It’s a compulsion.

Plain and simple.

And it’s hard to break out of it. Like alcoholism or sex addiction or chronic OCD, I’m addicted to spending. And why not? Why is that such a big surprise? I live in a capitalist country. I live in a city where 99% of employers are retail chains or fast food restaurants. Isn’t that America these days? Nothing but retail shops. Nothing but places for you to spend every last penny you’ve earned on total crap.

I guess alcoholics, after they give up booze, they start to see alcohol everywhere. Every time they visit someone, they’re offered beer. Every time, they go out to eat, there’s a wine/beer menu sitting right on their table. Every time they drive down the street, there’s a billboard with someone drinking.

It’s no different for us shop-a-holics either. For those of us possessed by the demons of credit cards. Every time I turn on the TV, there are a thousand commercials all telling me to open up my wallet and spend, SPEND, SPEND!!! And every time I’m at someone’s house, they’re telling me all the things they recently bought. Every time I go outside, I see billboards and signs for sales. Every time I close my eyes, I see dollar signs and new purses and new shoes and new clothes and new every thing I really don’t need but I feel I have to get.

I’ve become Cathy. I’ve become a cartoon character that spends compulsively. How does one break out of this cycle. For a short while, I can tell myself enough is enough and I need to curb the spending. But I never hold out that long. I can never keep the spending demons at bay. They always take over me, possess me and force me to betray my wallet.

Well, I’m depressed. Only a few days since Christmas, and I’ve already lost that holiday cheer.

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Oh wait, let me stress how poor. I have no money at all. My bank account is empty. Thank God it’s pay day. I’m about to lose two of my roommates, which means my rent will almost double at the end of the month. I can’t seem to find any roommates anywhere I look, except of course for creepy old men with which I wouldn’t feel comfortable living.

All of these credit cards are killing me. Even without the cards, the high cost of my student loans sucks me dry each month. Well, today I attempt to close down another store card. I’ve already cut it up…a Sears card. Who needs it? Not me. Now I have to call them up, most likely fight with someone tooth and nail to get the card canceled, and then hope, cross my fingers, it was actually canceled.

Every card I cancel is like a small weight lifted from my shoulders. If only I could cancel rent and student loans…

M.

But now, I’m getting charged for having these cards. It’s insufferable. I guess that’s another card I ought to cancel.

M.

TRUTH: The truth is, the system is designed to put us in debt. The system relies on us being in debt. Who remembers the stimulus plan? Does anyone also remember the point of the stimulus plan? I can tell you right off the top of my head, the point was NOT to get you to put that money into a savings account for the future. I can tell you right off the top of my head that the point was to get you to spend that money on TVs and cars and clothes and other junks you don’t really need.

I’m not saying it isn’t my fault too. I shouldn’t fall the consumerism crap in America, but I do. And so tens of millions of other Americans. It’s not a coincidence that so many Americans are in such bad debt these days. We’re convinced we need to spend more and more money on junk we don’t need in order to keep the economy from collapsing. Well, it’s neither your nor my responsibility to keep this economy afloat. The best thing I can do for this economy is to get myself out of debt.

The Truth Is Out There

LIE: Credit card debt will destroy my credit rating.

TRUTH: It ain’t helping, but credit ratings aren’t permanently etched in stone. If you focus on paying off your debt. If you close down extraneous accounts that are doing you no good. If you make good, smart, educated decisions about your budget and spend appropriately, your credit rating will come around. The worst thing you can do is think it’s permanently F’d up and just give up. Don’t ever give up.

LIE: Cutting up my credit card means I’ll never have to deal with it again.

TRUTH: Who doesn’t sadly think this is true? God, sometimes calling up the company and canceling the card isn’t enough, so it certainly doesn’t do anything to just cut up that card in your wallet. You have to cancel the account, and you have to demand written verification that the account has been canceled. You want to make absolutely certain that neither you nor some identity thief can go and use that card. And it doesn’t help your credit rating to have a card that is never used. It looks bad. It looks like the card has been maxed out.

LIE: One more card can’t hurt. I’ve been paying off the rest so well.

TRUTH: If you’re paying them off so well, then why do you think another card? Here’s the truth, having all those cards and spending using all the cards is going to kill your credit rating. Stop it right now. Don’t bother with a store card. You don’t need those stupid bonus points. Consider how much you’re probably paying in interest, and you’ll quickly realize those bonus points are at most a tiny, minuscule fraction of the interest and penalty fees you’re paying. Also, you don’t know what the future holds. Maybe you can afford all those cards now, but who says you’ll have your job in a month or two, or who says you won’t be hit with a pay cut? You always want to give yourself enough wiggle room, and you always want to have enough in savings that if you lost your job today, you’d be ok for at least the next six months.

