Suddenly Good Credit? Dumb Things Not to Fall For

So in case you were looking for something not to do, take my advice and don’t get a tablet from Verizon unless you are absolutely sure that’s what you want and how you want to go.

We are an internet household, but we had basically one internet device per person. So the child’s guests were mostly left out, sitting watching her play or taking a turn while she sat around complaining. Therefore when I went into the Verizon store for an unrelated reason right before Christmas almost two years ago, I jumped on the chance to get a decent tablet for just $80 . Great deal, right? Except I’ve been paying $10 a month for its “line” so that IF someone takes it out of my house and away from the wifi (which is not what I bought it for and therefore against the rules) they can use my data on it. It’s not a fancy tablet, either! Just a pretty simple LG that I probably could have bought for $120 somewhere else. Even worse, I’m on a two-year contract, so I have to pay the full additional $240 just to have the option of letting someone burn through my data watching NCIS on Netflix in Chinese restaurants.* Can’t just cancel now that I’ve realized what I did. That’s $320 instead of maybe $120, which really sucks to realize.

Another thing? Holy hades, don’t go for a timeshare. I don’t know the other options, but I can’t see how what I signed up for (I think I was drunk. Or coffee-deprived, more likely, as I remember it was an early Sunday morning and actually I don’t drink booze) could ever be a good value, and I’m signed up with one of the most popular ones out there.

I’m paying $188 a month to get a week every other year. It’ll be paid off in about eight more years. The interest rate is horrendous. And every year I have to pay maintenance fees, which come in at at least $800 a year.

WTAF was I thinking? I DO NOT KNOW. I’m currently in a class-action lawsuit to try and get clear of that one, because it is one hell of a scam. How did it not occur to me that if I really wanted a vacation, $3056 could get me a pretty dang nice one EVERY YEAR, and if something came up and I didn’t have the money, I could still take a much-better-than-I’m-used-to vacation for half that?

So far I’ve paid $1,280.85 on the principal. I’ve paid $4,441.82 in interest.

Here I am, a few years later, figuring credit out for, really, the very first time in my life. I’ve paid off two high-interest lines of credit, and I’m working on the others. Looking around for something to cut so I can get really aggressive on the pay-down, and…yikes. What have I done?

There really ought to be a kiddie pool for when you first find out you have good credit. >.<

Feel free to add your own flubs in the comments. It’ll make me feel better.

*this is still a thing that happens to my data. The difference is that since the tablet is not allowed to leave the house, it’s done on her phone.