Mark’s always been the responsible one. And when we first met, he seemed to have it all together – spacious apartment, nice (aka functioning) car, and a stable job that was going somewhere. Once I got to know him, it became very apparent to both of us how different we were when it came to money management. Where Mark was diligent about paying his bills, I was getting late fees and overdrafts. Where Mark only had only one credit card, I had five. Needless to say, he was pretty much free of debt while I was swimming in it. The poor guy, he always had to foot the bill whenever we did something nice, or for that matter, whenever dined at an establishment posher than Pita Pit.
But when Mark lost his job, everything else seemed to unravel along with his career, including his good habits. Instead of opening his bills as soon as he got them, Mark would let them pile up on the desk. So much so that his tower of bills started to compete with my own. Pretty soon, he was swimming right along with me in our ocean of debt.
Our saving grace came when my sister suggested we call Full Circle Debt Solutions. I was skeptical, but at her insistence we gave them a call. I got connected right away to one of their credited debt management consultants who outlined a debt consolidation plan specifically for our situation. Miraculously, he minimized our payments to one so we wouldn’t have to worry about paying so many creditors at the end of the month. I guess it just goes to show that even the best of us can get into money trouble, and only the best can get us out.
One of my favorite $aving tips of the day is, “Buy in bulk – and invest in a vacuum sealer”. It’s something my mother taught me, just from tagging along with her whenever she went shopping at my all-time favorite store, Costco. I would insist on sitting in the cart (despite my age and size) while my mom pushed me through the store. The smell of samples hot out of the toaster ovens, the garish fleece jackets piled in cardboard bins, and the seemingly endless array of candy lining the warehouse shelves were feast to all my senses. The experience was, at the same time, fascinating and intoxicating to my 8-year-old self. In that 6000 square metre concrete warehouse, the world was full of possibilities.
Needless to say, the addiction continued into adulthood. Whenever we need something in the house, whether it be toilet paper or some eggs, I jump at the opportunity. Not only because I love Costco, but also because we save a lot of money getting things like meat, seafood, and cheese there. Throw in a basic at-home vacuum sealer, and you’re looking at a packed freezer and a boatload of savings. And even though I don’t get to sit in the cart anymore when I go to Costco (I had to relinquish my seat to my son), I get to be a kid again.
When you’re in debt, it’s really hard to think about anything else. Sure, you can avoid looking at the growing pile of bills on your desk – say, by avoiding the desk, or by avoiding the room that houses the desk altogether. But deep inside, you know full well how much money you owe and the extent of your debt. And on the outside, the new clothes hanging in your closet and the brand-new mohair rug on your living room floor are constant reminders. In fact, falling into debt is not unlike stepping on dog sh#!. The smell follows you around and lingers no matter how many times you try to get rid of it.
So if you’re sick and tired of worrying about your debt, and want to do something about it, give us a call. At Full Circle, our team of licensed debt management professionals will help you minimize your debt and your monthly payments. We know everything there is to know about debt consolidation and we’ll even help you get rid of those annoying calls from creditors.
At Full Circle Debt Solutions, we’ve got lots to be proud of. We’re proud to be Canadian, we’re proud to call Vancouver home, and we’re proud of our clients, all of whom have taken control of their debt. But what we’re most proud of is our team ofdebt management consultants.
As Canada’s largest independent group of licensed debt management professionals, they will walk you through every step of debt consolidation, even tailoring consumer credit counseling programs to your needs. By contacting your creditors to negotiate debt payment plans that are more manageable for you, our debt management experts help you get rid of those annoying calls from debt collection agencies.
Bills are one thing, late fees are another. At least when it comes to paying bills, I know I’m paying for something that I used or received. Paying late fees, on the other hand, is almost like you’re giving money away. Although I know that late fees are supposed to be more of a deterrent than anything else, so that these companies don’t fall behind on their own accounting and so that you don’t fall into the habit of paying late – it doesn’t stop me from channeling my inner petulant child whenever I get fined with one.
But with all the bills I have to pay, it’s easy to fall behind. For example, there was this one time when Mark and I first moved into our new apartment in Vancouver. I got so caught up in the unpacking, furniture shopping, and setting up of our new apartment, that I had forgotten to tie up our loose ends in Calgary – and we ended up getting late fees on our cable and electric bills. And this other time, in my college days, when I let the credit card bills pile up, for fear of dealing with what was inside.
Ever since we got in touch with Full Circle though, we’ve been pretty good about keeping on top of our monthly bills. By helping us consolidate our debt, the process of paying the bills has become a lot less daunting. So if you find yourself paying late fees all time, consider giving Full Circlea call. They’ll walk you through the entire process of managing your debt so that you can be one step closer to financial freedom.
I’m sick of paying bills. I know it’s all part of being an adult an all, but sometimes I wish I could go back to my sandbox days. Sure, I wouldn’t have a car to drive, credit card to use, or cell to text with, but I’d be totally debt free. (And I’m sure my mailman wouldn’t mind.)
But seriously, how nice would it be if the biggest worry in your life were the guest list at your next play date? Instead, I have to worry about how I’m going to make my next mortgage payment and how I’ll pay for my car insurance.
My mom is the thriftiest woman I know. My dad worked all the time, and since my mom was a stay-at-home mom, she took it upon herself to manage our family’s finances. Every purchase, payment, and deposit was balanced in her checkbook, which seemed to be a permanent fixture in her handbag. All receipts – even those from buying a pack of gum – were stored in a tiny drawer in the kitchen desk and dutifully checked whenever the credit card bills came at the end of each month.
When my sister and I were growing up, mom tried to instill in us a sense of financial responsibility. The earliest lesson I can remember was when she gifted us with piggy banks when we started getting our allowance. While my sister would carefully deposit half of her weekly $5 into her pig, I would be at Seven Eleven on Monday shoving my hand into the 5-cent candy jars. Needless to say, her pig got fat while my stayed painfully thin.
In retrospect, that was a pretty good predictor that my sister would be the one to guide me out of my financial rut. Which is exactly what she did 2 years ago when Mark and I found ourselves close to bankruptcy and ready to skip town. She told us to call Full Circle immediately, assuring us that their debt management consultants would help us reduce our debt. We called, and surely enough, our consultant helped us consolidate our debt to one manageable monthly payment.
