Friday, December 7, 2007

My available credit exceeds my income

One of our credit card companies (the one we actually use on a regular basis) has once again increased our credit limit by 48%. It really doesn't matter what our limits are, because we only spend what we can afford to pay off immediately. We are fortunate that we never pay any interest to these card companies because of it. I don't feel guilty, knowing they make a killing on interchange fees.

Still, I can understand how some families manage to get in over their heads. All that credit can look tempting, especially if you have an emergency. The amount of credit they will give you is staggering. In fact, the available credit on our cards (we have 4) now exceeds our total yearly income. It is humbling to think how quickly someone could ruin their lives in the blink of an eye with these tiny pieces of plastic.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is frightening. It could ruin a less responsible person.

Anonymous said...

The credit I have has exceeded my income for quite some time. Broke college students lean on credit cards to get through school because the money is easy to use. It just costs so much more when trying to pay them back. I cannot wait to have my student card out of my life once and for all.

Anonymous said...

Our available credit is double our household income and just keeps getting bigger. We never carry a balance but it's nice to know that the high limit is there in case of a real emergency.