Credit Cards and Banks Suck

In addition to my views on loan modifications and what CitiMortgage has done to me, this is one of the fall outs. Now, I can’t say that all of it was a direct result of Citi’s mess up, but I can say that it did recently play a part and here is why:

When my husband lost his job, we decided that we just simply could not pay all our credit cards. There just wasn’t enough money to do so. This was right around the time when the viral video was going around regarding the “Debtors Revolt”. After realizing that we had to make a few important life altering decisions, stopping all credit card payments was one of them. We stopped paying them shortly after my husband’s layoff, after trying to keep up and running around in circles. We found out that our mortgage company (CitiMortgage) reported that we were delinquent for September & October when in fact, it was their mess up to begin with! After those supposed delinquencies was reported, that is when all the creditors increased our rates and lowered out available limits and one, Home Depot as a matter of fact, voluntarily closed our account, even though we had no balance, were never late, been a long time user, and more importantly, current.

As I stated previously, I know we made our share of mistakes just like anyone else. We bought on a ‘want’ basis and not a ‘need’ basis for things and when we did buy, it was charged. We tried to juggle payments but we just couldn’t keep up so something had to give and we do feel really badly that we cannot hold up to our end of the agreement but we have no choice right now but to put everything we have to our mortgage, equity loan, gas, electric, insurance and food so that our three children still have a sense of security.

It was October of last year (2008) that my husband was laid off for two months and we had depleted our savings account. We decided then to not use any more credit cards. We did very well too I must say considering the circumstance. We had two auto payments at the time and I was so excited to not have to pay them anymore! I thank God that the last payment we made was in the same month that my husband was laid off this year. I had so many plans for that extra $800 a month. I was going to build up our savings again, and pay off debt, but sadly the economy had other plans for us. So now, we sit, in a worse situation financially, but on the bright side I have learned a lot and will never use a credit card foolishly again, if ever! Heck, I don’t even want to be indebted to CitiMortgage anymore!

Also I have become a huge fan of Suze Orman. She’s actually become one of my many idols. I just wish I would have become a fan a few years ago so we could have avoided this whole mess. Anyway, she has a show on Saturday nights and her last show she talked about going cash only. I have become a part of her movement and so should you. The only way to make any changes is if we all use the voice in which we were given and stand up for our rights and our beliefs. Not using these credit cards and banks is one way to get their attention and if enough of us stop using them, you better believe we will see some changes again. I personally have not used a credit card in over 8 months and it is very liberating! I’ve even paid cash for all our holiday gifts this year which is a first for me!