Celebrate! Jumping Off the Credit Card Carousel!

There’s a series of television ads that show lines upon lines of customers in perfect sync making purchases with a credit card…step up to the register, swipe, next…step up to the register, swipe, next…until one apparent schlep stops the harmonious flow by paying with…gasp….CASH. “Don’t let cash slow you down,” the fatherly voice advises.

I am proud to report that I am the one creating havoc. “Just watch me leave home without it,” I chant. “My life, my cash!” I know who I am without checking the imprint on a credit card. That wasn’t always the case, and that’s why there’s cause for celebration!

As a baby boomer, I got my first credit card after getting married. We used it for bigger items and still got in trouble. Doesn’t everyone? Over the years debt consolidation loans were an advantage when it came to our taxes, a smart move. Now I recognize that it was only a Hans-Brinker move; you know, the little Dutch boy who saved his country by putting his finger in the little hole in the dike. There were periods when the debt was in control. Back in the days when homes actually appreciated in value, we sold our starter home for a wonderful profit, paid off other debt and moved to a nicer home with our growing family.

Through the various chapters of my life–divorce, single motherhood, remarriage, divorce, single seniorhood—I thought of that pretty array of plastic in my purse as my friend. I believed in Santa Claus and the Tooth fairy a little too long, too. Credit cards equal freedom, right? That’s what we hear, see, read…and want to believe. An inordinate number of credit card companies include “America” in their names. Isn’t “America” supposed to be a synonym for freedom?

Isn’t there a truth-in-advertising standard in America anymore? Surely it would make one think twice if credit cards were called what they are: IOUs or Debt Cards. Then the thoughts that come to mind might include liability, obligation, handicap, indebtedness? The current wave of dissatisfaction with what we have, either caused by or coupled with the constant 24/7 advertisements screaming at us that we deserve more, feed the belly of the beast which is eating away at our very solvency. What’s the foreclosure rate in your neighborhood?

We don’t really own what we think we own. In business terms, we’re actually leasing or renting with an option to buy. The kicker is the interest! We desperately need a way to associate the concept of interest, as in advertising ploys used to arouse our interest in those black leather boots or new appliance with the interest we will pay for the use of the money we are borrowing from the credit card company to purchase what we can’t really afford, surely do not deserve, much less need. A sale is not a sale when the interest we end up paying to charge the little red skirt doubles or even triples the cost of that skirt over the time of the loan we’re taking out to buy it on sale! By the time we really own it that little red skirt is being worn by the savvy Thrift Store shopper who picked it up for a song after you donated it. How crazy is that?

I began to think of my credit cards as an albatross. A poisonous albatross, at that. Not one Genie in a Bottle or Fairy Godmother showed up with a wink or a wand to make the growing debt go away.

I’m here to say it’s about time we use self-interest as a guiding principle and be concerned with our own financial welfare. Change the connotation of self-interest from one of selfishness or excessive regard for one’s personal advantage and understand that if we aren’t working in our own self-interest, who’s got our best interest at heart? Not the Pied Piper we are merrily dancing behind to the edge of financial ruin!

Don’t get me wrong. I willingly boarded the credit card merry-go-round in my 20s, ignored the signs when it picked up speed in my 30s, held on tighter to the neck of the giant carousel chicken I was riding in my 40s, feared for my future in my 50s, and then … let go! Tumbled off rather clumsily, brushed off my ego, picked up the phone and called a credit counseling company to aid in my emancipation!

It’s been a year since I signed up with Green Path debt solutions. They worked with me to set up agreements with five credit card companies to pay off my credit card debt completely in 60 months, or five years. In order to do this, the credit card companies agree to lower the interest rates they’d been charging. The most amazing drop was from 23.8% to 6%. Here’s the gulp: I was only allowed to exclude one card. All other cards are closed as a condition of the agreement. It’s a journey towards sensible money management, not just a quick fix. The credit card gurus remind me of the Wizard of Oz, full of false hope. I feel as if I was singing and dancing my way down the yellow brick road and stumbled on the detour marked Green Path. All along, I had the answer within: live within my means. Green Path has afforded me the opportunity to figure out what’s really important. Abraham Heschel, a Jewish theologian and philosopher, said, “Self respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.”

Living on credit made me feel like Eeyore, the gloomy donkey from Winnie the Pooh. There’s a certain hopelessness that accompanies the wearing of expensive, albeit fashionable, rose-colored glasses. Whoever said that money can’t buy happiness must not have faced the life-changing decision to use cash instead of plastic. Using cash can not only buy happiness but self respect and peace of mind.

signed…. an “x” credit card user

CONGRATULATIONS to our client! eas