(Continued from the main Credit Card Addiction Stories page)

 "I signed up and the rest is history."  Jon worked all through college but still needed money for other expenses.  He used his credit card, which wouldn't have been a big deal if he had not ignored the credit card bills for months, not making many payments at all.  "I had some cards with 30% interest rates and hundreds of dollars in late fees because I didn't pay my bills very often." 

Jon began receiving calls from collection agencies on a regular basis.  "At one point, I was so tired of being harassed, I disconnected my phone."  By the end of his college career, he had ruined his credit rating and had racked up $9000 in debt.  "When I got a job after college, I needed a car.  I tried to get a car loan, but I couldn’t get one in my name . . . so I bought a cheap car and put it on my credit card.  I decided I was ready to fix this crappy mess I was in, so I transferred all my balances to one card and closed all my accounts but the one.  Since I was making more money, I was able to pay a big chunk every month.  I paid the balance down in four years enough to improve my credit rating a little.  I am house hunting now, and I can't get a good interest rate for a loan because of my history. "