Saturday, September 22, 2007
Money Matters
While I was a student, my bank refused to increase my credit limit on my Visa above $1500. This frustrated me because I regularly reached my limit with tuition, books, and all my other expenses. The moment I graduated, however, they asked me if $4000 was high enough (or too high). Granted, my income tripled and my discretionary income skyrocketed from $100/month to $1200/month, but my budgeting skills didn't change. I didn't suddenly acquire an aversion to debt; I've always had that.
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2 comments:
I kept my student VISA for the longest time, even after I stopped going to school. I just didn't feel comfortable with having anything higher than $1500 available for me to spend at a given time.
Unfortunately, circumstances conspired to put me in a position where I had to switch to a regular VISA to increase my limit. I'm still in the process of paying it off, but as soon as that's done I think I'm going to request a limit decrease.
Yikes. I assume that stories like yours--and I know you're not unique here--are precisely why they asked me if $4000 was too high.
For myself, I've never had problems with money or credit management. But we didn't have a lot of money growing up; as a result of that, I'm careful about where my money goes, and I rarely spend on impulse.
Actually, I've acted as a creditor more than once for my brother, who has bought a boat and a lot at a lake by borrowing... well... a few thousand dollars from me. But he always pays me back as soon as he's able, and I'm happy to help him out. And, this summer, I got a few fishing trips out of it.
Anyway, I just use my Visa like a debit card, except Visa gives me an itemized report of my spending habits, doesn't charge me for usage, gives me rewards, and I have a month or so to pay the bill.
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