Our Readers Share Their Stories

In our "What's Your Story" feature, readers replied with personal accounts of serious situations. Read their true stories here:

Rita
Ohio

My story: At 29, I was living and working in Ohio, making good money, spending beyond my means, but never being without enough to cover my expenses, thru credit anyway. I married and had to move, leaving my job, and the means to afford the bills i accrued. My credit cards totaled $19,000. My marriage failed, I now raise a child alone, with the debt still hanging over my head and not sure where to go from here to repair my credit.

Chad
Georgia

My story: I am now 32 years old and had to file for Chapter 13 because I got in over my head. I was an only child that never had any bills. I got married at 21 and bought a new house and me and my wife were both young and had no money sense because we got into the credit card craze and we accumulated up to $50,000 in debt. The thing that pushed us over the edge was a new car. If I could tell anyone anything is if you can't pay cash you need to wait until you can. Credit is great but you will have to pay it back and stop and regroup before you have to go Bankrupt. Bankruptcy is a way out but it is a very hard way. We elected to go Chapter 13 and pay everyone back, most at 100% and others at 70%; this took us 7 years because we were dismissed once and had to refile. We are out now and it is going to be very hard to rebuild from this but we learned the lesson of money management the hard way.

Ed
Minnesota

My story: I am a college student, and have over $15,000 in debt. It is due to stacks of credit cards, bad checks, as well as school loans.

Erica
North Carolina

My story: I started just like any other young person off to college. Every credit company wanting to give you all kinds of credit cards or what they called "free money." It started with just one, then I would apply for another to pay off the last one and so on and so forth. Then I started applying to student loans for school and when I left college partway through my junior year, that left more debt to be paid. Later came the children which added more debt of medical bills. Now I am a 27 year old married mother of 2 and I am in approximately $25,000 in debt. I can't get a loan to pay off the old debt and I am truly considering filing for bankruptcy.

Eric and Yvonne
Oklahoma

My story: My husband and I have a story quite the contrary. We are 24 years of age. My husband and I graduated from college less than a year ago. We use only one credit card and ensure that we pay it off on a monthly basis. We save a significant amount of our earnings each month in our savings account. We also save money for our retirement. It has been very comforting to us to know that we are saving for our future and are not making choices with our money that will cause us harm in the future.

I guess my point in writing this is to encourage other young people to stay out of credit card debt and save for their retirement as well. In the end, we will be glad that we did.

Meranda
Florida
My story: I am a married mother of 2 at the age of 22! My husband left me for about a year, took out a loan from our credit union hasn't paid a cent on it. I went to open a checking account (already have a savings for four years) & was denied because of my credit. The only credit [history] i do have is from my husband. It is very hard being a single mother & not to be able to have back up funds in case something happens. I also don't have the time to run around & make money orders to mail when i work 2 jobs. I scrape what i do have just to make it, pretty soon i will be so far in debt, w/doctor payments, car payments, & other bills. I am only 22!! I have always been good with money, but sometimes life's little situations challenge you and your strengths. Thanks for listening.

Ronald
Wisconsin

My story: My wife and I have accumulated over $45,000 in unsecured debt and $80,000 in school loans! We are at a point where our debt is greater than our income! We have thought about filing bankruptcy but we will be seeking credit counseling in the near future!

Dionis
Wisconsin

My story: I really wish I didn't have this story to share. I hardly worked in college and if I did it was a few hours a week, so I had no money to start with. I started college in 1992 and almost immediately I was sent credit card offers. I'll tell you what, I didn't turn them down. I figured that when I did graduate, I would be making $45,000 a year and paying my credit cards off would be a cinch. Boy was I wrong.

I have heard horror stories about young college students racking up tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, and figured it would never happen to me. But by the time I graduated I was barely keeping up with the minimum payment amounts. I have a friend who had almost $50,000 in credit card debt when we both graduated, and when I compared my amount of debt to his I didn't feel to bad. By the time I graduated college I had almost $15,000 in credit card debt. I asked myself, "How could I let this happen?" Then I realized it was easy. Since I barely worked while in college I used every credit card that was sent to me. Again, I thought I would be making all kinds of cash because I would have a college degree. And again I was wrong.