And finally, let me add, Americans already have TOO MANY CREDIT CARDS.

And that’s the truth.

Eh?

The bill was for a $50 purchase from a year ago. And because I hadn’t paid this $50 purchase, I had accrued $200 in late fees. Nice. The thing is, the purchase made a year ago was not me. How could it be? I’d closed that account two years ago, right?  So I called the company, and I said, “Hey, I’ve closed this account.” To which, they said, “Uh, we have no record of that.” No record??? I explicitly remember closing the account. I remember cutting up the card. I remember it! But they had no record, so the person I had closed the account with had obviously lied, didn’t close the account, b.s.

Then, I explain to them, well, there’s no way I used the card a year ago, it’s been cut up and dead for at least two years. The guy on the other end tells me this little fact: you don’t need the store card to make a purchase with the card; all you need is an account with the store, and then if you give them your name, they will charge the card. That seems illegal on soooooooo many levels. So, anyone can just walk into your store, pretend you’re me, and if they luck out and I have an account, they can charge to it? Wow, talk about consumer protection.

So they tell me my only recourse is to file a complaint, and they’ll study what I’ve said, and if it seems the card was misused, they will strike the bill from my account. So I write up my complaint, and I send it in. I get a call 30 days later. The person says I was two weeks late in filing my complaint. That because I was late, there was nothing I could do, so they were going to have to just charge me the $250 no matter what. Was this some kind of crazy scam? I sent them the complaint as soon as they told me about it. How is it my fault it took them 30 days to look at it instead of within two weeks? Do I have to personally go down there and order them to read my complaint on time?

At this point, I’m so fed up with this company. I tell them, look, you just lost a customer for life. Even though I didn’t use your card anymore, I still made regular purchases at your store. But now I won’t. Not ever again, and that’s a bigger loss than this $250. They didn’t care. Said it was $300 because another 30 days had gone by. I was going to scream. I contacted the Better Business Bureau, and I filed a complaint.

I wanted to warn others not to fall for this trap. After only a few days, a representative of the company called me. They apologized profusely. Oh, you didn’t need to contact the better business bureau. We could have worked this out. There was no need to do that. They removed the $300 bill I owed them. Then, they asked if they could do anything for me. I told them, close my damn account this time! And this time, they sent me confirmation the account was closed.

So, I guess the moral of the story is, cry and complain and tattle-tale, because it’s the only way these companies give a crap.

M.

It’s always MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!!! I hate it. Why can’t we live in a world without money? I’m so sick of worrying about it all of the time. I’m so sick of being in debt. I’m so sick of worrying about being in debt. I want a vacation from my life.

PLEASE!

M.

But then I realized that’s stupid. Why should I feel bad that they’re not going to take my money anymore? Why should I feel bad that I’m not going to pay their ridiculously high interest rates on this store card? It dawned on me that this was less like a bad prom date and more like liberation. It felt good. It felt like I was breaking out of prison or something, like I’d gained some small measure of my freedom back by denying this company my money. They don’t need it. They don’t deserve it. They make SOOOOOOOOO much money without me.

Now, here’s one trick I learned from closing credit accounts. Always make sure the account is actually closed. I’ve previously closed a couple small accounts, and after thinking the account was closed, I would later receive a balance statement in the mail, or I’d get an updated card. When you call these people, I think maybe they get in trouble if too many accounts are closed on their watch, so if begging and pleading with you to keep the account open doesn’t work, they’ll just lie and tell you they’ve closed the account when they haven’t. Ug. So I’ve gotten in the habit of always asking for written proof that my account is closed. Also, I’ll usually call back the company a day or two later and just ask, “Hey is my account closed?” I’m not taking any chances. There’s too much identity theft these days. Even if I’m not using the account, if it’s open, that provides someone else with the opportunity to use it. It’s like turning down that guy you can’t stand for prom, showing up to prom, and realizing you’re still with that guy.

Ok, enough with the prom metaphors. Is it a coincidence my high school reunion is coming up???

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It makes me sick. Why do we live like this? Why do we have a system that relies on us spending all of our money on crap? I don’t need any more crap, but apparently, if I don’t go out and buy more crap, then the market will crash and it will be entirely my fault. No one’s telling me that if I don’t put money in my savings account, then the market will crash. No one’s telling me if I don’t invest in stocks or a retirement plan, then the market will crash.

I guess what it boils down to is despite having no money, a crappy job, and bills up to my eyeballs, if the corporate pigs aren’t making giant profits this holiday season off my credit cards, then they might have to wait another year before they upgrade the yacht, buy that small polynesian country, purchase his 10th home in the Hamptons, and waterski on the bloated corpses of all us poor people who are dying just to get by.

