take your "deal" and SHOVE IT!

Boy, let me tell you... Credit cards can be useful, if you know how to use them -- and I don't mean "just swipe it" -- but in most cases, I would wager, their "deals" are straight up bullshit.

I did a dumb thing. While I was out partying the other night, I opened a tab at the bar. I was rushed so I didn't think my choice of card through thoroughly. I chose the first piece of plastic my fingers touched. Hey, I have 0% APR on this card. I can just pay it back at the end of the month.

Well, guess what? 0% for the balance transfer offer I took out, not purchases. I think the interest rate might be something crazy like 19.99% for purchases. Those $35 in drinks could easily turn into ten times that amount, especially since the fine print states that all monies paid are applied to the balance transfer amount before purchases. This means while I'm paying off my BT the drinks are accruing interest and then the amount is recalculated to owe on the principle + interest.

Month 1: $42; Month 2: $50.40; Month 3: $60.47; and so on and so forth, so if it takes me a year to pay off the money I already owe, those drinks for one August night out will cost me $311.76! By the time I get to paying, if I pay it off in full at month 12, that amount is equivalent to buying all of my friends a couple of rounds of drinks. That's absolutely fucking ridiculous. Thank God I have enough money in my savings to pay off my balance in full. I hate to see the money go, but I'll be damned if I end up paying that much for something consumed an entire year ago and forgotten!

This incident caused me to check up on my other credit card balances. Another card I owed $56 dollars. Do you know the interest rate on that bad boy was 24.99%? For one month worth of interest, I owed an extra $12 in finance charges. For one month! I paid off the $56 + finance charges right then and there THEN called to lower my interest rate. I was transferred to an account manager who told me they could only lower interest rates by 3% -- but he was gonna cut me a deal and lower mine by 5%! Woooooohoooo. This still makes my interest rate damn near 20%. What a deal! And at the close of the call, I was asked to complete a balance transfer offer. To get myself into further debt? You've got to be joking. No thanks.

Mark my words. I know you're supposed to never say never, but I will NEVER carry another balance on a credit card again. God so help me.