Blogging Away Debt

A Year and a Half Later, I Still Get Sick of Being in Debt

I’ve been blogging about my debt for over a year and a half now. This really amazes me because while I can be bull-headed and full of determination, it seems to come in spurts. I’m not always a determined person for the long haul (check out my rant at Blogging Away Fat). For some reason, though, I’ve been able to stick with paying off our debt.

But I get so sick of it sometimes. I go through periods where I’m ready to win the lottery (even though I don’t really play). Or I have some big idea that pops in my head and I see dollar signs (although it’s probably just a crazy idea).

Just something that can take my debt and make it go bye-bye. *POOF* All gone. Then I return to reality and I start asking myself questions:

If I don’t go through this long, difficult journey of paying off our debt, what will I learn?

If my debt magically disappeared shortly after starting this blog, would I have still adapted a frugal lifestyle?

Would I even have a savings account?

So many questions that I will never know the answer to. But something tells me that if my debt magically disappeared back then, I would be back in debt before I knew it. Why? Because by going through the process of paying off our debt I am learning so much and I am really understanding how much being in debt has cost us. Not only in the interest that has been paid, but how much stress that it causes.

Yeah, I still get sick of being in debt but it is for a reason. It’s so I will never…ever…get back into it again!

Credit Scores – Apparently They Are Growing in Importance

by Tricia

I remember way back when I first started blogging about our debt. I was contacted by a debt company that deals with debt settlement. I asked the gentleman who contacted me flat out…what will happen to my credit score if I did this?

He skirted around the issue a bit, and basically said, “What do you need a credit score for anyway?”

Thinking about it a little bit, maybe he had a point. If you want to avoid debt and obtaining new debt, who cares about your credit score? Go ahead and tank it since you won’t be trying to obtain new credit.

But wait a minute. Some employers pull credit reports on potential employees.

“…most people also don’t know that cellphone companies, landlords, and home insurers often use the scores as part of customer background checks.”
[Via USNews.com]

Somehow, having a good credit score has been linked with having good personal responsibility. Since you have a good score, you are a good person. Of course, I don’t buy that for a minute. A number like that can only tell you so much. But companies outside the financial district are using it to judge you. That upsets me more than a little bit.

I told the gentleman with the debt settlement company that I wasn’t interested. Debt settlement wasn’t an option for me at that point. We are able to pay off our debt, given some time to do it. Now, if we were facing bankruptcy versus going with a debt settlement company…that would have been a different story.

Since it seems like the number of businesses/companies using your credit score as a type of background check is increasing, I wonder what the future will hold for credit scores. I personally hope the importance of credit scores decreases outside of the financial industry.