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In 2004, something really embarassing happened to me. While on an almost-2 week trip to New Zealand with Adam (where the above picture was taken), my credit card got rejected … twice.
At this stage, I have only had my credit cards for about a year. The year before, I had made a silly trip to London (and Salzburg) and raked up over RM10,000 on my credit card. Obviously, I couldn’t pay it all off even in a year.
What I was doing each month was basically paying a little (slightly more than minimum) so that I’d have some space on my credit cards to use for expenses such as petrol and all.
Well, obviously, I didn’t make enough space because in New Zealand, as I got my credit card swiped for our rented car, it got rejected. I was adamant I had enough money, so I took out another card thinking that I had given the woman behind the counter the wrong one.
It was declined again.
Adam was very kind and picked up the bill. I would pay for other things like meals and stuff to pay him back but that meant I had less money to do other stuff. When we wanted to take a helicopter up the glaciers, and I couldn’t afford it, Adam was kind enough to treat me to it.
I didn’t learn my lesson. Over the next few years, I would return to London a few times, fly over to other parts of Europe and go back to visit my friends in Australia.
It was not that I was making more money (I was, but not significantly higher – my salary peaked at the end of 2003/early 2004). It’s just that every year, the banks would increase my credit limit.
In 2005, I took a paycut to join The Star.
After a year of adjusting my lifestyle to suit my salary, I started benefitting from the ex-gratia bonuses in 2007 which has seriously helped my credit card payment off. I was 28 by this time and I had told myself that I would stop making big expenses like my trips and pay all my credit cards off by the time I was 30.
I turned 30 last year and it didn’t happen but I gave myself credit (heh, a pun!) for trying … it wasn’t easy not making my trips, cutting down on big spending and most important of all, go to the bank immediately on payday and throw my bonuses into my credit card while my colleagues were talking about shopping and going out for a big meal.
Well, today marks a milestone in my life. I drove around to two banks with lots of cash in my hand (over RM10k worth) this morning with the intention of paying off all my credit card bills.
Now, except for the few Ringgit and sens left (since the machines don’t accept small notes and coins), my credit cards are ALL fully paid off.
For the first time since 2004, I am credit card debt free. It was a good feeling (considering that at one stage, I was owing more than RM40,000).
The plan now is for me to clear my debts at the end of each month – which means I will only use what I can afford.
It took a lot of discipline, hard work and sacrifices but I finally got there.
And boy, does it feel good.
Thanks to everyone who offered me congratulatory messages on Twitter. And no, I’m not buying anyone meals anytime soon. I don’t intend to rake up another debt, thank you very much!
4.15pm Malaysian time (+8 GMT)
Tags: Adam Ivey, citibank, credit cards, debt, finance, London, money, New Zealand, travels, Twitter
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Haha nice Niki…learnt a lesson here from you.
Well, I mean, 40k of cc debt is really huge man, great u have paid it off.
Must feel like a boulder lifted from ur back eh?
Totally! I learned a lesson from me!
yay congrats Niki!! aiyor probably missed your tweet about it >.<
happy to hear that you manage to pay bac all ur debt!
i’m glad you’re now credit card debt-free! now there’s no reason for anyone to turn you over to suze orman or oprah. =P
Maybe I can go on Oprah and talk about how I did it?
Gratz that you are off debt now =D
how did you get the money to pay off the debts?!? hahahaha … teach me teach me!!!
whoa! that must have been a lot of stress for you to pay them off!! RM40k? what with interest too?
definitely not easy to spend within ones means with SO many things out there to buy!! =)
CONGRATS on being debt free!! I can’t wait til I am debt free, too.
Congrats bro! Im getting there too
Congrats! It is not an easy feat! I’m also a victim and in the midst of clearing it off, prob in another 3 years time I’ll be debt free ^-^
credit card cleared liao??? ooo nais…
come now u can go buy Redmummy, JacJac and CIndy all expensive bags liaooo!!!
Haha Er, I don’t think so. Siao!
I have this urge to take up a credit card but I’m totally worried of the consequences. I can hardly handle myself, let alone the credit card!
Good to know that, I think everyone should be careful when using Credit card, mis-use it lead to big amount of debt.
congrats on being debt free!!! =D
awesome ! i shud send this to some of my friends too, they have the same problem…at least when they read this they will know its not easier to pay it off…nice one Nikki
Not easy at all. Easy in theory but it’s really crazy!
But of course, doable with a bit of hard work, sacrifice and, umm, luck!
I’m on the way to clear all of them….next month! Next month babeh!
Hey – congrats! You should share on how you did it!
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