Our oldest, Griffin, is on summer break, much to the delight of his younger sister Silvia who considers herself his sidekick. All summer long, they’ve been taking advantage of the sunny days and warm weather, and have developed quite the skill at convincing our nanny to take them to the beach. When I get home from work, I always know if they’ve been successful, not only by the sandy trails I find in the foyer but by the stories that the kids enthusiastically tell me about their seaside escapades.
Now that Mark and I have our finances under control, thanks to our Full Circle debt consultant who helped us consolidate our debt, we’ve decided that we should take our first family vacation abroad. Since the kids love the waves so much, we’re definitely thinking somewhere tropical with white sandy beaches, but we’re not sure where. Any suggestions?
When Mark and I first moved in to our new apartment in Calgary, it was not all sunshine and roses. Both of us had been struggling a bit with our finances, trying to keep up with rent, bills, and student loans. So it was sort of a no brainer for us to live together so that we could split our living expenses.
But just when things started looking up, Mark lost his job at the architecture firm and had to go into freelance consulting. Our cash flow reduced to a meagre trickle, what with my pay as a legal assistant and his inconsistent employment. Add that to the trail of personal debt that had followed me from Vancouver, and we were in serious trouble.
That’s when the fighting started. And it was always about money, even if it wasn’t explicitly expressed. As you can guess, passive aggressiveness was usually my weapon of choice. Despite the fact that my finances were in a worse state than Mark’s, I picked fights over just about anything – not putting the toilet seat down, his gym membership fees, and the flavor of ice cream he’d buy – everything was fair game.
During one particularly ridiculous argument, while bickering about the recyclability of a pizza box, Mark’s pressed his lips together and his grinning eyes caught mine. In that instant, it dawned on me how crazy we had become, and I burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.
Looking back at those days now brings a smile to my face, but only because we decided post-pizza box, to do something about our debt. We called Full Circle, and one of their debt management consultants guided us through the process of debt consolidation. We reconfigured our monthly bills to one low monthly payment and never looked back.
Full Circle Debt Solutions here. We’re not going to sugar coat it. Scarlett’s path to financial freedom isn’t an easy one. In fact, it was a long road that was filled with potholes and ditches – and it’s definitely a road that will never really end. It’s the consumer thirst that seems insatiable, especially when we’re constantly faced with promotions and products that we ‘have to have’.
If you’re looking to manage your debt and you live in BC or in AB, give us a call. We’ve got licensed professionals who specialize in debt consolidation and will be there every step of the way on your journey towards financial security.
Feeling blue about the never-ending stream of bills that seem to find their way to your mailbox? And the debt that’s straining your finances? Nothing will get you down quite like debt stress, and nothing causes wrinkles quite like it.
Put down the anti-aging cream and self-help books, because the only way to treat a serious case of debt downer is to face the problem head on. As Scarlett can attest to, avoiding the problem only makes it worse.
So call Full Circle Debt Solutions and talk to a debt management professional to reduce your monthly payments. He will help you consolidate your debt and guide you through your financial road to recovery. As any good dermatologist will tell you, it’s about maintenance, not a quick fix.
I’m so sick of getting bills in the mail. And I’m sure the mailman is sick of the dirty looks I send his way whenever I happen to see him on my daily walks around the block. Poor guy, it’s not his fault that I’m perpetually swipe-happy with my credit cards, and that I have student loans that will take me until retirement to pay back. Add that to bills I have to pay for auto insurance, car payments, and electricity, and you’re looking at a mailman who is going to be looking at a huge chiropractor bill by the time he finishes delivering my mail.
Moving homes is one of the most expensive things I’ve had to do. And I’ve had to do it twice. Once when I moved to Calgary and again when Mark, the baby, and I moved back to Vancouver. Paying for the moving guys, boxes, trucks, and new furniture took a huge toll on my wallet, not to mention the emotional cost.
Since graduating from college, I promised myself never to buy another piece of furniture from Ikea, a promise I didn’t manage to keep when I moved to Calgary, due to my ailing finances. But thanks to Full Circle, our debt was under control for our move to Vancouver, and I finally managed to fulfill my interior decorating dreams.
When we were living in Calgary, on rare occasions I would have weeks where I had no bills to pay, no things to buy, and nowhere I had to travel to (other than work). Thanks in part to the fact that I’d uprooted my life in Vancouver and moved to a new city, my billing cycles for my utilities, cell phone, and cable were the same. I savored these days, relishing the moments when I’d check my online banking and see the balance NOT decrease. I was so smitten that fanning myself with the cash that was in my wallet may have crossed my mind.
But the days would turn into a couple, and then I’d get that terrible itch. The one that presents itself when I’m feeling particularly good about my good behaviour. Usually triggered by something like a television commercial, or an ad in a magazine, the result was always the same – go out and buy something. And let me tell you, it’s quite the fall, falling off a financial high horse. Your spending goes into overdrive, a sort of subconscious overcompensation for all the saving you’d been doing for the past couple of days.
After a particularly damaging self-rewarding bout, and after the retail euphoria wore off, I was racked with guilt and stress about how much money I’d spent and how much I’d have to pay for it when I got my bill in a couple weeks. So I called up my debt management consultant over at Full Circle. He talked me through some debt-reducing strategies like debt consolidation, and assured me that he’d walk me through the next billing cycle. Relief! I quickly added him to my speed-dial that day.
10 years ago, I would have never guessed how dependent I’d be on the internet, or on my email, and on Facebook, and on Twitter. I do everything on the world wide web now, from reading the daily news, whether it be about BP’s oil spill or Lindsay Lohan’s lock up, to shopping for a new blender. But one of the internet utilities I’m most attached to is online banking. I log-in and poof! My account balance, recent transactions, transfer totals, bill payment plans – all at my fingertips and all at a moment’s notice. Never has instant gratification made me feel so responsible.
