First, we made it to the beach for our annual getaway and it’s lovely and I’m more determined than ever to get here permanently.

As you saw from the week in charts a bit back, I have debt. I’d love to blame it on being a wastrel, but since I started grad school in 2011, I’ve managed to incur 6 figures worth of dental expenses. I didn’t get a decent paying gig until 2016, so yes, there is debt. I’m not proud or pleased with it, but it is what it is.

Three cards are owned by Citi. It wasn’t always that way – one was always Citi, the other two were bought by them.

I don’t really use them – one has a monthly $14 charge, one has an annual $140 charge, and one has my annual Costco dues. I’ve just been plodding along paying them down.

I have a fantastic Amazon Visa card I use for daily expenses that is paid in full every month. It’s not a high balance card, but perfect for the day to day stuff with a great reward program.

As of last week, the Citi cards had over 8K in available credit. As of Tuesday, it was $230. Spoiler: I have not spent $8,000 in a week.

I had decided to use one of the Citi cards for vacation expenses just to keep it on one card and not blow up my Amazon Visa. There was TONS of room on the card and those expenses were going to get paid on top of the next payment.

Friday I used it at the gas station before we left and it locked up for fraud when I tried to buy smokes. (Don’t @ me.) By the time I got back in the car, I had a text from them and unlocked it.

Used it a few times once we got here – morning coffees, a couple dinners, nothing extravagant. It flaked on me at the gas station again yesterday. I didn’t think anything of it, assumed another fraud lock, and used my Amazon card.

Logged on today to discover I was maxed out. Those fuckers dropped the limits on all three cards to the point where the balance was 97.5% of the available credit.

The reasoning? High balances in relation to limits and not large enough payments. SO YOU MAKE THE RATIO OF CREDIT USED EVEN WORSE?

I’ve also never missed a payment, EVER, not in 30 years of having credit cards.

But sure, please fuck my credit score in the middle of a pandemic.

They also had the balls to do the “is your income correct” pop up. Yes, cause I didn’t update it when I got my raise that evaporated with the fucking plague coming to town.

I can only assume that the fact that I decided to actually USE one of the cards is what triggered it.

I got paid today, so I immediately made payments on all three to bring that ratio down, but jesus fucking christ.

Fuckers.