When my son was in his early teens, I found myself unemployed. I had been working at the university on two different grants. All of a sudden, both of them were ending and, although we were desperately writing grant applications, it did not look like funding was on the horizon.
It was difficult to find another position within the university system because I was paid so well on the grant. No department could match my salary and personnel would not let me take a step down in salary. It was a Catch-22 situation.
Looking around town for a job was depressing. There is not much industry and the jobs for which I applied were highly competitive. The harder I looked for work, the worse I felt. I finally just gave up. We started living off my credit card. Having excellent credit, I had $10,000s in my line of credit on several different cards.
I found myself going online to compare credit cards, especially trying to find those 0% credit cards. I would hurriedly complete a credit card application so I could make balance transfers, and switch my debt from one card to another.
I worried about missing a payment, because all the credit cards would start charging the regular rate and not the special offer rate that I had acquired by shopping around. It was a difficult way to live. We survived for over three years through the manipulation of credit.
In the meantime, I went back to work for myself and started earning enough money to meet expenses, but wow, the credit card debt was up to $50,000! I had to take out a loan on my home equity so that I could relax about my debts.
Today, all my credit cards are paid off each month. If you have a need to compare credit card rates and perks, please visit Cardguide.co.uk, sponsor of this post.