You hear all the time about how raising a kid is hard work and how it costs a lot and how you never get as much sleep as you’d like to. But you never truly understand all of that until you actually have one. After we had Griffin, the cost of diapers alone was enough to keep me on contraceptives until at least Mark and I got our debt under control. Lucky for us, and for our beautiful Silvia, we gave Full Circle Debt Solutions a call one evening after a particularly disheartening day of opening up the bills. They patiently guided us through the process of consolidating our debt and our monthly payments. Our minds were immediately put to ease and a year later, the cutest little girl, Silvia, came into our lives!
I’ll never forget the first time I was approved for a credit card, if you can call it that. I was a studying at Emily Carr at the time, with little to no credit to my name. But since I was enrolled in a university, I qualified for a student credit card. The limit was something like $500, which seemed like the king’s bounty at the time considering the fact that my allowance up to that point was measly 20 bucks per week. So with my newfound wealth, I spent like a high roller buying fancy art supplies, splurging on pricey meals, and buying tickets to concerts.
Needless to say, what seemed like a lot of money at first turned into what-can-I-really-buy-with-five-hundred-dollars. That changed again when I got the first statement in the mail, this time to holy-sh#!-where-the-heck-am-I-gonna-get-five-hundred-big-ones? So I had no choice but to go with the minimum payment and get charged an insane interest on the rest. And that, ladies and gentlemen is when my debt started piling up.
Where was this sign when I signed up for that darned credit card?
You know, before we called Full Circle, Mark and I were really in a tough place when we were living in Calgary. As you know, Mark had lost his job at the architecture firm and was doing some freelance work that didn’t seem very promising. I was an out of work art-school graduate with student loans to match. Our income was unstable, to say the least. And our debt? Out of control. To make matters worse, we were getting calls from debt collectors who would call incessantly to pester us about paying up. They were a tricky bunch, calling from different numbers so that we wouldn’t know who was calling. Eventually, I took to screening out calls from unknown numbers completely. It didn’t matter that it could have been my mom calling me from her friend’s house, or my sister calling me from work. I wasn’t going to pick up!
Have you ever seen that movie “Confessions of a Shopaholic”? I saw it on re-runs with Mark this weekend and spent the most of the time shaking my head at how irresponsible the main character, Becky Bloomwood, was. I guess Mark couldn’t hold it in any longer, because once the credits started rolling, he blurted out, “What were you shaking your head at the whole time?”
“I can’t believe she bought all that stuff even though she was broke! Com’on, did she really need that scarf?”
“Umm…” he continued, “Scar, that might as well have been you in the movie.”
That’s when I got real quiet, first because I was pissed off and then, sheepishly, I realized how right he was. I am Becky Bloomwood! Well, not actually…but you get my point. I buy art supplies instead of scarves and rugs instead of purses but nonetheless it adds up to a lot that I can’t afford.
I was feeling pretty down and guilty after my epiphany, so I decided to give a call to my debt management consultant over at Full Circle. Good idea. He called me down and talked me through the next strategy he had in mind to consolidate my debt. I guess movie night turned out alright after all. Maybe I won’t make Mark sit through another chick flick again.
When I was a kid, I used to play all these mental games with myself. Like at the mall, I would avoid stepping on the lines on the floor, or if I was in a car, I’d click my teeth every time we passed a street pole. I never knew whether anyone else had similar neuroses but in retrospect, it sure was a good predictor that I’d be playing mind games with myself well into adulthood.
The one I’m referring to is the one where I avert my eyes to the left every time I enter my kitchen. The reason being that my desk is tucked into a nook on the right side of the kitchen and if I look away at just the right moment upon stepping over the threshold, I can avoid seeing the toppling tower of bills threatening to take over my desk. Someone please tell me that I’m not alone in this game of denial! What do you do to avoid facing the bills?
With Full Circle on my side, I can’t help but feel really good about myself for facing my debt. I have to be careful though, because patting myself on the back sometimes turns into rewarding myself with expensive meals. This is especially the case when I’m clock-watching at work, waiting for my precious lunch break. I trick myself into thinking I deserve more than my boring packed lunch of ham on rye and sliced apples. The prize usually ends up being a full-course meal at my favorite sushi restaurant that just-so-happens to be right across from the office. Good news for my palette, not so good news for my wallet.
nom nom
So I really need to try harder and stay on track with my debt management plan – maybe I’ll pack a more appetizing lunch next time. I guess I can’t expect my debt management consultant, as good as he is, to do all the work…
If Jewel can re-invent herself as a dowdy frozen food section worker at your local IGA – you too can take off the disguise of artificial living to enjoy a whole new life – debt free.
How many times have I felt like screaming and trashing my little fists against the wall and yelling out, “I need to get out of this damn hole!”
Moments like that are usually when I realize that although I am paying $125 a month in payments, it isn’t really doing anything. It’s just keeping the whole process going.
It’s enough to rattle your brain and make your skull swell up with fog.
The best thing that you can do, sometimes, is to forget about the payments and look at the big picture.
Wow. That can be scary. It can be horrifying to add up all the credit card bills you get each month, all the other payments – it’s nuts.
Stepping back, and looking at the big picture, you can see a singular, consolidated way tot get rid of your problem.
Ever heard that song by Johnny Cash – I’ve been everywhere?
That’s what Mark and I were like. It was straight out of a song – we didn’t have any money, any future or a clue, but we were born to run and we hit Canada like two crazy kids with the wind in our hair and nothing to lose and a whole wide world worth seeing.
We went everywhere, man. We went to Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Port Coquitlam, Cranbrook, Creston, Nelson, Kelowna, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Brampton, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, St. John’s, Charlottetown.
We went everywhere, man! Debt or debt beware, man! We went everywhere!
There is no standard model on what is considered to be a good or bad FICO score. This question really depends on your lender and how they rate individual scores. However, we can make some generalizations about FICO scores that range up to 850 and what score may be considered to be good, fair and bad.
750 or higher – This is considered to be an excellent credit score. At 770 and above you can generally obtain the best interest rates.
700 to 750 – This is considered to be between very good and excellent credit.
650 to 700 – Considered to be very good credit.
600 to 650 – A good credit score. Sometimes the minimum for good credit is at 620 or above, because this is generally considered the cutoff point for a prime rate loan.
