Now I pay for everything using my credit card (collecting miles) and pay it off monthly.

[Anonymous]

The most I ever had was 10K but given my income at the time (uh, none really I was in college and waiting tables part time) it might have been 100K. I paid sporadically to top it off. When I met my now husband, he was horrified, put me on a pay it off schedule and it was the most freeing thing. I hope that my children can learn by my example how important it is to manage your spending and your responsibilities. That was several (20 ack!) years ago now, and I feel like an ex-smoker, because I regularly preach the no debt mantra, but I truly believe it. I also believe there are circumstances where it is hard to avoid it and some sympathy and guidance is necessary to help.

I think the no debtors can be sanctimonious at times, because its a deeply held belief (as I can attest to by living with one!). Its not wrong but when you already feel badly about the situation, beating someone up about it, or fanatically proclaiming your debt free existence is not going to help the situation.

[Anonymous]

$50k max when I was 23. I was able to pay it off in 2 years by living with my parents and basically using every thing I made to pay it down. I started with the smallest balance and worked my way up.

[Anonymous]

$15k in my 20s. Paid it off in five years or so.

[Anonymous]

Zero. But my parents paid my way thru school. If I had student loans I'd probably have carried credit card debt at some point.

[Anonymous]

Like $30k. I was out of work and put everything I possibly could on my credit cards so I could save my cash for rent. I wasn't able to get a permanent job for almost 4 years and was never able to pay it off. I hired a company to fight with the credit card companies. There's only one big one left and I may just have to wait until 2015 so it's 7 years and it can come off my credit report and then my credit score will go up.

I remember when I was young and flush with savings and always paid off my credit cards in full every single month. It was a nice time in my life...

[Anonymous]

$94K when my husband lost his job the month after our daughter was born at 27 weeks. I was sick enough that I could not return to work immediately - not to mention the stress of getting our daughter through that precarious first year. It took him about 7 months to find something. The medical bills were insane. It took us 4 years to pay it off. Most stressful period of our lives.

[Anonymous]

12k when Dh was unemployed. We paid it off 4 months after he got a new job.