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Feb. 25th, 2016 08:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynWell, I just did something I never really expected to do: I closed out one of my credit cards.
There was a time when I had three. One of them got to a point where the company called me and told me they were canceling the card; I had to pay off the existing debt and could take as long as necessary to repay it, so long as I made minimum each month, but they refused to let me use the card for anything else. I eventually got that one paid off and I was very relieved. That left me with one card that had a debt of considerable size on it, and another card with a significantly lower credit limit but near maximum debt on it anyway. It originally had a higher limit, but the company called me and let me know they were knocking my limit down by two grand. I wasn't happy about that, but I didn't have much of a choice, and I paid myself down until I was under the new limit.
Last year I had an annual bonus of a good size. I used most of it to pay down the cards (and part of it to buy a David Clark aviation headset; if I'm going to learn to fly seriously, I need to ensure my hearing is protected from day one). I wound up having to take on some more debt over the summer. This year I finally paid off the smaller of the two cards, and a goodly chunk of the larger one. When I went to check on the smaller card this month, they'd raised my credit limit on that card by two grand, back to the original maximum.
I called and canceled anyway.
I don't want to deal with more debt opportunity. I don't want to have the temptation to buy things because they'll get me points. If I have to use debt to buy a piece of furniture, or a computer, or a car, I'd rather be able to get lower interest store credit- you can't do that if your credit rating shows that you have credit cards that allow you to borrow money right up to the max debt your income and rent allow. If I can put together enough savings, I'd like to be able to put a down payment on a house or a condo and get a mortgage to cover the rest. Can't do that if I have too much debt opportunity to please the bank officer, or whoever. I have enough space on the other card at the moment to handle most emergencies, and I'm working on paying it down farther so that I can actually start saving properly. (Retirement money doesn't count- that's retirement money. I mean putting money in a savings account as anything other than a cushion against overdrafts. There's no point to a savings account if you've got ongoing heavy credit card debt. The debt interest rate outpaces any benefits of your savings account by so much that it'd be a better investment to put the savings money towards card payments, most of the time.)
I've had this card for ages. It feels weirdly good to be cutting it up.
There was a time when I had three. One of them got to a point where the company called me and told me they were canceling the card; I had to pay off the existing debt and could take as long as necessary to repay it, so long as I made minimum each month, but they refused to let me use the card for anything else. I eventually got that one paid off and I was very relieved. That left me with one card that had a debt of considerable size on it, and another card with a significantly lower credit limit but near maximum debt on it anyway. It originally had a higher limit, but the company called me and let me know they were knocking my limit down by two grand. I wasn't happy about that, but I didn't have much of a choice, and I paid myself down until I was under the new limit.
Last year I had an annual bonus of a good size. I used most of it to pay down the cards (and part of it to buy a David Clark aviation headset; if I'm going to learn to fly seriously, I need to ensure my hearing is protected from day one). I wound up having to take on some more debt over the summer. This year I finally paid off the smaller of the two cards, and a goodly chunk of the larger one. When I went to check on the smaller card this month, they'd raised my credit limit on that card by two grand, back to the original maximum.
I called and canceled anyway.
I don't want to deal with more debt opportunity. I don't want to have the temptation to buy things because they'll get me points. If I have to use debt to buy a piece of furniture, or a computer, or a car, I'd rather be able to get lower interest store credit- you can't do that if your credit rating shows that you have credit cards that allow you to borrow money right up to the max debt your income and rent allow. If I can put together enough savings, I'd like to be able to put a down payment on a house or a condo and get a mortgage to cover the rest. Can't do that if I have too much debt opportunity to please the bank officer, or whoever. I have enough space on the other card at the moment to handle most emergencies, and I'm working on paying it down farther so that I can actually start saving properly. (Retirement money doesn't count- that's retirement money. I mean putting money in a savings account as anything other than a cushion against overdrafts. There's no point to a savings account if you've got ongoing heavy credit card debt. The debt interest rate outpaces any benefits of your savings account by so much that it'd be a better investment to put the savings money towards card payments, most of the time.)
I've had this card for ages. It feels weirdly good to be cutting it up.