The first job I had after graduating college (in 1998) was a $12.00 an hour job, and, as you know that don't add up to $45,000 a year. You know most college kids are eating Roman Noodles while in college because they have no money. Well, I was eating them after I graduated because I couldn't afford anything else due to all the credit card payments. I could barely make ends meet. I was always asking my parents for money and they were giving it to me when I needed it, but after a while they stopped giving. It was then I realized I had to tackle my credit card problem. Having $15,000 in credit card debt, I thought it couldn't get any worse but boy was I wrong.

I couldn't afford the minimum monthly payments for the "9" credit card accounts I accumulated, so I turned to one of those consolidation companies. And this was the mistake that really got me in trouble with my credit. I choose the first place that promised to clean up my credit and get me back on track. It was an out-of-state place I found on the Internet. It didn't take long before I realized I made a mistake with that consolidation company. They were making my payments to my creditors late, and ruining my credit further than it already was. So I stopped using them, and turned to a local attorneys office for help.

I saw an ad in the local phone book and they claimed they could help. The ad actually got me really excited because I thought, at last, help! I started working with the attorney's office in 2000. They promised me that $250 a month for 3 years will clear out all my debt. I thought it sounded wonderful and didn't look into it any further. I signed a sheet of paper and started sending the monthly payments. You may be wondering if I was crazy at the time for not investigating it further, but I figured I was dealing with an Attorney's office and they had to know how to handle my credit card accounts.

Well, just this past spring (2002 now) my new wife and I wanted to get pre-approved for a home loan. So, we applied for a pre-approval through her credit union. She is a schoolteacher and also a first time homebuyer, so we figured my bad credit history wouldn't affect it that much. Well, let me tell you that we didn't get Pre-approved because of my credit. I pulled my credit report (something I never did before) and found that it was messed up beyond belief. I found out that the attorney's office that I had been paying for the last 2 1/2 years messed up my credit even worse than it was before I started using them. They were withholding my payments, and then dispersing them every few months. Almost all my accounts were "charged off as bad debt" and most were sent to collection agencies. And I was never notified of any of the delinquencies because I guess by law the credit card companies are not allowed to contact me, only the attorney.

Well since I discovered all of this mess, I had to pull teeth from the attorney's office just to get any type of information regarding my accounts. I stopped paying them in early summer of this year and kept calling them to get information with no success. I finally went to their office and demanded paper work regarding my account with them. They gave me a few photocopied sheets of paper and the run around, and told me that my monthly payments were not enough, and that I should contact a non-profit credit-counseling agency.

Since summer I have been contacting my creditors and tried to explain what has happened. Most were non-receptive since they already sent the accounts to collection agencies, and when I contacted the collection agencies they were abusive and demanding for their money. They don't care about my situation, only their money. I have filed a complaint with a state agency, but they told me they couldn't handle it because it dealt with an attorney's office. So now I am in the process of waiting for a group legal plan to take effect through the company I now work. I want to contact a lawyer to see if we can figure out how to handle my situation and to see if I can legally pursue the issues I have with the Attorney's office who messed up my credit and my livelihood. I think I was misled by the Attorney's office into believing they could actually help my credit, and now I have the potential to be defamed because of their negligence and fraudulent activities.

It will be very hard for my new wife and I to purchase a home and start a family now. We are even thinking that I should declare bankruptcy, but because we are married we don't know how it will affect her credit. I also must mention that she too graduated college and has credit card debt, but her credit isn't as bad as mine. In retrospect, I really wonder how the hell a 19 year old, with hardly any income, could have credit cards. And what really intrigues myself is that while accumulating my credit card debt, I still had barely any income and I was still receiving and using credit cards. I do realize that ultimately I was responsible for my actions, but being a young and uneducated person with credit cards I was able to propel myself into the debt I have now.

The era that I attended college is a factor contributing to my problem. 1992 to 1998 was the Boomof the "credit card for college students" push by credit card companies. I know many people who jumped on the bandwagon and got credit cards. And I must say, If they never would have sent me so many credit cards, I know I wouldn't be in the financial sinkhole I'm in now. I urge all young adults to be responsible, and not follow the path I tripped on.

