Let me start from the beginning

The average American has $8,562 of credit card debt. Well average American, I put you to shame! This is one of those rare occasions where I dare to be above-average, not that I did it on purpose of course. I currently weigh in with $19,794.23 of credit card debt...to be exact. How did this happen? Not by sure chance I assure you. Let me start from the beginning...

It all started when I was 18 years old. Fresh eyed and bushy tailed I got my first credit card with a limit of about $500. I used it only for the occasional shopping trip and never carried a balance. By the time I was the ripe old age of 19 my credit had gotten to be so good that I was sent a Platinum Visa card with a whoppin' $5,000 credit limit. Those credit card companies sure knew what they were doing. I definitely deserved such a high credit limit and platinum status considering I was a full time student with a part-time seasonal job working at Borders Books (is my sarcasm obvious enough?). I had made it to the big time.

So far, so good...right? The trouble began when I left for a study abroad in Paris. I was 19 and it was my first time away from home without bank statements coming in the mail and without reliable access to the internet to check balances online. Even the ATM receipts didn't tell me what my balance was when I took out money. Money was unreal to me. It was play money. Every American knows that real money is green and small enough to fit nicely in your wallet. This money came in all different colors and was so big that it hung out the edges of my wallet just begging to be spent at all the cool stores and bars with yummy expensive drinks.

The money didn't have to beg too hard. I could go to the ATM and take out about 200 francs (approx 30 US dollars, pre-Euro days) and it would be gone by the end of the day. Where? How? What? Who knows! I graduated to withdraws of 500 francs ($70) because it was just too time consuming to have to go the ATM that often. That lasted a little bit longer but somehow it managed to slip away too fast.

Whenever I talked to my grandma back home she would tell me I had to "slow down". She was right and I knew it. I felt so guilty about all the money I was spending. I resolved several times to "sloooow down" but I didn't have the will. I mean, who can slow down when you are only in Italy for the weekend once, right? You only have the chance to buy those super cool Chanel sun glasses once, right? And how many times can you go hang out at those posh euro clubs with all your friends? You can't exactly show up there wearing yesterday's trends. So instead of depriving myself of all these things, I charged them to my Platinum card.

By the time I had gotten back to the States I had racked up $2,500 worth of debt. And I had no job. After looking for a while I was offered a good student job. The only problem was that they didn't need me to start working for another 2 months. Bad news: I had no money to pay off my credit card. Good news: They increased my credit limit to $7,500 AND sent me really cool checks that I can write to myself for a low APR.

You can see where this is all going. My spending habits didn't get better. My philosophy changed from "You only live in France once" to "You only LIVE once." I spent and spent and spent and the credit card companies kept raising my limit. I always thought I would be able to pay it off with no problem. I was living in a fantasy world.

When I finally transferred to a UC school and had to live on my own, pay rent and utilties and a fat credit card bill on top of it all, I struggled to get by. I vowed to pay it off as soon as I could and finally changed my expensive spending habits. I couldn't make much progress though because I was living off of student financial aid which didn't take into account that you might have a credit card bill, need dental work, or buy furniture. I guess I could have slept on the floor but I splurged on those little necessities like a bed and cavity fillings that wouldn't leave my teeth looking all silver that weren't covered by insurance. I did contemplate eating only rice and beans for a year but I didn't have the backbone. Some months I couldn't pay the rent and had to use my credit card. Dang, it brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it. :P

I graduated from college about a year ago and have been working at a crappy office job since then. I'm 23 years old and have a $23,700 credit limit. I had to buy a car which is included in my total debt. I've paid off about $8,000 of my debt so far. I would have been able to pay off more but my appendix decided to rupture and I ended up having to pay over $1,000 in medical bills even though I had insurance. Here's my piece of advice for the day....don't sign up for a PPO! If anything goes wrong you will be responsible for a percentage of it (in my case 20%). Imagine getting billed 20% for not only the surgery but the hospital stay, 5-6 x-rays I didn't even realize they took, anasthesia, analysis of the x-rays, analysis of my poor little appendix, and lord knows what else. Why did they need to analyze my appendix?? They took it out! It's been 6 months and I'm still getting bills. Next time, I will take my chances with the bad appendix.

If you have gotten this far, you are a trooper. Thanks! My goal is to pay off my debt in 2 years or less. I lay awake at night thinking about crazy ideas about how to get myself out of this mess and quite frankly I think my friends and loved ones are sick of hearing about it. I'll share some of my ideas as time goes on. After all, I have probably overwhelmed you with information already. So stay tuned...theres more ramblings to come. Feel free to post your ideas and stories.