Saved by Pre-paid

By Leni Parrish on December 22, 2010

So there I was, just getting ready to go to work on a pleasantly balmy Wednesday morning. Three steps down the hall from my apartment/studio/crash pad, I receive this call from Lee, my immediate superior at the [usual-nine-to-five-hours-in-a-cubicle] job I was holding at the time. “Hey Jim, this is Lee. Um, listen; we had this meeting yesterday with the higher-ups. Sort of performance analysis thing for work efficiency, you know the firm’s in a bit of a bind right now… “I gulped hard, and a sense of dread came over me…

To put it short, I got laid off. Fired, De-listed, Whatever. I was out of a job.

Fast forward to the present and having to make a payment so I don’t mess up my [already messed up] credit report. It’s not a fun feeling; I will assure you in all senses of the word. It’s my fault for being (slightly) in debt to begin with. Stupid me, for living well beyond my means. Did I need to learn it again and again? No, but that’s life. When I first became unemployed, I took to the phones and called each and every one of my creditors. I was on top it, I told myself.

The second time I was laid off I was… less on top of things, so to speak. There was the new (okay, not so new) apartment, the renovation bills, city services… pretty soon I was deep in debt, and my credit score was plummeting faster than the stock market on a really bad day. Out of desperation, I began trawling the net for any solution to my dire need. I have lived more than half my life on credit, and the thought of not being able to have a card just because of bad history was just… unthinkable. Soon enough I stumbled across a pseudo-blog about pre-paid credit cards. A prepaid credit card account (such as a prepaid visa master card) I read, is created by depositing some money into that account (in the same manner that you would be required to make a deposit to open a checking or savings account with a bank) Once my money had been deposited in my account, I was issued a prepaid credit card that I could use pretty much anywhere one would use a regular credit card.

When I had my credit score reviewed a few months later, I was elated. My credit score had significantly improved, eventually allowing me to get a normal credit card.

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