That is how credit cards work…until you lose your job. Or get really sick. Or have an accident. Or get divorced.

Who saw that coming? Not you. But it happened. Then, for whatever reason, you could not pay your minimum payments on time. That was alright, at the beginning; you always paid within your grace periods. You managed, thanks to your emergency fund. Things will get better soon, you thought. I can handle this, you thought.

But your $1,000 emergency fund did not last very long and you started using your savings. Then those were gone, too. It began to dawn on you that you are not going find a job as fast as you thought you would.

You started charging daily living expenses such as gas and food. Then the lights were about to be turned off and you paid the electric bill with a card you knew was at its credit limit. You were relieved when the payment went through with no problem but stunned when you saw how much the over limit fees cost.

Your credit utilization rate was truly scary. But not as scary as the finance charges you racked up. It felt like all you were thinking about was money. You looked at your balances and could not remember what you bought. How could you have possibly spent that much money? It just has to get better, you hoped.