Taking Charge
When I was younger and fresh into college, plastic was my friend. Not only did it hold my computer together and make it possible for me to reheat cold ramen noodles days after they had been cooked, but it enabled me to obtain a magic card — a card that with a single flick of the wrist and swipe of the stripe would give me anything I needed or wanted with seemingly no effort whatsoever. Sure, a piece of paper appeared once a month with figures on it that crept upwards, but on the whole, it was pain-free instant gratification.
Such began my short road into massive credit card debt. A naïve student unleashed with a seemingly endless form of money and a lack of any sort of real income was the recipe for a disaster waiting to happen.
Eventually one card led to two — after all, two is better than one, right? More charges, more shrugging at the bills — after all, I was graduating, moving to a new apartment, and had to furnish it, right? Besides, I was starting my first full-time job — the paycheck looked enormous! I could afford to spend now and pay later a bit because I was going to “catch up” real soon.
The months and years passed and “catching up” became my mantra — “I’ll just catch up next month.” The money always seemed to disappear faster than it came in and that big paycheck wasn’t nearly as big as I thought once you took out rent, insurance, food, and other necessities. Two cards turned into four, and then five, as I struggled to afford not only the cards but life in general.
Eventually I started to despair and stopped spending, but the damage was done. Monthly bills for minimum payments kept coming and I kept writing checks, furiously trying to keep the hounds at bay. “Forget” to send a payment and you got an enormous late fee and another bill — “forget” again and you started to get nasty phone calls asking when you planned to, “catch up”. I started to become fearful of the phone and avoided answering it in case it was a credit card company calling yet again to find out why I haven’t paid this month, and can we take care of that right now over the phone? We take a check, sir. Sir?
When I had finally had enough, I started to think about loans — but what bank would give me a loan to cover credit card debt? I had no house, no property, no collateral at all to speak of…even my car wasn’t paid off yet. Another job wasn’t likely, although I thought long and hard about flipping burgers for some extra cash. I was in a bad place and getting worse.
Then I found a non-profit organization that deals with helping people get out of credit card debt. There are now tens, if not hundreds of them on the TV these days, advertising everywhere, but back then, there were only a few. My friend had started with these folks and liked them. I figured I had little to lose that I hadn’t already, so I called them.
Boy, am I glad I did.
As of the 7th of December, I will be completely and utterly free of credit card debt for the first time in over 8 years. Over the course of the program, I have paid off almost $10,000 in debt with nearly $19,000 in $300 monthly payments, a far cry from the much larger amount I would have had to pay had I done it the traditional way. Instead of interest rates from 15% to 23%, the company got most of my cards down to 9.9% and made it easy for me to make one monthly payment, not five, and took care of distributing the monies to the companies. The phone calls stopped, my anxiety went away, and I’m so glad that I did this.
Just as a note before I tell you who they are — this is not a paid endorsement. They never contacted me, they never said, “Give us a jab and we’ll line your pockets.” I won’t get a red cent out of mentioning their name. I’m writing it here because I feel they’ve done a superb job for me and saved my ass when very little else could. For that they deserve my thanks and recommendation to others, that’s all. Maybe by mentioning them it’ll save someone else, too.
Take Charge America (TCA) has been a super-friendly, super-professional company to work with over the past years. The staff has always gone out of their way to be helpful, make things work, and to keep me updated on my progress. Every phone call from or to them is a great one — their people must really like to work there, because they’re all pleasant to speak to, every time. I can’t say enough about their customer service.
The program isn’t easy, so don’t think you can take the sunny road home. First Rule: No more credit cards. At all. None. You can’t use any, you can’t have any that are active, and you can’t get any while on the program. Credit card companies are happy enough to help you get into a debt management program (TCA does the negotiating for you) but if you act like you don’t care, then they will kick you out so quick it’ll make your head spin. You can’t even have one for emergencies — the only way the program works is if you stop cold turkey.
Yes, for the past 6 years I’ve not had or used a credit card, not even once. Which has proven to me that I do not need to have a credit card. I can live perfectly fine without one. Oh, sure, there were plenty of times when I wished that I did have a card, but I wasn’t able to, so I figured out how to get by without one. The program makes you be better with money and more resourceful when it comes to pinching pennies.
The second rule is that you actually have to pay them off. Sure, you don’t have to make separate payments each month to each card, but my overall payment really didn’t go down — $300/month wasn’t anything small to sneeze at. TCA gives you an amount they think your income and budget can handle and you have to stick to it. The advantage here is that instead of going to pay off mostly your interest on each card, the money starts to pay off the principle, which is the key to getting rid of it once and for all.
There were times during this stint on the program when I wished I hadn’t, when that $300 was really a major payment and I couldn’t bear to see it go to pay off debt — debt that existed for things I didn’t own anymore or benefit from any longer. Some of it was even things as stupid as groceries and beer. There is nothing worse than paying off debt that means nothing to you.
But, here I am, and I’ve come this far and I’m almost done. I couldn’t be happier. Will I get another credit card? Probably. My new job has already asked that I have one to cover business expenses and then they’ll reimburse me. I’m thinking about getting a charge card, which requires that you pay it off in full every month. Also, having one in case, say, the refrigerator breaks down, would be very handy and smart. I will not, however, get another card to cover expenses “in between” paychecks. I will not get one to buy the things I really want but can’t afford. I will not get one to compensate for a lack of preparation, planning, or control. I’m free now, and I’m not going back into that prison again.
So…if you are an American and you have a lot of credit card debt and are at the end of your rope about it, I’d highly recommend TCA. It’s not a quick or easy way out, but it’s a sure way out, and that can be the savior at the end of the road, trust me. It would have taken me over 40 years to pay off my debt by paying the minimum — now I can move on.
If you’re not in massive debt or you’re on the edge of it, DON’T fall into the trap! It was one of the worst things I’ve ever done in my life and I regret every moment of it. You do NOT need a credit card, despite what everyone (and the media) tells you! Debit cards, yes. Everyone needs some plastic, but not a credit card. They make it so easy to rack up unsecured debt that you don’t realize how hard it will be to recover from it; that’s part of the trickery. Take the advice from someone who really borked up and got out of it, thankfully, in the long run.
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