600 and below – This range is considered a high credit risk. While you can still obtain loans and credit cards in this range, they will most likely be secured credit cards and loans at the highest interest rate.
550 and below – Any FICO score below 550 is considered to be awful credit.
Bad credit means no one will lend to you... for good reason.
Of course Full Circle Debt Solutions services all of Canada. But if you live in Vancouver, you can drop down to our new office in Delta anytime and we can help you out in person.
If you are interested in debt consolidation in Vancouver, talk to us first. The other counseling companies will charge you voluntary ‘fees’ that you will have to pay. Not so voluntary.
If you live in Vancouver, and you are being suffocated by debt payments that haunt you worse than farmed salmon, you’ll need to talk to a debt advisor right away. We’re open late.
Call 1 877 220 3328. Getting rid of your debt is as easy as a phone call.
It’s kind of crazy when you are so far in debt, you have no idea how much money you actually have. Or even worse, how much money you actually owe.
We had an apartment in Vancouver, a couple of cars, a boat, a bunch of furniture, even clothes – all bought on consignment.
If we were to sit down with our bills to figure out what was what, we’d be lost. Who had the time for something like that?
Either way, one of the first things that Full Circle Debt Solutions did when they talked to me on the phone that day was ask me about my FICO score.
FICO? Beacon? Bacon? Six degrees of pain? Huh?
I had no idea what they were talking about – I thought they wanted to know if I was betting on Brazil.
Either way, it turns out that a FICO score is your credit score. It lets the bank – or anyone that you want to borrow money from – how reliable you are.
Now, I may have a lot of debt, but I always thought I was somewhat responsible.
Turns out that I was wrong. My FICO score was freakin’ terrible. 550. That is like debt hell.
I’ll post the list of what those scores mean in my next post.
If you’ve ever watched To Debt Do Us Part, you will know that one of the things they suggest is putting all of your money into little jars and keeping track of everything.
Man, oh, man, I’ve tried living like that and I can tell you, it’s no fun. Have you ever tried brining ajar into a Wendy’s? They look at you like you’re crazy.
I think one of the biggest problems I had was that I always wanted the best of everything. I couldn’t just stroll into a mattress store and get a $300 bed. This one time I wandered into a Vancouver mattress store, Simmons Mattress Gallery, and I just couldn’t help myself. I knew I had no income. I knew I probably would be lucky to make $30,000 a year out of art school, but nope, that didn’t stop me. I plopped down $1000 on a brand-new Beautyrest.
That’s probably why I’ve slept so well knowing that I owe something like 50 grand in debt. Great bed, I still have it, but I digress.
I had to stop buying things I couldn’t afford. That’s like Strategy #1.
I had to start paying my bills. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But I had some kind of mental block when it came to paying bills. I’d just throw them out. What was I thinking? I don’t know. Bad strategy though.
Either way, Full Circle Debt Solutions helped me out – a lot.
My life completely changed. It was as easy as making a phone call.
-You don’t answer numbers you don’t know because you’re worried about some creepy collection agent breathing in your ear.
-Your voicemail is always full from their annoying messages
-You dread opening your mailbox. Your hand even kinda shakes when you fumble with the key.
-There are more bills on your kitchen table than crumbs.
-No one takes your personal cheques anymore.
-Your mom and dad screen your calls. Isn’t that horrible?
-Garnish isn’t just for dinner.
-When they cut your credit card up at stores, they say, “You again?”
-You never sign for registered mail. Believe me, registered mail is for chumps.
-When strangers try to give you something, you run!
-You are better at making excuses than getting things done.
-When your waitress says, “Hello, I’ll be your server tonight.” You make a quick exit through the bathroom window.
When I first talked to Full Circle Debt Solutions about consolidating my debt and managing this big hairy monkey on my back, they lent me a supportive ear. It was almost like they had been in my shoes. I have to admit, I was crying a bit after telling them about how crap my life had become because of all this stupid debt. But they had ideas to help me out right away.
One of the frist things they did was set me up with a plan to make paying off my debt that much easier. By consolidating all my high-cost debt into one low monthly payment, I was able to breathe a little easier, and one-by-one the things in that list began to vanish into a bad, faint memory – kind of like the time I drank tequila and Tang.
When I was at Emily Carr, I had a strange attitude towards money.
The way I saw it – money wasn’t important. The only thing that mattered was what you produce – your art. Being in set design, I lived an breathed photographs of my final creations.
I framed those photos and put them up in my bedroom. It was all that mattered to me. It was a great way to keep focus on what I was doing. Especially considering everything else was going sideways.
I used to go out for 50-dollar dinners, by myself, because I thought I deserved a nice meal. I would treat myself to a 400-dollar jacket come winter. I hadn’t made a dime in two years, yet I was spending like I was Caligula.
In my head, I thought that I deserved all of the luxuries of life. I had my Kitsilano flat, my red Volkswagen Bug, my 200-dollar lamps – all bought on credit. Looking back on it, I wonder if I wasn’t a little crazy.
I just kept using my Visa for everything, because dammit, I deserved it! But when the monthly statements started rolling in, I’d just stuff them in a box without opening them, or throw them out.
Deep down, I knew this lifestyle couldn’t last forever though.
You hear about folks that never pay a bill. They just float from place to place ducking out on dentist bills, and hotel bills, and rent.
Now, Mark and I have never been like that, but our credit was shot all the same, so we got to thinking – why not?
We could easily skip town without paying rent. We could take our rented furniture and run. We could hit up every no-money-until-payday, Moneymart, payday loan kind of places and then make a run for it.
We made the mistake of mentioning this to my sister, almost as a joke. She just went all pale and told us, ah, Scarlett, don’t do it. No matter how desperate things get, your credit will be shot to nothing, and you’ll never be able to get a home down the road, even when you get yourself out of this mess. Believe me, that kind of quick fix is no way out.
We kind of grumbled to ourselves and she suggested that we call Full Circle Debt Solutions. With Mark’s three credit cards out of control, and him paying over 20% interest on each of them – matched up with my student loans and (hush) Sears card mishap, we had debts all over town.
