I shouldn’t be surprised that debt is so easy to come by, especially when it’s so hard to get out of.
But I am. You see, when we refinanced our home mortgage, we opted to open a home equity line of credit at the same time. It really isn’t something that we need or intend to use, but opening the line of credit was free and if we ever did need the money, the interest rate is very low.
Since I have no intention of using the credit, I was blown away by the tactics of my bank to get me to use it. Within days of signing the paperwork, we received a checkbook and a pair of debit cards to use with our new line of credit. Both mailings came with letters suggesting how to spend the money we had available to us.
It honestly scared me how easy the bank makes it for people to tap into their home’s equity. And it scared me that it is still like this even after all of the home foreclosures and bank failures. How many folks get sucked into the tempation and get into deep trouble? How many folks don’t realize that it’s not “free” money?
We won’t be touching our home equity line of credit. The checkbook and debit cards are safely locked away.
It was a very good reminder… debt is so easy to come by and so hard to get rid of. Be careful!
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