Look it's only a bad deal if you don't pay off the balance in the terms. You did not do that and now it bugs you, that's good. 250 is no Starbucks for a month and skipping a weekend out. So live and learn, alway look at what something costs, not the monthly payment amount.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the feedback. I actually have the money to pay to off in my savings so I will be using that. This wasn't an impulse by .. I thought about my decision while waiting in line. Really though lesson learned.

NP here. OP, the lesson learned here is that when you borrow money for any reason, you need to stop, evaluate how much money that is, and where you are going to get the money to pay it off. Plus, you need to have a plan to pay it off. You also need to read the conditions of loan before you take the loan. Many loans have very different little "gotchas" in teh fine print including some that have a penalty for paying off the debt early (because they want to earn some interest on your loan). BEFORE you bought the Mac, you should have stopped, thought about how much money it was, and broken it down into how much you needed to pay each month for the 12 months that you had an interest free loan. Or set aside the money to pay it off in the 12th month. What happened is that you had the money in savings, but did not plan to pay it off and you were hit with the penalty for failing to pay the loan.

I also agree that it would be better to keep the card in a secure place and not cancel it. Canceling it will be a big blow to your rather short credit history and will be much more significant than it would be for someone with a long credit history. There are several suggested solutions for how to keep yourself from using the card. Some people put it in a plastic bag in the freezer, some put it in a sealed envelope in the back of a desk drawer, some even put it in a bank in a safe deposit box. Somewhere you have to seriously consider whether it is worth the risk to take it out and use. If you feel that you've learned a lesson and have better impulse control you can pick someplace more easily accessible (e.g. the envelope in the back of the desk drawer). If you feel that you might still be tempted to use this in anything other than an emergency, then put it someplace less accessible (the bank deposit box or I've seen some kids use someplace in their parents home when it is several hours drive away). Also, for future use, try not to use a credit card for anything that you cannot pay off in the same month, or in emergency conditions, pay off in a short amount of time. When you have to carry a balance, make a plan for how to pay it off, how long you want to hold the debt and pay the interest and make sure you know what the monthly payment will be and where that money will come from (e.g. it will take 10% of my wages for the next 4 months)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your mistake was wasting thousands on a mac.

While I don't know OP's situation, when I was in college, my program required a specific Mac laptop. I was a journalism student, and I know lots of arts majors also had requirements like this. I certainly didn't have money for it, but just like textbooks, it was a vital school supply.

Pretty sure that isn't OP's situation, so moving on....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It won't be waived. Your only other option is to do a balance transfer to another card with 0% interest and pay it all off within the period.

Don't forget about balance transfer fees, even if another card is offering 0% interest on the balance. They'll still charge you a fee to do it.

Yeah, I got an offer in the mail. I happened to read it. The balance transfer fee was 5%. Holy crap.

Sing it with me now:

Take that money, watch it burn
Sing in the river the lessons I've learned.

Anonymous wrote:

My one piece of advice is to cancel that card after you get it paid off. You will sustain a bit of a hit to your credit history, because one of the things the credit agencies consider is how long you've had credit. But really, that card is bad news, and cancelling it means you won't get into this trouble again.

That is terrible advice. Keep the card active, just don't carry around with you, or otherwise keep yourself from using it except in emergencies. Your credit score later will thank you.

This. Stuff it at the bottom of a drawer. (Unless it's an annual fee card, in which case yeah, cancel it.)