At least Full Circle Debt Solutions could consolidate all of those payments for us.
Half the time, she said, they can even cut your debt payments in half.
That’s all the convincing it took for us. The next day, we called them up.
For those of you who have been following this story for some time, you know, I was pretty poor with money. That’s for certain. Then I met a man that I loved, and it turns out he wasn’t much better.
Who would have guessed that a self-employed architectural consultant could have so many problems with a bank? That was Mark’s situation. He had clients that wouldn’t pay, and he had his suppliers, and because he’s such a big-hearted guy, he started floating everything himself.
One day, I look over and he’s sweating on the phone with his credit card in hand. Turns out one of his clients skipped town and left him holding the bag. He had people to pay, and as much as Mark would like to, he couldn’t.
We hope you are enjoying Scarlett’s story so far. It is certainly told with a lot of heart.
We at Full Circle Debt Solutions thought that we would interject here for a moment to offer a bit of a reality check. As we don’t want you to get worried that debt is just doom and gloom (sorry, Scarlett).
SPOILER ALERT:
In the end, Scarlett was able to make her payments a manageable $150/month (from $300/month) – and in the end, she paid her entire debt off within a year.
Scarlett and Mark now live in a beautiful three-bedroom apartment with a sunny North-western view. They have two beautiful children – Griffin and Silvia.
Life all worked out in the end, and to her credit, Scarlett did it all on her own. After picking up the phone that day in the bath, she called us up at Full Circle Debt Solutions and were able to consolidate her debt, talk to her creditors, and negotiate payments that suited her lifestyle. In the end, we saved her thousands of dollars in bills and months of headaches.
She did write this blog, years ago, and would like to share it with you for inspiration. If you would like to follow along from the beginning, click here.
We hit some hard times in Calgary. Mark’s firm went bust and then he went into consulting. This was fine for a while, until one client never paid. Mark was left in a lurch and owed his suppliers something like $20,000.
He couldn’t pay.
We looked into getting a home equity loan to cover the cost on our Calgary apartment. No dice. Because Mark was now self-employed, he couldn’t verify his income. And my Beacon score (FICO score) was way out of wack.
No bank would lend us money.
Luckily, we heard an ad on the radio about Alpine Credits, and we looked them up. They promised that they would lend us the money as long as we owned our own home. So we were in luck.
Before, Mark was struggling with $2000 a month! It was more than our mortgage, after talking to Alpine Credits, they had us down to $1000 a month, and got rid of some of our high cost debt at the same time.
The sad part was, Mark didn’t even know half of the debt that I had following me around – I have never felt more guilty in my life.
I met Mark, we hooked up, and my job got better. We moved into a flat, and everything got better. Then, we moved to Calgary, Alberta of all places – to the bustling capital of cows and hats.
We lived right downtown. Mark worked at a big architectural firm. It was okay. No tax there, which was nice.
I kind of kept my credit card statements from him, which I felt a little dishonest about, but I didn’t want him to see that I had maxed out my Visa and I was quickly getting there with a Sears card too. A Sears card! I really wanted to get us a good bed though – but I should have got a mattress in Vancouver. They don’t have Simmons like they do out West!
That summer we made plans to get married. He had a good job. I was doing okay at the legal assisting firm.
First off, I’d like to thank my readers for following along so diligently.
It’s nice to get fan mail! It’s a bit surreal too, because this all happened so long ago, yet I have people waiting on pins and needles to find out if I’m ever going to get anywhere.
I couldn’t really help myself – he seemed so perfectly in line with where I wanted to be going, and he ticked all the boxes on my goal list, and he didn’t have a financial worry in the world. It was perfect.
Either way, it is nice to see some of you think that my story is encouraging. Looking back at some of these posts makes me kind of sad, but I’m just letting you know a little about me, and my situation, before I found the silver lining.
But even when I was in debt, I still found happiness in love.
Even paying $1000/month, for 25 months, is not sustainable. There’s rent, food, transit to pay – and not mention that $300/month bill that’s more than your rent.
It’s a nightmare.
It’s a hell that most people my age face. All your life you are told to do what you love, and when you do it, and it doesn’t work, you have to pay the rest of your life for it.
What a drag.
Either way, my debt was way out of control. I was living in a run-down house that if you slammed the basement door the entire building shook. The porch was held up by a flimsy piece of chain the size of your pinky. The back door had been broken into and there was a piece of plywood over the shattered window. Great. The whole place should have been condemned. It was a tough situation to be in, and everyone I lived with were in the same boat. Debt, gloom, desperation.
I was working as this legal assistant, which mostly meant filing papers and making photocopies and looking up stuff on the Internet. Not too bad, but I don’t think I ever saw much of a lawyer except the inside of his nose.
One day this new guy moved into our flat. I loved him right away. He was just the right combination of artistic ambition and solid grounding. He wasn’t a dime in debt and he was looking to break into architecture.
I liked him for other reasons as well, of course, he was nice enough, and he was pretty tall. Pragmatically though, he was everything I needed to make my checklist of dreams a reality. I grabbed on as hard as I could. He fought me at first, but eventually, he couldn’t help but love me. I’m good. But he kind of won me over too.
It had been a long time since I had looked at myself as wonderful. I was talented. And beautiful. And loveable. It has been a while since I had given myself so much credit.
The worst lie you can make is to lie to yourself. And that’s what I did. I denied my own artist talent. Years in school taught me nothing but uncertainty. $10,000 for uncertainty in my talent. I felt cheated. I felt betrayed. I threw up my hands and told myself that I was not an artist. And that was a lie. I was an artist. And I still am. It took me a while to come around, but now I’m confident in my ability. And I intend to prove it to you.
I have run the gauntlet of debt, and debt consolidation, and creditor appeasement and all of that, and I’ll give you a hint, I don’t think I’d let them publish my story if I didn’t’ make it.
But you never know, this could be the most misleading spoiler of all time. Either way, thank you for reading – it makes me feel like less of a lunatic talking into an empty void, and more like I have friends on the other side of the campfire that might actually gain something out of this, somehow, someway.
