Here it is: No Return Address by: Amy A. Marble

For the first time ever, I am excited to get my credit card bill in the mail. I impatiently looked for it every day last week. When it did arrive, I excitedly opened it, looked it over and then put it in my purse.

Why would anyone in their right mind be excited about getting their credit card bill? Isn’t that something to dread? Not this month! You see, today’s bill will be the last of monthly reminders of:

· Emergencies and non-emergencies that came up over the years, always adding to the balance.
· Medical and dental visits that had to be paid for with the card that was “insurance” for those who didn’t have insurance.
· “You deserve it, you’ve been so good this month” shopping sprees.
· “I don’t have the cash for this but I really need it” purchases.
· “There’s this really good sale, just put it on the card; you can always pay if off next month.”
· Cash advances – “I’m not actually using the card itself, and there’s only a $5 fee” stupidity that led to a 24 percent interest rate on three-quarters of the current balance. And the small print that stated the purchases balance at 11 percent would continue to accrue interest until the cash advance balance was paid off.
· Why I got the second credit card – balance transfers. It solves the problem of the 24 percent interest rate, right? Only it didn’t, all it did was transfer a small amount, and spread limited funds over two monthly bills.

Today also marks the end of:

· Months where only the minimum payment was made because it was all I could afford.
· Years of telling myself, “Next month, I’ll do better.”
· Years of envying the stories I heard about those who paid off their debt, and wondering when I would ever be able to.
· Two years of intense focusing on paying off the credit cards, only to find after a year, I had made little progress. It hadn’t grown but neither had it diminished. Disgusted, I approached the second year with a more determined and obsessive focus.
· Six months of methodically recording, in a form I created, the monthly interest, payments, charges (I only made two) and the current balance. Then comparing my schedule with the one PowerPay® came up with, I would strategize how I could beat PowerPay®’s schedule, if only by one month.

Now I’m not here to argue the advantages or disadvantages of credit cards. I just wanted to try to put into words the overwhelming feeling that came over me as I wrote out the check that paid off the last of my credit card debt. I was shaking, wanting to cry and remembering all the hard work, sacrifices, stupidity and failures I had experienced that got me to this day. So often, I was looking toward the goal’s end; months, years away, but today, I felt the long-awaited feeling that here and now is the winning of one battle. The bell has rung, and I am the one left standing, tired and shaken, but still the winner.

Sealing the envelope, I noticed the company had changed the design. They no longer provided a place for my return address. How fitting! No longer will a credit card bill show up at my address, demanding I attend to it before anything else. Next month there will be other debt to tackle, but today, I will breathe deep the fresh air and enjoy the view from this part of the mountain I have been climbing and pray I never have to climb it again.