Baby and I were going over the bills the other day and while doing some poking around his credit card statements, I found out that the interest rates on his two cards are 19% and 24%. I know he owes like $2,500 on one card and $500 on another. When he got the cards a few years ago he bought things that he needed, his desktop and a digital camera, etc. The problem now is that we’re living together and pulling our assets together to see where we stand financially and his extra bills are really weighing us down. He’s probably paid back double what he’s actually spent but considering the interest rates keep building onto the current balance, he just can’t seem to get ahead no matter how hard he tries.
For the past few weeks I’ve been considering getting a credit card of my own. I figure that while business is coming in good at the moment, it’s not going to last very long and until I can hold down a solid 9-5, I’m still going to need some cash-flow for food, supplies, items for Bella, etc. While doing some hunting around creditcardflyers.com I was able to compare cards and offers to find the best card for me, financially. I’m 50/50 on getting a card because I’m not too keen on spending money that I essentially don’t have, but sometimes you really have no choice. I just don’t want to get to where Baby currently is. So, my first goal was to find a card with a low interest rate. Then of course it had to be with a respected company because I don’t want to get myself into an endless pit of debt. Based on comparison I’m going to go with either Bank of America or Chase, after that I have no idea what to do. I guess I’m going to have so spend some more time surfing the site before I can really grasp it.
A few have told me to consider a student credit card but I won’t be enrolled into college for another few months (if things go as planned) so that probably wouldn’t help me out right now, you know? So I think sticking with the low interest cards may be the best thing for me at the moment. I really don’t know what I’m going to do…I guess this required a lot more research than I’d originally thought.
I asked Baby how he managed to mess himself up the way he did and he gave me one of the dumbest answers I’ve ever heard. He signed up for one of his cards because he went to Home Depot to pick up a tape measure or something and he got a second one for free by signing up for a credit card. I looked at him with a blank stare for so long that I was on the verge of drooling. He went on to say that he never considered signing up through those companies that stand outside of colleges but he wishes he did because they probably would have had lower interest rates to offer him. Go figure.