Trying to remain credit worthy in December

It’s a funny thing when your credit card stops working. 

Funny in the sense that you might let out a hysterical laugh, like someone who just hit rock bottom. And yes, I came close. 

The other day I had to rent a van to pick up some new furniture. I was five minutes from my return time, just about to fill it up with gas, when I got the first message: Transaction declined. Say what?? I immediately suspected the gas pump to be defective and went on to the next station. 

Lo and behold, another problematic pump. What is it with this area of town? 

Yes, I can be thickheaded at times. Only on the third try did I realize there might be a higher power at play. Someone or something trying to reach out to me.  

It was my credit card company. They were sending me a not-so-subtle message that went something like this: “Whoa, fella! We know you like to spend, and that’s good! But maybe try to break it up a bit? Like not all of it in in the space of four days? Come January, once you pay off your ginormous bill, you can spend all you want! Up to a limit, of course. Love, Capital One.” [This is not an advertisement.] 

Yet I remained ignorant. Even after the fuel incident, I went back to the same card later that day. 

“CARD DECLINED,” the machine at the furniture store impolitely informed me. The woman behind the counter looked at me with suspicion (I could only see her eyes). 

“Huh,” I shrugged, acting as if this was the first time this had happened to me. “Must be something wrong with my card.” I took it out and looked at it, as if the card itself was defective – perhaps the microchip was failing. It was an old card, after all. 

Finally, after conceding my loss, I fumbled through my wallet for a much-less-used piece of plastic. “I guess I’ll have to pay with... debit?”  

The woman behind the counter paused for a moment, a sense of doubt forming in her piercing brown eyes. “Debit?” she repeated, as if it was the first time she had heard the word. 

“Yeah... um, debit?” I said, with even less authority. Was I crazy, or was something more sinister at work? What if my bank account was frozen, too? Were the financial institutions in cahoots without one another, spreading the word that I was no longer credit worthy? 

It was irrational, but a lot of things about the financial industry don't make sense. Like when a credit agency told me I should consider taking on a larger mortgage to boost my credit score. Borrow more so you can, um, borrow more?

As it turns out, it wasn’t about my credit score at all. This was about me and my wife and our little day out on the town. Maybe it was all the isolation... so much time to think and ponder... about how to refurnish our home. 

We just wanted a new sofa, but you know how that goes. Soon you’re revamping your whole living room. Let’s just say that along with the normal Christmas shopping, our available credit shrunk quickly. Don’t worry, we’re still solvent. The fact is, we didn’t spend as much earlier this year, allowing us to splurge now.

To rationalize this further, one might say we were juicing up the economy with our pandemic savings. We were doing our civic duty by helping out local businesses. One might even say we were heroes for spending like we did. (Too far?) 

And as my credit card company assures me, January will offer a fresh, clean slate of credit to help out even more. Once we pay off our ginormous bill, we’ll be fine. Credit score and all.