Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Life Long Credit Card Debt

Can you live without your credit card? I can’t. The other day I bought gas in Wiscasset and instead of going inside and standing in line to pay I simply poked my credit card into the pump. When I have a speaking job in Denver or South Dakota, the plane ticket goes on my credit card, too. A week or two ago I put $1670 in travel expenses on my credit card. When my bill came, that one gas purchase wasn’t on there, so I called the credit card company every day until the little mechanical voice told me that my balance included the gas and was now $1688.88. I sent them a check for that amount the same day, even though they said my minimum payment was $17. $17!. I see that the interest is 12.99 percent variable, whatever that means, and I make the interest for one month to be close to $18.28. If I were to pay $17, wouldn’t my balance for next month be more than the $1688.88 that I owe today? My question to you is, if you only pay them the amount they ask for, isn’t it possible that you’ll be paying interest on a credit card for the rest of your life? I know an old man who did that. He was a bookkeeper and a smart man and he juggled 8 or 10 credit cards one against the other, figuring that because he left no estate, when he died he’d be able to stick them for 50 or 60 grand. And he did.