The more I post this, the more I believe it is only to fair to state that I am getting paid to post this story. Surely, some of you may have guessed this already, but still. I think it is only right to set this straight. The way many of the earlier posts are written implies that I am writing from the heart, and indeed, I am, but now, a year later, knowing that I got paid for this story changes it a bit for me – I’m not sure why.
Either way, I just think it right for you to know that not only did Full Circle Debt Solutions save me by reducing my debt, and making my life manageable, they also helped me get my story heard.
Right then, that day – something magical happened to me.
There was something about writing that list that empowered me. It gave me direction. And for the first time in years, I felt that life could be full of possibilities and opportunities, and hope.
I was in legal assistant school now. I had yet another student loan under my belt, and as I couldn’t work at the restaurant or call centre as much as I would like while I was studying – my credit card bill kept getting worse and worse too.
I spoke to someone, way back when, and they told me how to get my credit card bill down from 20% interest to 10% interest. That was a lifesaver. If I had only known back then what I know now, I would have use Full Circle Debt Solutions to reduce ALL of my debt in the same way.
Either way, at this point, I figure I was about $25,000 in debt. That is a ridiculous amount of money – especially for someone making $20/hour, or $3000/month after taxes.
It felt hopeless. I moved into the cheapest apartment I could find.
At this point I quit the soul-destroying, part-time call centre job and took a job at a supermarket. I hated that too. I worked with a bunch of losers.
I thought I was special. I thought I had talent. I had been selected, out of all of my classmates, as the most promising set designer… what happened!?
My first boss only agreed to pay me $18/hour (although the industry standard was $20), but I was desperate. I needed to get out of this debt.
I took my first legal assistant job – and to be honest – I hated it.
You see so many people that just give up. They resign themselves to paying the minimum monthly payment each month, and that’s it. You can see them sinking lower and lower. And their eyes getting more and more sad. Their vehicles going without repair and their houses without mending. It’s tragic, in a way. But debt is like a wraith that needles into your body, and latches onto your spine, and slowly, ever so slowly, sucks out your soul – until you are a shell of the person you were.
I’ll admit it. Even with this new job. I was scared.
It’s one thing to have almost $10,000 in loans from attending an art school that never furthered your career, $5000 in debt trying to perpetuate that world, and quite another to start over in a second job, at a second school, in a career that has nothing to do with art.
I was looking down the barrel of a gun, with what would be $15,000 in debt and hopefully, if all went well, the chance to make $20/hour, and maybe even meet some nice lawyer.
I decided to become a legal assistant.
I heard the girl talk about it. And then I saw the ad on the bus one day. I was wearing my scuffed Prada boots, and my faded Diesel jeans, and a jacket that cost me a week’s pay at the restaurant I started working at to get by.
I went to art school, and now I was a waitress. I had come full circle. With one major difference – I now had over $15,000 in debt (if you count my school fees) – and not a career prospect in sight.
I called them up, with my eyes closed. It was after hours, and I was hoping to get a message and I did. I blurted it out, “I want to enroll, please call me….”
And that was that.
I knew once they called me tomorrow, my fate was sealed. What did I know about legal assisting? Nothing. What did I care? Even less.
People as a whole are mean, messy, obnoxious pigs. Let me restate that, the average person is vile – but only when there are no consequences to their behaviour. Otherwise, they’re sweet as pie.
There are some rotten jobs out there, and serving drunks is one of them. You see people at their worst. And it’s gross. I was doing that.
Working on the phone is just as bad. People are rude. I may have been interrupting them, but at least I was polite, forthright, and willing to strike their name from the list to prevent further interruption.
Where does this all come from? What you realize, quick enough, is that most people don’t have any power in their lives. And in the same way that they can’t fight against the authority that makes them miserable, they take it out on those that can’t question theirs. People are petty, passive-aggressive worms sometimes.
Not all of them, of course, but most of them. Of course there are a few gems in the swamp out there. But as a whole… yuck.
I looked at myself one day and thought. Do you know what? I don’t have any power in my life either. I’m stuck in these two crappy jobs, living with my grandmother, I have an art degree that I don’t even use, and…. My life sucks! This sucks! I have over $15,000 in debt and absolutely no way to get out of it.
It was at this moment, like some kind of stroke of fate, that the girl across from me (I must have had my arms across my eyes and my face on the desk at this point) that she was going back to a community college to become a legal assistant. Lots of work. One year training. Guaranteed $20 an hour upon graduation.
One problem – it was another $5000. Not to mention the money I wouldn’t be making while in school.
But to hell with it, I’d be out of a cubicle and off my feet and into a desk and making twice as much.
There I was, working at a call centre with these other half-wits and misfits.
It turned out my set design education was only good for that – set design. And seeing how I hated all the nonsense that surrounded the career that I loved, here I was, back at Square One.
There was one major difference though. After art school, and trying to fit in, and borrowing against my credit card to make ends meet on minimum wage – I was more in debt that I had ever been in my whole life. When I realized that my minimum payment on my credit card was $100. And none of that – not one cent – was going towards the principle, I knew I was in big trouble.
I wasn’t about to ask my parents for money. They had just moved and they were in no position to raise their baby daughter all over again. If nothing else, they had faith in me, so I had to tough it out.
I had faith.
I saw sets in everything I did. I’d look across the cubicles and picture ways in my mind as to how to redesign them to catch a more elegant slant of the mid-day sun from the north-facing window. I’d envision managers in bowler caps and zut suits and my co-workers with bar codes for faces, mindlessly droning on into black phones about relentless, inane crap I could care less about.
It was a rotten job. So I started waitressing again, as well. I was living with my grandma now. And I couldn’t feel any worse about myself. I was in debt. I saw myself as a failure as an artist. And I was waitressing, again, after all this time and vision and passion and hurt – and every month my Visa hit me with a tax that meant nothing but ownership. I was now a slave to debt – and at $100/night in tips, and $12/hour at the call centre, there was no way – ever –that I would crawl out of this hole.
I needed a better job. I needed a way to earn twice what I was earning.
I worked for Mia Gazelle for exactly three weeks, two days and four hours. It was a disaster.
