Hello Foolish Ones,
This is my first post and it is pretty ironic that this is the first Fool board that I have read any messages on. The reason why I say this is because I too was caught in the credit card trap. I thought it would never happen to me. I have had credit cards for years and managed to control them fairly well.
I woke up one day and realized what I had done to myself in the previous 6 months. I was not in control of my own actions.
Just to give you a brief background…I had been in a bad relationship for the previous 4 years. Out of this relationship came my son, a gift from God. I had lost about 94% of my retirement account from very bad decisions at the height of the electronic down turn.
I decided after this happened that I was going to spend some money on myself instead of hording it all in the retirement fund. I was out of my stinking mind. I bought many, many nice things that I had wanted for so long… All with credit cards. $20,000.00+ worth…. This was the beginning.
Not long after I did the credit card thing, my bad relationship left with my son. I immediately hired the best attorney I could find. $20,000.00 later I did gain custody of my son.
These two items are not including the debt that I had already incurred from a new truck, my bad relationship's car, my house, department store debt and so on. I was in trouble and could not remember exactly how I gotten to that point.
I did not ask for help from a credit counseling service. I should have to make sure whatever had caused this sickness would not effect me again. I was lucky.
I refinanced my house, the only asset worth anything that I had left. I also put a second on the house. It covered all my bills but that security was gone and I have a large payment to contend with now.
Things are starting to settle down and my son and I are doing well. I have some distance to travel before the effects of my sickness go away but I am going to make it.
If I could help stop one person from getting into the credit card trap by telling you this then I would be happy. Please beware; credit cards can trap any one of us.

Regards,
Mark