I just sent off our credit card payment. For the first time since I began staying home with my son, our payment actually exceeded the interest charges for the month. That feels so good, and yet it’s infuriating, too.

See, our low-interest credit card spiked up to a shockingly high rate thanks to the company unilaterally amending our credit terms by inserting one of those ‘universal default’ provisions… in very small print… in a completely separate mailing… which I didn’t read.

Under that provision, if you’re late on any payment with another creditor, the company can raise your interest rate even if you’ve never been late making a payment to their company. Which we weren’t.

But around two years ago, I did send in my husband’s car payment two weeks past its due date. I’d simply gotten confused, since both of our cars were financed through Chrysler, and had sent my van payment twice while overlooking his car payment.

Immediately, our credit card rate went up.

Now, the irony of this is that just last month I paid off my husband’s car. Yes, I probably could’ve thrown that money at the credit card, but given the choice between eliminating one debt entirely and not even making a dent in the other, I went for the option that gave me one less bill to keep track of each month.

To make matters even more ironic, I’ve since done the math and realized we could have taken out a signature loan at a more reasonable interest rate to pay off that credit card — and paid them off already. We just didn’t because, on the surface, it seems so irrational to incur new debt to pay off older debt.

Then I did the math and realized over the past two years we would’ve saved close to $5,200 in interest and have paid off both the credit cards and the loans.

Clearly, financial management isn’t my bailiwick. After last night’s Korean food fiasco, I’m pretty certain cooking isn’t, either. Thank goodness I at least know how to blog.

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