Client Testimonial: Laurie
Laurie was living month to month, without electricity, and was facing over $4,000 in monthly credit card payments. She was overwhelmed, but she didn’t give up. She sought help from Clearpoint and began to make progress toward her repayment. She learned some important financial lessons about credit use, and also was able to have a lower monthly payment that was much more manageable.
She regained her peace of mind and her independence and is now enjoying a more financially stable life with her family.
Laurie’s Clearpoint Testimonial – Before I came to Clearpoint I was a brand new mother. I had my son in November of that year. There was going to be no Christmas, because we didn’t have any money. The phones were all cut off. The lights were month to month. Everything was month to month. I didn’t know what was happening. We had to go stay with my folks for a while because the electricity was off and he needed to be under the Bili lights because he was very jaundiced. We couldn’t afford to go to a hotel which is where they wanted to send us. It was very bleak. I was doing anything extra that I could do to make some money. We still weren’t making ends meet because my credit card payments were over 4,000 a month. When you have that overwhelming feeling of debt the first thing you start noticing is that you don’t sleep at night because every time you go to sleep or you’re on your way to sleep you start thinking, okay, I’ve got to pay this. I don’t get paid for two weeks. I got paid yesterday and all that money’s gone. You try to figure out what can I do, who can I pay. You get money from family and friends, and then you have to pay them back. So, not only are you now avoiding debt collectors, you’re avoiding your family and friends because you owe everybody something. You finally have to come to a realization that even though you think that you can handle it on your own, you can’t. But, there are places like Clearpoint that are out there that can help you. The first thing my counsellor told me when I actually called and spoke to someone on the phone… I just kept saying I had just gotten my master’s degree. I’m a nurse. I’ve been a manager. I’ve had all these reponsibilities. I feel like such a big loser. He said, “You know what, this debt that you have is huge to you, but I have people on this program who have three or four times that debt.” He brought my self esteem up a little bit and made me feel as though, okay, this is possible to do. We first came to start setting this budget up. I have never lived not on credit cards. From the time I went to college the first day you go on campus here’s a tee shirt and here’s a credit card. They just keep giving it to you. I had never bought gas before without a credit card, never. Every time I was going to the gas station I was always filling up with gas, and you get some chips, you know. My credit card limits were really high, so I didn’t know how not to live with that. He taught me. He brought me back to where, and every time I’d say well I can’t do that, he’d say, “Sure you can, you can do that.” He taught me how to get out from under the weight of this debt. I saw how far he had brought all of my debt down and my finance charges. Some of my charges were 32 percent. He brought all of those down. I saw a huge, like this whole mountain was off me, because my 4,000 dollar a month payment was down to 1,200 dollars a month. I could see that. Now that I’m done paying it I don’t need credit cards. When I first started I was like, oh, I can’t wait to pay this off so I can get those credit cards again. I don’t need them. I sleep easy every night. There’s no problems with the children being able to get a little bit extra. We go out to eat whenever we want to, which is not to often because, you know, I’m a pretty good cook now. It’s just being able to relax. It’s being able to enjoy every moment. My son actually told me that when I joined the program I turned into his mom again because everything that happened I was snapping. I was angry about everything. They would say, “Can I get a sucker?” Do you know how much this sucker cost, blah blah blah. My brother called me Katie Ka-Boom because everything would set me off. But now it’s like very tranquil, very serene, nothing bothers me because I don’t have to worry about where this next payment’s going to come from.