Hooray!!!

About 5 minutes ago something very exciting happened. I paid off my credit card! This is very happy news for me.

Overall, I consider myself to be very financially responsible. However, there was a time around the end of my sophomore year of college when I didn't work for a while. It was really only about a month, but my parents did not pay for my college nor the cost of living that goes with that...so a month of no income meant using my credit card for pretty much everything. That was also the year I spent $2,000 on a computer for myself, which also went on my credit card because I couldn't pay for it at the time. So needless to say, I became someone who carried around a credit card debt. Despite making regular payments, that debt increased throughout the rest of my college career. It wasn't that I was spending money all the time on things I didn't need. I wouldn't let myself use it for clothes or "party money". It was more that I would need gas or groceries and not have the money at the time to pay for them. So...I would just put them on my credit card.

When I moved out here to Overland Park in June of 2006, I decided I was no longer allowed to use this card. I would make regular payments on it and get it paid off. Sadly, I had such a high balance that it took until now for this to happen. Exactly a year ago, my debt had dwindled down to $3,333.99...still a very sizeable amount of money. I was becoming really frustrated with all the APR money I was paying on this stupid card. I knew I would be getting a tax return in the spring and that I would be getting a raise since I had gotten my Masters degree. So I decided by the end of 2010 I WOULD have this card paid off. Today at around 3:00 PM that $3,333.99 balance became $0.00. And as far as I'm concerned...it will stay that way. I'm perfectly content putting that $300/month into my savings instead.

Student Loans affecting my Credit Score

I've always had excellent credit. To me, I don't feel like it's that hard. Pay everything off. Anyway, I used to have a credit card that would give me my credit score for free. It was a very nice perk. However, a couple years ago they got rid of that feature...so I cancelled the card. So now it's been years since I've known my credi score. I guess I assumed since I've been making regular (over the minimum payments) every month that my score would still be super awesome.

James and I have a CitiCard and I recently saw on their website that they have an identity protection service that gives you your credit report/score. It's a bit costly, but the first month is free (as long as you remember to cancel before they bill you). So I subscribed to this service...just long enough to find out my credit info.

After looking over my credit report, I'm a bit disappointed. My credit score is 779. This is considered "good credit" which I should be happy about. But I'm not. It's lower than it's been in the past so I looked into my credit report more deeply to see why this was. It turns out the reason my credit score has gone down is because of my recent student loans that I took out for my Masters. This frustrates me. Why am I being penalized for furthering my education? James thinks once I consolidate my graduate loans that things will get better. I hope he's right....I want my EXCELLENT credit back!