I know you hear stories of apprenticeship where the master leads the student into the mountains to fend off wolves. There are young apprentices that paint the entire house of their sensei with only a wax-on, wax-off motion. But this was not for me.
The hours were ridiculous. I would get up at 6 in the morning, I would be there by 7. We would work, nonstop on chores I hated such as assembling tables with bolts and a wrench, and sanding wooden chairs down to toothpicks. I was home by 10. It was horrible.
It had nothing to do with my creative visions. Other people were supposed to do these things. I suppose she was trying to teach me humility, and sympathy for the construction crews that worked like mindless ants to assemble her creations – but after doing their work, all I felt was pity.
Day after day (there were no weekends) she brought me in to sweep sets, hammer nails and trim bushes. It was humiliating. It was soul destroying. I sat at the end of the day and wept – I had spent two years, and $10,000 to follow my dream, and this is what became of it – I was a common slave, working for next to nothing to fetch nails and paint as a waitress would fries and sliced lemons for water. I had gone nowhere.
After three weeks, two days and four hours, she looked down and gestured that I should get off my knees from the floor I was scrubbing. She took me by the shoulders and turned me around. The set was done. It was for a scene in the X-files, and even saying that I worked on it was something. But I felt nothing. I felt used and spent. None of my creative input had be listened to, none of my ideas, or style, or mid-day inspiration was acknowledged. I felt like a stooge.
My classmates thought my carefully constructed sets ‘tried to hard’ (whatever that meant) they felt they hid behind a veneer of insincere perfectionism and uneasy entitlement that was inappropriately employed so early in my career. One of my teachers wrote those very words and it set me into a rage. But looking back, maybe there was something there – but at the time I hated their condescending criticism.
When I tried to defend my work, my teachers had no time for me as soon as I grounded their airy talk with statements like: ‘So what you are saying is.’
I didn’t fit in with this arty scene, really. I was a small-town girl and they were determined to keep me in my place. I kept my hair brown, I had no visible tattoos. I pierced my nose, but this was as far as I could go in my counter-culture mind. The reality was, I wasn’t a punk – I wasn’t anti-society, I was me, and I preferred to be left alone, without having to make a hollow statement with every move or word I spoke.
Looking back at it, shy little me actually produced some of the most original work there. I was proud of my creations. Even if the others scorned my finicky and quiet style. The only person that mattered was the head of the department, and between me hiding behind cigarettes outside and ducking behind props, she caught me in a corner and held her eyes in mine long enough to know she meant business.
She told me the (mostly infamous) Mia Gazelle – one of Vancouver’s best set designers, was a good friend of hers. A graduate as well. And she might be able to offer me a job when I graduated. She had sent her pictures of my last set and the nods all around were enough to land me an apprenticeship spot, if I wanted it.
What can I say? I was ecstatic. I was finally recognized, and for one day, one single day, all the negative voices of my classmates, and my friends, and my parents, and myself were pushed down and I could breathe. For that one day, I looked at the photos of my set – with the purple harlequin seats, and the bold chandeliers, and the great gilt framed paintings over round tiled tables and wrought iron chairs as a masterpiece. Perhaps not a masterpiece, but an accomplishment in an artistic eye that I always knew I possessed, but had never been appreciated – until now.
I bounded home. I called my parents. And while this story is true, I promised I would tell you my second lie.
I am transcribing old journals from years’ past. The truth is, I am recounting my story here and now. I did not wish to mislead you, only to entice you, as I truly believe this story is a good one – but back when, I was too focused on building sets to worry about writing blogs about finding my way out of the debt I built around me. So I’m writing it out for you now, in the here and now.
All the same, my career as a set designer had been given a shot of adrenaline, and I was exited to see where it would take me.
The first lie, was a lie to myself. I told myself at some point that I was not an artist.
Basically, I let them beat me down to think that I was stupid to think that I was special. I can’t really pinpoint ‘who’ they were. But the worst part about being in art school is that everyone judges you, especially your parents – especially your friends.
It’s unfortunate. It is based on envy. And it sucks.
The reality is – very few musicians get to the point that they make a living doing what they love. Same with writers. Same with directors. When you get into the finer arts like sculpting, and interior design, and concept-driven high art – it becomes even harder.
Half of my class ended up pregnant, or in a comfortable relationship with a picket-fence partner. Toiling their craft essentially as knee-jerk entitled attitude (which we were taught) to cover any absence of dedication to the craft. The other half beat their heads against the wall until opportunity arose, or like me, they came to terms with reality.
To be an interior set designer is expensive. First off, you need the clothes. It’s hard to haggle in the tens of thousands if you’re not wearing something they trust is worth the same.
My world became a world of knock-off LV purses, and hand-me-down Prada shoes and borrowed cashmere and gems.
I was faking it, alright, but I had no choice, that was the only world I knew.
Combine a Canada student loan, and then another, with a maxed out credit card and lines of credit stretched to the point that they could scream – and you have a desperate situation, with only two outs.
I could find a man, or anyone, as fast as I could to support me.
I could look at reality with cold, sad eyes, admit that I was no artist and give in – and take on a new profession.
I did the second.
I was no artist. And the more I told myself that, the more bitter I became. But telling myself that was the first of six little lies.
Because it wasn’t true. I was an artist. I am. And I know this with all my heart.
For whatever reason, she documented her struggle, the trepidation and ups and downs, and eventually, her goal to break free.
We were fortunate enough that she chose Full Circle Debt Solutionsas the company to help her consolidate her debt – because her story is a fantastic one. An avid writer, she blogged the entire process in order to keep some kind of daily focus to her task.
She came to us with over $20,000 in debt. Today, she is debt-free. In only four years she turned her life around, and she documented every second. She is very proud of her story. So are we.
We asked if we could reprint it here, as a weekly column of sorts, on this blog.
She agreed, as long as we changed a few names and details. Her biggest worry, strangely enough, was that her story would appear as a rather good, if not long, testimonial to our capabilities and services.
Please note, that none of these posts have been fact-checked by Full Circle Debt Solutions, and any data cannot be verified without talking to one of our staff.
However, in the name of artistic exploration, we present to you: Scarlett.
