What's your store card (SCT?), predatory card or even prime bank card horror story?

[Anonymous]

The SCT "trick" leaked on one of the Facebook groups I belong to, but there are no real horror stories out there that I've found regarding rebuilders who forgot they were rebuilding credit and decided to go back to building debt.

If it's allowed, I think it's be great if anyone with a story has a place to share their horror stories of rebuilding credit and the next thing you know you had a $1800 balance at 36% on a credit card that made you fall back into bad habits, bad FICOs and the financial anxiety that plagues probably a majority of Americans (and internationals).

My personal horror story was after I rebuilt my credit in 2006 after a failed marriage -- finally got back in with two banks that I burned in my previous credit hell, only to cosign on a credit card for a business partner who decided he would never pay it.  I made the mistake of putting the card on his address instead of mine, and of course I didn't get any notice or phone calls until both of my prime cards were CLD'd and then closed when I paid them off.  At that point in time, I wasn't monitoring my credit after my rebuild (stupid mistake but free monitoring services were rare) and what's worse is was only a $300 limit which I had a ton of savings to pay.

I do remember my first time around in my 20s I had an electronics store card with 28.99% interest and commonly would keep it maxed out, pay off $200 and then charge up whatever I could while trying to figure out the new interest posting in my head -- I usually calculated poorly and went overlimit which meant more fees.  I bet that store card's bank collected thousands in interest and fees from me, but I never totalled it up.

Do you have a story during your rebuild where you got a bit cocky, jammed out 10 SCT cards and immediately rang them up for endless drawers of shiny things you rarely use or look at because they remind you of the $1200 revolving debt you're having issue taking care of?  Share your story here and at least we'll all have a link to provide others when they're rebuilding and go on an "app spree" for predatory cards while already running 93% utilization on all the rest.

We all learn a little reading the stories here from successes and app sprees for prime banks, but rarely do we read the other side of rebuilding that is way way way more common than BK->700 in 2 years.

[Anonymous]

This didn't happen to me but to my sister. I believe it happens to lots of other people too:

My sister had a Best Buy store card (then issued by Household Bank) in the late 1990's. She bought a computer and computer hutch at 0% APR. She did not realize (even though they did include it in the T&Cs-but like most consumers, she did not pay it any mind) that if the full balance was not paid in full by the end of the promo period that interest would be charged from the date of the purchase; and at 26% APR it was not a good thing. 

PSA: always read the terms and conditions! 

[Anonymous]

Ouch!

Those 0% APR introductory offers supposedly make more money for the lenders than NOT doing the offer.  It's some subconscious thing where people just pay minimums assuming a big windfall will "show up in time" and of course, they never do.

I've never done a 0% one yet -- thankfully they were never offered when I was credit blind!

[marty56]

Not really a horror story but PayPal can be a nightmare to manage since they allow multiple 0% purchases over different time periods.  Lucky these days is that the law was changed that payments go to the oldest BT/0% deal on multiple ones on the same account rather than the sneaky newest one.  Try managing say 6 0% purchases on the same card at diffrent times and you will see what I mean.  Glad PayPal is PIF.  Still love them though. 

[Anonymous]

LOL. No I don't have SCT HORROR stories. Just regular CC debt. I have had cards from the old Household Bank, Macys, Total...You name it, I had one. With small limits of course. Being young and dumb, didn't really care about any credit. So, my motto used to be who cares, max it out, get another one.
Until it came time for me to actually need credit and a card. I lived in NYC and being in that mindset, credit was an afterthought.
So, I moved to Charlotte in 2011 and quickly realized that credit is a necessity and that it impacted my life more than I thought. All of those old balances on my report, weren't doing me no good. So I started out here in the rebuild forum.

It took a long time to finally come to the realization that I needed to get serious and PAY! And TBH, that is the hardest part of rebuilding.

I have done the PFD's and Settlement letters. Disputed as much as I could from the CRB's, etc... Fast-forward to today...I've pretty much rebuilt my credit profile from 0 to this!

[Anonymous]

That's awesome @DavioKanuri