Credit card debt?

[hoosier]

1) yes, several
2)no!!!

 

[wendy]

I have heard Suze Orman say to have a credit card you just 'have' and don't use every now and then can hurt your credit/fiaco score.

To me this is messed up! To me that just seems unreal, why hurt people for being so 'common sense' with there monies.

But to answer the original post question:

yes, i have one that i use for orders, don't want to use my debit card (bank has several post that debit card should not be used for over the phone, catalog, online, magazine subscriptions, etc you can not object to the charges on a debit card, you can a credit card. Per the bank) When I do use the card I don't put more than I can pay off in one payment. Like last week I used it total was under 30 dollars. I will pay it off before I will put anything else on it. (they say that does not help towards credit history either , because you don't have a balance

DH has one he carries, he travels with his work, just in case of emergency he has one. Rarely does he use it.

We are also paying extra on the mortgage, hopefully will have it paid for soon. Both of us are not 40 yet. So that would be wonderful to be mortgage free.

Dh truck is paid for, and our van is paid for. Both have around 130,000 miles on them. We are thinking of running them till they are just not worth fixing. We change oil regularly in both and do maintence required too. So they maybe around awhile

The only other thing we have are a loan on our camper (with 4 kids it gets expensive for vacations and DH and I grew up without vacations, so we take our kids on trips. Sometimes it maybe only for a couple of days with DH job. And we have one other loan under 5,000 (this is a used tractor, badly needed for bushhogging, tilling, dh uses it to pull up small trees too) and the camper is under 7,000 ( the camper is a pop up, that is all our vehicles would pull without buying another vehicle too)

So our total debt is under 21,000 dollars WITH the mortgage!

We pay extra on all of these debts. We had thought about taking our income tax return and using it towards one of our debts. But we plan adding it to our savings. Since the darn economy is so messed up!

 

[ChevygirlBeth]

Yes I have a credit card (a few really, but only really use one).

No, I do not carry a balance. It is always paid off each month.

There was one time when I carried a balance. My last year of college, I couldn't get enough in student loans to pay for everything (despite working as many hours as I could and living very frugally). I got a credit card that had a 0% interest rate and used it to buy my books and a few groceries. As soon as I got out of college and started working I worked my butt off to pay it off before the 0% interest period was over.

We do have some debt, especially since we just bought a house, but we've worked hard and gotten out of most of the debt that my DH brought with him (he didn't have much guidance on debt from his family). We're trying to get everything paid off so that all we have left is the mortgage. We could probably pay things off a little sooner, but I also insist on saving quite a bit. A big chunk of our pay is direct deposited into a higher interest rate savings account, so we just live like that money doesn't exist. That being said, we do choose one debt and pay extra on it until it is paid off, and then roll that money onto the payment for the next debt. If we keep going like that, we'll be able to make some NICE payments on the mortgage once the other debts are all gone!

 

[BeardedChick]

1. Yes
2. No***

*** Qualified to add that I have a store card that has an item on it, but it's 12 months w/ no interest and I will have it payed off before I have to pay any interest.

 

[Lobzi]

Quote:
Yep something is wrong I agree. Our country thrives on credit and debt.... that is the "American way."

 

[Lobzi]

Oh yeah, many cards, no debt as all are auto-pay.

 

[beak]

Quote:
About 40 out of 22,000 have answered so far. You should repost as don't be ashamed to admit your like most people. Then you may get a more accurate cross section.

 

[beak]

Congrats to all those that have answered so far!!!!

 

[ksacres]

Quote:
About 40 out of 22,000 have answered so far. You should repost as don't be ashamed to admit you're like most people. Then you may get a more accurate cross section.

I agree, I did carry a balance on my card for several years. It doesn't mean you aren't smart. There have been times when a credit card is all that stood between me and getting my power shut off...

ETA: Chirpy, I know you don't mean it this way, but that post sounds a little condescending to those that are carrying a balance. Sometimes it's not a choice.

 

[DuckLady]

1) Do you have a credit card? One

2) If you do, do you have debt on it? Nope.