I want young adults to know about the circumstances.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Sung-Mi
California
My story: My story about excess credit in my youth.

I am currently twenty six years of age. I have not had any credit for the last two years. I started out with credit when I was eight-teen as much other people do. I was a student in college, and also worked full time. I was issued a five hundred limit credit card, then just started to build my credit rankings to a premier status. I gathered many cards years later. AMEX Platinum, Visa Platinum, MC Platinum, at the age of 22. I was contracting with a company that made me travel extensively. Which I believe made my credit outstanding, from turning over a lot on my personal credit cards. At the end of 2000 my project was over and found my self looking for another contract. There were high hopes that at the beginning of the year there would be lots of work. At that time tech companies were on the down fall and work was not obtainable. I found myself unemployed, living off credit cards, trying to deal with a car payment. I tried to shift money back and forth between credit cards,

I don't know how my story will help your article, but hope that the generation of young adults don't go through the same struggle. I think if some how financial education could be implemented to better inform young adults.

Stephanie
Missouri
My story: Hello,

I know exactly what it is to be in debt. When I was 18 I had to file bankruptcy because I had maxed out all of my credit cards from going to college full time to working full time and taking care of my son. I am now 25 and have 2 beautiful boys ages 7 and 3. I recently purchased a home for the 3 of us. Prior to our home we were living with my mother. Living with my mother was great but it makes it hard to raise your children as your own when they have 2 moms...When I said NO grandma always said YES which is what a grandmother is there for. But it makes it pretty difficult when you are trying to raise your children with your rules under someone else's home. I recently started receiving help from my sons father for child support so I thought that it was finally that time for us to move out and get on with our lives. Well that didnt happen he started paying then he decided that he can't afford to pay anymore and now I feel like I am back to where I started when I was 18 again...

Denise
Michigan
My story: Hello,

I started using credit cards while in college. I worked part time and collected social security due to an illness. The credit cards allowed me to purchase items and services I otherwise could not afford. Once I began using the cards, it became a fight to pay the bills each month leaving only the credit cards for gas or food etc. What I call a domino effect. I also lived well beyond my means. A lesson very hard learned. Now I am sooooo far in debt, I do not ever see myself getting out. I can pay my bills every month with no money left over and well you know what that means. When my car breaks down I get the credit card out. When I need a new roof, I get the credit card out. I am a single working person with a good income and no money to show for it. What I want to know is how do I get out without filing for bankruptcy? I owe at least $50,000 in credit cards and I am 39 years old.

Jennifer
Georgia

My story: I got my first credit card when I was eighteen years old. After that first card, I started getting Pre-approval offers from every credit card company imaginable. At eighteen years old, the thought of being able to buy anything i wanted, and having money at my disposal from cash advances, far outweighed the consequences of mounting credit card debt. Somehow I managed to make the Minimum Monthly payments on the eight cards that i had now acquired and was still eligible for credit increases from various credit card companies. By the time I was 22 I was $5,000 in credit card debt. You would think that I would have realized then that my Spending was out of control and that my credit card debt was mounting. Unfortunately, it would take another year to learn my lesson. I got married when i was 22 and moved to Atlanta GA. Here is where my real trouble started. My husband is not the greatest at managing finances, in fact he had terrible credit, and could not be approved for a credit card

I learned a valuable lesson. Credit Cards are great if they are not abused. I do not have a regular credit card. I have a visa check card that works like a credit card only the money comes directly from your checking account. It sure does make me think twice before I buy something. I pay for everything in cash and i save every single receipt.

I have brought my credit back to good standing, by paying every single bill on time. Bills such as Cell phones, and internet can have an adverse effect on your credit rating.

it feels so good to be almost debt free. I can now start saving for the future, instead of spending my hard earned money on high interest credit cards.

I cringe at the sight of pre-approved credit offers, especially when i know they are being sent to Eighteen year olds fresh out of high school. I think about how when i was at that age, that being able to buy a house or get a loan was not as near as important as having the new dress for a party. It should be against the law for credit card companies to solicit on college campuses. I think that Financial management courses should be taught in high school, so when an eighteen year old gets out there in the real world, he or she is aware of the dangers of credit cards. Unfortunately I learned the hard way.

Published March 10, 2003