who is to blame for credit card debt?

When I was eighteen I remember walking into my bank at the time with the intention of upgrading my account so that I could have direct debits and the like – the main reason being so that I could subscribe to Attitude magazine. But never the less; Forty-five minutes later I walked out of the branch with a £1500 over draft, a direct debit facility and a credit card in the post to me with an available balance of £3000. I had just been given £4500 at the age of eighteen and I didn’t even ask for it.

Emergencies only I told myself, those emergencies included vast amounts of hats, gloves, shoes and jackets, not to mention computer games, nights out and Christmas presents with HMV being the main shop regular hang out of mine of a Saturday afternoon. I was in full time work at the time, but only taking home £900 per month. 

Over the course of the next five months the majority of my £900 monthly income went towards paying off my over draft and credit card both of which I had completely maxed out. This left me with very little money to live my mini gay lifestyle in Ipswich – however I learnt a valuable lesson here at a very young age. Never would I touch a credit card or overdraft again. 

Was I to blame for my summer spending spree? How much responsibility goes to me and the bank who gave me this free money to play with? 

The answer lies in why the banks are currently being bailed out by public money and private investors, it was one of the small innocent things that they were doing at the time. This won’t happen again, strict rules are currently being put in place to prevent such disasters and irresponsible lending. I was lucky, I learnt the lesson early on – but there are those out there living on their credit cards month by month falling down a hole that seems impossible to get out of.

If this is you, read the seven tips in part II that can help you!