how much credit card debt do you have? do tell please

[Anonymous]

Vacations and flights back home, 2 stints of unpaid maternity leave, new shoes to make it through winter, sushi delivery, summer camp, school uniforms, it all goes on the card. Now both kids are in school and we are starting in on an austerity program. Just in time for both our parents to go into failing health...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$10,000 roughly. It's not a good scene and we're trying hard to get a handle on it. But we live on very little with two kids under the age of 3 so I think this period of our life is simply marked by debt.

how did you decide you could afford two children?

They've chosen to pay more (indirectly via interest), but they can afford it if they're still responsible for and footing the bills for it. 10K in debt isn't peanuts, but its not the end of the world.

[Anonymous]

About 5K (on 300 HHI) We switched to *debit only* a few years ago. lately have had some expenses. Will be paid off this summer.

[Anonymous]

With the sound financial advice we received from my FIL in the early days of our marriage we managed to rack up 20k in three years. It took five years of simple living to pay that off. Now we have zero cc debt. We don't use them because we cannot be trusted with them. Incidentally my FIL has about 150k in cc debt.

[Anonymous]

Zero debt. Pay it off every month. We are very lucky that we have savings and haven't had any life events that would have us run them down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:About 5K (on 300 HHI) We switched to *debit only* a few years ago. lately have had some expenses. Will be paid off this summer.

That's a ridiculous amount on an income that high. You need to cut your expenses or improve your financial behavior if you can't just pay that off with one paycheck.

[Anonymous]

Zero. But that's because I've made some terrible choices re: credit in past years and probably couldn't even get approved for a non-secured card. Score is steadily increasing as old debts fall off my report.

Even when I'm in a good "approval" range, I realize that I don't do well with credit and won't seek to apply for any cards. I find that I'm more inclined to impulse buy and keep the balance near the limit. Debit cards for me from now on (although I've toyed with the idea of getting a $500 secured card with my credit union to avoid car rental headaches).

[Anonymous]

I completely understand that shit happens sometimes and you need to carry debt.

But the posters who have a $300+ HHI there is NO excuse to carry around credit card debt. You are just morons if you do that and/ or incredibly irresponsible with your money.

[Anonymous]

We are very fortunate. Growing up, my parents had tons of debt. I think that is why I'm so opposed to it, if possible.

We have zero credit card debt, we paid off our mortgage in six and a half years, pay cash for cars, paid off student loans, have saved a significant amount for retirement.

As I said, we are truly fortunate. Having grown up the way I did, I realize that shit really does happen. I also learned that when shit happens, you can try to get out of it or continue to make bad choices.

[Anonymous]

Zero. I carried a balance of about $2,500 when in grad school and hated having that hanging over me. Now I only use my debit card.

[Anonymous]

just totalled ours up... $9,500. (down from over $21,000). We make $100,000

[Anonymous]

0. We do the miles/reward thing and pay in full every month on our joint cc.

HOWEVER, on my personal cc, I ran up about $2K over the past year on impulse stuff and some travel. I just paid it in full, yeah!

I was terrible with money for years and am still paying the price.

[Anonymous]

$0. Had a few thousand that we paid off last month. About once a year I'll get bad about not paying in full for a couple of months and then I'll see it run up and freak out and pay it off out of savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: With the sound financial advice we received from my FIL in the early days of our marriage we managed to rack up 20k in three years. It took five years of simple living to pay that off. Now we have zero cc debt. We don't use them because we cannot be trusted with them. Incidentally my FIL has about 150k in cc debt.

Ha. What was the advice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: With the sound financial advice we received from my FIL in the early days of our marriage we managed to rack up 20k in three years. It took five years of simple living to pay that off. Now we have zero cc debt. We don't use them because we cannot be trusted with them. Incidentally my FIL has about 150k in cc debt.

Yes, please share!
If it makes you feel better, my FIL insisted we HAD TO buy a house in 2005. HAD TO. "Trust me." I was fresh outta grad school, we had just gotten married, and DH's credit was shoddy (but improving thanks to moi taking over the finances). Subprime lending "solved the problem." Gee, thanks, maybe you would like to deal with our way-underwater, too-small TH.

Currently about 2k on the cc. Back in 2005 it was maybe 15k... maybe more... my memories of that period are a little hazy, thankfully. It has taken 5 or so years of dedicated saving/paying down to get where we are. A balance of thrift and moving balances from card to card, chasing the "0% on balance transfer" offers. Seriously, once I started doing that the balances just melted away.

We do use them occasionally, probably more than we "should" but way less than we used to!