Ok, that may seem a little crazy, but you’ve got to hear (or read) this story.

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I found it over on the PT Money blog and it’s quite disturbing.  It goes into a story about how a bank rep from Bank of America lied to a customer and added a credit card to their life without their consent.

It also seems that the rep was a smooth talker. (watch out ladies!)

While I’ll let you go over there and get the full story, let me point out some things that stood out to me:

The blatant lying and reading of disclaimers…

I was suspicious so I let him talk more and he read a few disclosures about the offer. I then asked him if a new account would be created. He said “no”. I then asked him if a new line of credit would be opened and if my credit would be checked. He said “no”. Finally, I asked him if I would get a new card. He said “no”. After all of these no’s, I said okay, hook me up with the new rewards on my existing Bank of America American Express card for the first $500 in spending.

Guess what I go in the mail this Christmas Eve?

And not only that, but then of course the way the person was treated by Bank of America…

When I received the card in the mail, I immediately called Bank of America customer service. When I finally got to a human, the response to my calm, well-mannered complaint was disappointing: 1. She told me I was at fault. 2. She effectively hung up on me by telling me she was transferring me to someone (you know, that special someone who conveniently isn’t there).

I’m calling back today to close the account and to get the credit transferred back to the American Express card. Once we get our home loan in the Spring I’m going to just close down all of my Bank of America cards. We’ve already stopped doing checking there because of the new conveniences of online checking and me moving my business checking to Chase. Not to mention the previous Bank of America checking account fraud I dealt with. I’m ready to be completely done with them. I’m tired of complaining.

I would encourage you to go and read the entire story so you know how to protect yourself in case you run into a similar situation.  But nowadays, you probably are better off just running your checks through the new Walmart Money System.

Well not really, but it was worth a try.

As you might already know, most people today are drownining in debt.

If that’s you, I’d like to introduce you to a nomad (that’s what she calls herself) that got fed up with the system and decided to do something about.

Over on her blog, I found this nice little post that she talks about how she went from $60k in debt (give or take) and in about 18 months ended up with a net worth of about $180k.

It makes for a nice read.  Here’s a few points that struck a chord with me:

“1. Being sick of my debt”

“I was disappointed, no, DISGUSTED with my unorganized finances. I couldn’t believe I let myself rack up that much debt, and I knew I could have done better.

Letting bygones be bygones, I used that disappointment to motivate myself to make a change for the better.

Every time I looked at that number, I would feel even more motivated to watch it go down, and I was scrutinizing every purchase I made, because it had an impact towards my end goal of being debt-free.”

Obviously, this is the first step.  You never do something about something that you tolerate.  And for most people in debt, they tolerate the system and habits that put them there.

Here’s another one:

“2. Being obsessed with understanding my money”

“I read about people’s spending, their lifestyles, tips, tricks.. anything I could get my hands on. I became obsessed with trying to understand my money by reading what other people did with theirs, and seeing how it made me feel.

The top 5 things that stood out to me were:

1) No one else has a better interest in your money than you do
2) $1 of your net income saved is $2 of your gross income earned
3) You WILL make mistakes: don’t get mad, just learn from them
4) Compounding interest is magical
5) You need emergency savings (at least 3-6 months)

I also credit this whole personal finance obsession of mine to reading a single book that changed my outlook on life: The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley & Danko.”

This is where I am right now.  For too long I didn’t know where my money was going and all that has changed.  I created my own spreadsheet and I am becoming meticulous about every penny being tracked.

It’s amazing what happens when you do that.  You start to find out about your spending habits and your funds begin to increase.

Now that’s only 2 of the 7 steps that she talks about and I’d encourage you to read the other 5.

It’ll serve as some true motivation for getting out of debt and staying out.

Here’s the source here.

If you enjoyed it, leave me a comment please.

I have to be honest with you. I can’t stand debt. No matter what kind it is. Mortgages, Credit Card, any of them. If it puts me in a position where I can’t enjoy an abundant life I don’t like it.

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However if you find yourself in a situation where your credit card debt has gotten out of hand then here are 8 steps you can begin to use to reduce your credit card debt fast.

Our friends over at Easy Debt Management have written a good resource article that can help even the worst of situations. You can read more about it here.