I heard through the grapevine this morning that a guy I use to hang out with a number of years ago has gotten himself into trouble by maxing out one of his credit cards, then refusing to make his payments anymore. I remember when we’d go to the train shops how he would buy a $500.00 loco, rolling stock or what ever else he wanted like it was nothing and plop the card down on the counter.
I personally have one card other than my bank card and I try to keep it paid off.
Anyone out there know what this guy is in for other than a bad credit rating ?.
well depending on his other finance’s . I f his other obligations are good probably letters forever,then a bad credit rating. If he is lettnig all his other obligations go down the tubes as well he is most likely looking at bankruptcy ? i guess ?
If the debt is big enough, litigation, wage garnishment and possible attachment of assets. If it can be proven that he deliberately rang up the debt and is refusing to pay, maybe worse.
Unlikely a guy who plunks $500 he doesn’t have for a locomotive is financially responsible in the rest of his lifestyle. A must have prototype on credit, as part of a long term strategy, maybe, but not when it’s a regular thing.
He’s painted himself into a corner. Congress just changed personal bankruptcy laws, and it’s not so easy to get out from under credit card debt anymore. When the dominoes start falling, he’ll either learn the hard way, and then have to drag himself back up by his bootstraps, or come apart completely. Either way, he’s in for a rough time.
If he was a friend, I’d have a blunt talk with him. He could still avoid a crash if he buys into a whole new outlook. If he’s not listening, I’d tell him I had no choice but to take some big steps back, and exactly why, that I didn’t really want to watch what was about to happen. You can lead the horse to water…
According to his sister Linda (the one that told me about it), he’d been making his payments up until a couple of months ago, but after being cut back at work, he said he couldn’t aford it anymore and just stopped making his payments. I think she said his debt is like $11,000.00… And 99% of what he bought on the card was model railroad related.
He is in for some hard life lessons. The sooner he learns from them, the better he and his family will be. Some advice I would give is for him to start selling the trains in order to pay his debt.
I did try to warn him. I asked him way back when if he had ever stopped to think about all the interest he was going to end up paying, but it didn’t seem to phase him. I just figured he knew what he was doing and had his finances under control…
well i’d hate to say it but ,he might have to start clearing house to make up the difference to get himself out of hock. THoe 500.00 trains wont go for that much but it might help him out if he has gotten to that point? I know from experiance this ordeal and have had to get rid of stuff that was mine and i really charished( A Quad comes to mind) because my wife messed up our credit.
Well,I seen 2 others like him before…Sadly one of them lost everything including his family…He is still in the hobby spending mega bucks…The other guy and his family moved to parts unknown I suppose to start a new life style.I will say though that his wife love living well above their means…
The reason I stopped hanging around with him was because of his bad habit of going out to clubs or sports bars. Once in a while is one thing, but not every single night…
As for me being a disciplined spender (ha ha ha ha ha). I’m going to have a hard time trying to live up to that one… I’ll put it to you like this. I’m probably the only person in the world that if I won the lottery tonight, I’d be flat broke by this time next week… Sad.
I got myself into deep debt back when I was in my early 20s. I learned the hard way that I should have heeded the advice from my parents and even my wife back then in the 1980s when I became a young adult.
Guys, if you have a relative or friend that’s a disciplined spender…heed their advice. I know that especially for us guys, it can be difficult.
If you want to buy an item with a credit card, make sure you will be able to pay it off within 30 days to avoid finance charges. Finance Charges/Interest are how the bank makes its money off of you, even if there’s no annual fee. It’s tempting to go “GA-GA” [:p] with a No Annual Fee card but you can easily wind up deep beyond your income to debt ratio.
My mom, who only made a low amount of money at her jobs cleaning hotel rooms managed to buy clothes, toys, and gifts for my sister and I as kids…my dad’s check went to groceries and bills. How did she do it??? LAYAWAY! Waiting a little while to get an item can be most gratifying once you see that its paid for and truly yours.
I don’t have all the answers here, but to those of you under 22…be aware! The banks/credit card companies WANT to keep you in debt. They’re not your friends, they’re profit oriented businesses. Believe me…I’ve been wanting DCC items, more Walthers Budd cars, Sound decoders, and locomotives for the longest. It was worth the wait since now that I’ve paid off enough debts I can buy and enjoy trains more without sweating over a huge MasterCard over Visa bill.
Just as long as you don’t spend more than you won. [:D]
Actually not carrying any credit card debt (by paying it off every month) is half the battle. A lot of people I know can’t even manage to do this, or pay off their CC debt by refinancing their mortgage. [:0] Don’t even get me started on that one! [:(!][:D]
I know a few people who think nothing of dropping $500 on an engine…and then another $200 on paint and detail parts. Yeah, the detailing is nice…but I’d rather use that $700 for other things…like rent, gas for the car, food, electricity, etc. I like my toys too, but I’m careful with what I buy. I don’t buy the latest toy as soon as it comes out; I tend to wait a bit. They’ll go on sale sooner or later. I also don’t put hobby stuff on my credit card if I can help it. Once in a great while isn’t bad, but for most things, I either pay cash or with a check. There are quite a few things I’d like to get for the layout, but they’ll have to wait.
There is nothing I could stress more than the importance of staying out of credit card debt. We have not had any credit card debt for 15 years now, and it makes life MUCH more enjoyable. At one point in time we were $25,000 in debt, and even with a very good income we were living paycheck to paycheck.
I wish I could say it was through discipline and good money management that we got out of debt, but it was not. It was due to an unexpected and generous bequest from my Great Aunt.
Since a person can’t count on such things to bail them out, it is far better to not get in debt in the first place.
I always figured if you stopped paying your credit card payments the police would eventually come knocking on your door, arrest and charge you with some type of theft, and that you stood a good chance of going to jail or prison for it, and that was the reason most people didn’t try it.