The thing I hate most in the world is debt. I have always (almost) paid my credit card balance in full each month.
One time, when I sold real estate, I need a new (used) car. When I sold a house, I used the money as a down payment. When I sold another house, applied the commission to the loan balance & refinanced the car so that I would have a lower car payment--one that I was confortable with. I have never wanted my living situation to be so high that I ran the risk of losing it. I'd rather live below my means than at or above my means. I guess it came from being evicted annually while I was a kid.

I recently found out that my husband put us into considerable debt--$75,000 in credit card debt! I found this out accidentally. I had a little extra money, and I couldn't see leaving it in my checking account at an interest rate of .03% I knew he had credit card debit, so I began making calls. One of his credit cards is maxed out a $7,500. When I called to see the interest, I found out it was 29%. When I talked to customer service to see about reducing the interest rate, she wanted to know how much of the $75K credit card debt was paid! At first I thought she was mistaken. Surely that had to be a mortgage and not credit card. Since I was not on the account, she could not give me any info, but she suggested I talk to my husband about his credit practices.

I have given my husband a choice--turn his finances over to me, or we will divorce. After a few days of thinking about it (gee hun), he is going to let me get involved. We have decided to sell both properties in California. This will allow us to pay off all the credit card debt. In addition, we should be able to pay off the mortgages for our primary home & rental property here in Idaho. He will lose out in the fastest growing real estate market, but if he doesn't do this, he risks losing everything. Btw, he lives in California & the children & I live in Idaho.

I have sent a forwarding notice to PO to send his mail here. He got a little upset, but if he wants to save his family...

So far, there is no derogatory credit marks on my credit report. It does show excessive credit card balances. I contacted one company, who he has 4 credit cards with. They told me it was not a joint account, that I was only an authorized user. None-the-less, all 4 credit cards showed up on my credit report. I was able to get them to remove me from 3 of the cards. I kept one card because it is being billed to me & has a zero balance. Unfortunately, this card had a $2,500 credit line that they have just down-graded to $300. I hope this doesn't hurt my credit. They told me they were thinking about cancelling all of his credit cards. I told them that we are in the process of selling a house to pay them off & it would be to their benefit not to cancel them as soon his credit rating would be excellant again.

My credit rating recently went down because he is over the limit on a credit line. He insists it's not a credit card, but a line of credit, & it cannot be over the limit because he hasn't used it in months & has been making the payments on time. When I get the forwarded mail, I will be able to see what's it all about. It's also an account that I never signed financial responsiblity, so once I get the paper work, I will investigate & hopefully get it off my credit report. Once I do, I should almost have perfect credit because his $35,000 credit card debt will be off my report.

Unknown to me, he bought a brand new Mustang at an interest rate of 14%. The rate is so high because of his cc debt. Once the cc debt is paid, I will have him refinance it at a lower interest rate. Too bad he can't just take it back.

The second most import decision you will ever make is whom you will marry.