Blogging Away Debt

You Need a Car to Get a Job, But You Need a Job to Buy a Car

The events of the past week have taken a toll on me and I hit a low point yesterday. Sometimes, when it rains it pours and that has been what this past week has been like. I won’t bore you with the details right now, but along with grieving we will be dealing with a financial blow shortly. A one-two punch was more than I could handle.

Today when I woke up, I still felt a little depressed although the sleep did do me some good. Later in the day, I was outside smoking when an idea hit me like a freight train. An idea similar to this one had been floating around in my head for a while, but nothing as detailed as what hit me today. When I think about how my life is and how I want it to be, this idea can get me there. All of a sudden I had a huge smile on my face and I was singing along to tunes while working. That’s how I love to feel. Motivated… inspired… full of hope. It’s the best “high” you can get. Unfortunately, it wore off.

I’m still excited about my idea and I wrote it down on a piece of my son’s green construction paper so I won’t forget it. As I’m typing I’m glancing over at my scribbles. My “high” wore off because reality had set in and now I’m wondering where I’ll find the time to bring my idea to life.

That’s the thing. It seems like I have a million things I need to do and a million things I’d like to do. My idea can get me the time I need to be able to do the things I’d like to do. It can work and I know I can get it to work if only I had the time.

It is sort of like that saying…You need a car to get a job, but you need a job to buy a car.

How do you get by that? Honestly, at this point I’m not sure.

I need time to figure it out 😛

An Interesting Email From a Reader

by Tricia

I am going to be quite busy the next few days, so I am not sure how much time I will be able to devote to writing on here. Thankfully, I received an interesting email from a reader sharing her story about her credit card raising her rates. She was nice and is letting me share it with all of you.

“We have always paid our debts on time. Due to my husband’s (last) illness, they got higher than we wanted BUT when viewing assets (mutual funds, house owned etc.) against the amount of debt we were still over $100,000 in plus territory. Supposedly upon a review of our credit report (I was told they do it once a month which is b.s.) we were over-extended so Chase raised our interest rate to 29.9% on $15,000 balance. I was floored. Got a very snotty customer service rep on the phone, was refused lower interest rate. Paid 1/2 off this account. Next month, called again. Again got another snotty rep and was refused. Paid I/2 of the 1/2. Called again. Refused. Paid it all off except $200, called and was refused. Over the past year we’ve dropped our total debt by 35%. Seems none of this counted the other day when I called again to ask for a lower interest rate, I was refused.
I am (get this!) a debt collector. I have collected on First USA/Chase credit cards. I have been told by more than several debtors that the reason why they quit paying was that the interest rate was raised to the point where they couldn’t pay. One thing I noticed (because we’re trained to look for this) was that these people owned their own houses. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I think it’s a “planned predatory” act.”

Have any of you had experiences like this with a credit card? Did your rates magically raise for no apparent reason?