The workshop people sign up for but don’t show up for

Hey it’s Pam 🦋

Real quick! You can RSVP here - How to pay down your debt and still have a life (don’t worry, it’s going to be recorded in case you really can’t make it!)

I’m just going to say it - this is the workshop that people sign up for, but don’t show up for.

Most of us have debt (yes even financial planners, and no, I don’t mean a mortgage 🫣) and we all think we’re the only ones who have it. Showing up to a credit & debt workshop means you’re outing yourself, right?

The reality is, the credit and debt system is designed to keep you in their game for as long as possible. And the big cloud over this whole system is the blame and shame we’ve been fed because we “should have known better.”

Here are some nonsensical realities of the credit system that we all just have to live with and designed to make us feel maximum amounts of shame and blame:

• The modern credit scoring system was invented in 1989 - I’m older than the modern credit scoring system! It’s not even in its midlife crisis phase yet!

• Overdraft protection was invented in 1990 - before that, your card would just get declined if you didn’t have money in the account

• When you open an account, your credit score goes down. When you close an account, your credit score goes down. Yes, this includes paying off car loans or students loans.

• When someone else closes your account (like a store going out of business where you had a store card, or a credit card company deciding you haven’t used your card for too long), your credit score goes down.

• This started becoming prevalent during the pandemic, but I saw that when clients would pay down some of their credit card debt, the credit card company would automatically lower their credit limit, so they kept showing high credit utilization.

• Speaking of credit utilization, they keep raising the bar by lowering the ratio. The rule of thumb when I first started in the industry was to have your credit card balances no more than 50% of your credit limits. Then a decade or so later, they changed it to 30% of your limit. Now they saying “ideally” you don’t want your credit utilization ratio to be more than 10% of your credit limit.

• Things like your rent, utilities, and other bills don’t count positively towards your credit score if you pay on time, but they can count negatively towards your credit score if you miss payments.

I’m sure there’s tons of other maddening, fake, made-up rules I’m forgetting (and if you think of anything please share in the comments), but it’s so hard to remember when you look at your credit score or check your credit card balance and you feel like you should have known better anyway.

This workshop will remind you that you’re not wrong, you’re not a fool, and you’re not alone. RSVP at getshameless.com/workshops

We hope to see you there!