Get Rich Slowly

If you’re new here, you may want to learn what this site is about. I encourage you to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Some readers are worried about my change in stance regarding credit cards. Misuse of credit cards was the chief reason I came to be buried in debt. For years [...]

This guest post from Justin McHenry is sure to be controversial. Though I just spent three weeks using a credit card while on vacation, I’m still wary of them. McHenry has some thoughts for people like me.
When people ask me what I do and I tell them I run a credit card comparison site, they [...]

Credit cards ruined my life. Between 1989 and 1998, I accumulated nearly $25,000 in credit card debt. During that time, I added about $2,500 of new debt every year (over $200 each month). I was a compulsive spender. Eventually, the debt load became so great that I was forced to face the problem. I cancelled [...]

Because of Opt-Out Prescreen, I no longer get credit card offers at home. From time-to-time, though, I get them at work. A few weeks ago, I received an offer that puzzles me:

Seems pretty normal, huh? Well, let’s look more closely. Here’s the address:

And the fake card:

(Why do they include fake cards, anyhow? Do they really [...]

Maxed Out is a new film that examines the credit industry — its profitability and its effect on consumers. It’s a sort of Super Size Me, but with credit cards instead of hamburgers. Here’s the trailer:

The film discusses the role of banks, of government, and of consumers in creating an industry that is, in the [...]

Jana writes in with a credit emergency. She’s been following Get Rich Slowly, and is learning how to handle her own personal finances, but she has a friend who is in a predicament beyond her realm of knowledge. (And beyond mine, as well.) Can any of you offer advice? She writes:

Kerry is a 23 year [...]

I recently did my first radio chat about personal finance. I crashed and burned. I had terrible stage fright, and turned into a brain-dead zombie who could only repeat one thing over-and-over. It was a learning experience, one which makes me all the more appreciative of the work done by Rodney Olsen, a regular Get [...]

JLP at All Financial Matters recently shared the story of how he got out of credit card debt. It’s not exciting or glamorous, but then paying off debt never is.
We paid off our last two credit cards nearly a year ago. It was an amazing feeling to write those two final checks. Our debt came [...]

Marie recently made a terrific response in Ask the Readers: What if you have no credit history? This thread is a month old and most people probably missed the comment, so I’m featuring it here.
I am a bit shocked that someone would be so irresponsible as to tell someone else to “suck it up and [...]

I don’t like credit cards. Many smart people — including my wife — use them wisely and never have problems. I’m not one of those people. Most of my money woes stem from credit card debt acquired when I was first out of college. Eventually I wised up — I have not carried a personal [...]