Why don’t these so-called “experts” just be honest and say if there’s not enough spending this holiday season then some CEO might have a slightly smaller golden parachute when he bails out of his failing corporation and that means a bunch of rich folks won’t be happy.

We wouldn’t want that.

WOW!!! Great for them. Wonderful.

I wish I could say the same for me. I’ll probably have to rely on credit though to make any purchases. My debt and student loan situation has become so bad that I have hardly enough money left over for rent, food and other bills. If I don’t turn to plastic to make at least some of my purchases, I won’t be able to buy anything… !!! And I know I shouldn’t, but could I really go a Christmas without getting anyone anything? Even if I go dirt cheap and make people gifts this year, I’m still going to be digging out the plastic because trust me (I’ve looked) there isn’t even any cash between my couch cushions anymore. I think last week I took what quarters I had left between the cushions, and I purchased a sandwich from mcdonalds.

Yes, that’s my life. Not even a quarter to my name.

M.

No, seriously, good luck. You’re going to need it. Take it from someone with personal experience. I have been harassed. My family has been harassed. Even my neighbors have been harassed, all because of my debt. These people lack morals. It’s not like you can easily call the police either. “Excuse me, officer, I keep getting phone calls because I can’t afford to pay my bills.”

So, what are your options? Other than paying your debt, there isn’t a lot you can do. I’ve been looking into this because I have a couple debt collectors that won’t get off my ass. It doesn’t put money in my bank account calling me at all hours of the night. No, at best, it leaves me exhausted and groggy and unable to perform my duties as an employee. Maybe it’ll get me fired.

So, without further ado, here’s what the law says:

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, enforces the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), which prohibits debt collectors from using abusive, unfair, or deceptive practices to collect from you.

What the Hell does that mean? Well, let’s break it down into a simple question/answer forum here.

Can debt collectors call me at all hours of the day?

No. They cannot. They should not ever contact you before 8am and after 9pm. Other times are considered inconvenient. Damn straight they’re inconvenient. The next time I get a call at 2am, I’m making a note of it. Who called, what time they called, what they called about, what they said. The more information I have, the more ammunition I will have against them.

How can I get that debt collector off my back?

Talk to them.

That’s a novel idea, right? If this isn’t even your debt, see if you can make the collector understand that. If it is your debt, try and work out a payment plan. Maybe you’ll get lucky and the bill collectors will have some sense. Maybe I can’t afford to pay off everything right now, but I could probably pay it slowly over time. I need to talk to these people, one on one…

If talking doesn’t resolve anything, you should write them to desist with the harassing phone calls.

Make a copy of your letter. Send the original by certified mail, and pay for a “return receipt” so you’ll be able to document what the collector received. Once the collector receives your letter, they may not contact you again, with two exceptions: a collector can contact you to tell you there will be no further contact or to let you know that they or the creditor intend to take a specific action, like filing a lawsuit. Sending such a letter to a debt collector you owe money to does not get rid of the debt, but it should stop the contact. The creditor or the debt collector still can sue you to collect the debt.

Is it ok for the debt collector to contact others?

They’re not allowed to discuss your debt with anyone aside from your attorney if you have one. Otherwise, they may call your family members, employer, etc, but only to ask for contact information. If they mention your debt, they have violated the law. Why do I have the feeling they haven’t been calling my family at all hours of the night just to get my phone number…which they ALREADY HAVE!

What if they keep contacting me after I’ve explained it wasn’t my debt?

Unless they have sent you undeniable proof that it truly is your debt, and you truly owe X amount of dollars, then they have absolutely no right to contact you any further. They have broken the law.

Debt collectors may not do the following:

• harass (i.e. repeatedly call you, make threats of violence, use foul language)
• lie (”you have committed a crime!”)
• threats (”you’ll be arrested if you don’t pay this debt!”)
• add interest, surcharges, etc to your debt unless that was part of the original agreement
• if you have multiple debts, they cannot take payments from you and arbitrarily apply those to the debts they want (such as the debts with the lowest interest rates), they must apply them to the debts you choose

What other recourse do I have if a debt collector is harassing me?

You have the right to sue a collector in a state or federal court within one year from the date the law was violated. If you win, the judge can require the collector to pay you for any damages you can prove you suffered because of the illegal collection practices, like lost wages and medical bills. The judge can require the debt collector to pay you up to $1,000, even if you can’t prove that you suffered actual damages. You also can be reimbursed for your attorney’s fees and court costs. A group of people also may sue a debt collector as part of a class action lawsuit and recover money for damages up to $500,000, or one percent of the collector’s net worth, whichever amount is lower. Even if a debt collector violates the FDCPA in trying to collect a debt, the debt does not go away if you owe it.

For more info, visit http://www.ftc.gov/credit