Full Circle Debt Solutions called me back around 12. I usually take lunch at 1, so I told them to call back then. Different guy this time, but just as friendly.
I find myself wanting to gush about how magnificent Full Cirlce Debt Solutions is, when really, I’ve only spoken to them a few times on the phone and I don’t actually know anything about debt consolidation – yet. The problem is I really want to do it now, and that means I have to sell it to make it work. Quite the conundrum!
I really think this interactive art piece is a great idea. I couldn’t’ stop thinking about it all day at the office – so much so that this one lawyer that always comes onto me was quite offended when I didn’t play along (I need some extra vacation time to go to a friend’s wedding next week). Ooops, out of character for a minute, as I waved him back to his desk. Hmm, so much for that four-day break next week.
Either way, I find I am so enamoured by my new little social media experiment that I write in glowing terms. I’m going to try to reduce that a bit, and be more of a gonzo fly on the wall. There but not judging, just being, fully and completely involved in my own objective sociological/journalistic experiment.
It’s about 8 am. And I don’t think I have ever felt this alive at such an ungodly hour.
I had the best dreams last night. It was like everything in my life was coming together. I was happy again. I was working on my art. I was free to laugh and travel with my friends and not be bogged down in this wretched debt-stench of my life.
I remember the conversation I had last night with Full Circle Debt Solutions. And I had an interesting idea.
I wasn’t sure where to start with my story, so I settled on my first phone call. The moment I decided to take action.
To give you a bit of background – I have compiled all of the blog posts that I kept over the last few years, and now I am trying to arrange them in some kind of sensical fashion so that you get an idea of my story from the very beginning.
Let’s start here.
So, I summoned up the nerve and decided to contact Full Circle Debt Solutions about my financial situation. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.
I was sitting in the bath with a glass of wine, playing with the suds in my bellybutton, and eventually decided that if I was ever going to do something about this stupid debt, there was no time like the present. I’d just to leave a message and talk to them tomorrow. The idea of calling a business and waiting on hold usually gives me enough butterflies to second-guess my decision and give up anyway.
I figured if I left a message, at least they would be the ones calling me – and then, I’m in full intervention mode – I’d have no choice but to address my debt problem in the bright lights of morning and change my ways. I’m one of those people, I really am. I’m kind of like an ostrich that sticks its head in the sand hoping that all the bad things in my life aren’t really there.
I’m not really working at this legal office, day in and day out, I tell myself. I am doing research for my next art piece.
I am not really in debt, I tell myself, I am merely investing in my own career.
I looked at myself in the mirror tonight, and I thought, no, Scarlett, you really are in debt. You may be an artist at a legal office, and yes, you may be doing research, but the reality remains, that you are in debt, your monthly payments are killing you and it’s time to get help.
So that’s my night. Soul searching with a glass of wine and facing hard facts, like how my teeth are going purple with age, and that working for lawyers kind of sucks.
So I called the number about an hour ago. (I know, it’s like 9 p.m. here!?) And what the hell!? Someone answered. Who works at 9 pm? Poor guy.
“What are you doing open so late?” I stammered.
“There’s always one of us who takes calls late at night.” The cheerful voice responded.
“Amazing.”
“How can I help you?”
Now I won’t bore you with details but suffice to say, he was very friendly and I ended up talking to him about such lovely things as debt consolidation and re-negotiating rates with creditors, and cutting my monthly debt payments by as much as 50%. It put my mind at ease and I can actually say I lay back in the tub, and closed my eyes and fantasized for just one, beautiful moment that I was back to where I was six years ago – free as a butterfly and without a worry in the world. And for a moment, my mind let me slip back to my debt-free world of freedom.
Either way, I’m getting a bit tired now. I will continue with this blog tomorrow.
Yes, he does look relaxed and well-treated, but back to me, Scarlett.
Let’s not call a spade a shovel. The reason I was drawn to Full Circle Debt Solutions was I trouble. I was pretty anxious about where my life was going. But now, seeing the most relaxed man in the world (see below), I feel that I am in good hands.
I will show them my financial situation. I am not sure if they can help me.
I owe almost $20,000. This is crazy considering that I have just had a child, I am on maternity leave, and I have no other income.
If there is a way that they can reduce my debt, or consolidate my debt, or bring down my monthly payments – I am all ears.
Hello, my name is Scarlett, and I have been asked by Full Circle Debt solutions to share my story and how it progresses.
First of all, my name has been changed, but this story is true. I hope it offers some hope and guidance to those of you who are faced with the same struggles as myself.
I was told that I had a talent at art. I had what I believed to be the eye and sensibilities for the craft of interior design, so I devoted a few years of my life to it. I attended Emily Carr on very expensive student loans. While I worked part-time, I was still always strapped for cash. I had a job at a call-centre and my parents had little to lend me.
After two years, I could not find a job in the field that I was in. I found myself suddenly burdened with over $10,000 in student loans. I looked for other options. And I saw potential as a legal assistant.
I went to Sprott Shaw Community College for two years to get my legal assistant certification. This put me another $5000 in debt. When I had a job, I was making $18/hour, which is not bad, but bringing home a take-home of $2500/month makes it difficult to pay off the interest I had gained on my credit cards. Most of my education was paid for on my Visa, on top of my student loans. Looking at it now, I now own more than $20,000 to the government and Visa.
I was able to get my annual interest with Visa to 10%, but this still means that I am paying over $100/month to them and another $100 to my student loans without even touching the principle.
There had to be another way. So I contacted Full Circle Debt Solutions.
This blog is going to work a bit differently than other blogs. We will feature real stories of real people with real financial problems.
This blog will act as a journal, or debt diary, that they can use to tell their story, and illustrate what it is like to work with Full Circle Debt Solutions.
A vast majority of Canadians suffer from debt problems, and much of their worry is unfounded. With our expertise we work with you to reduce your debt by up to 50%.
It is time to take control of your financial future. If you have debt, talk to us, we can probably take the current situation you are in and find a way to make it more reasonable for your lifestyle. We have helped thousands of Canadians get back on their feet, and you could be the next.
This is default description text on Padangan Themes, of course you can change this text via you profile administration.