I got paid today so I decided to pay off some bills tonight. In one transaction, I paid off all my credit card debt. As of today, I owe nothing to CIBC Visa.
I applied for my first credit card after getting my first “real” job in 1997. It had a $1500 credit limit. I used it sparingly for the first months and when I did, I made sure I never carried a balance from month to month.
Over the course of the next few years, that changed for some reason. I started carrying a balance. It started off small so the interest charged wasn’t that bad. Some time between me working at EA and starting grad school, that’s when things got worse.
I think at one point, my balance was up to $3000. I remember during one Christmas break from grad school, I was looking at my statements and saw that I was making payments that were barely over what I was being charged as interest.
I should have done something then, but I’m kinda dumb at times. Then I told a friend of mine about my little credit card problem. She suggested that I transfer over all my credit card debit into a line of credit, to escape the high interest rates. It made sense at the time, but I didn’t heed her advice until the summer of 2005.
With a reduced interest rate, I was able to make significant payments on my line of credit. Now, my balance stands at zero.
Unfortunately, I now need to turn my attention to the my provincial and federal student loans. There will be a day in future when my net worth will be not negative, but it will not be this day… why did that last line sound familiar?