One financial blunder I will never live down is opening a stupid bebe store credit card. They make it so enticing…you are about to check out, thinking about how much this will all cost, and they offer an oh-so convenient way to save 15% (or maybe it’s 10% or 20% depending on the store). I made this egregious mistake while I was in college and had no right to be spending $100 on a single piece of clothing at bebe! What you don’t think about when offered this one time discount is the interest rates this new card will now tax you with. You also don’t think about how much more money you will spend with the store simply because you have a branded card for the store.
Ever wonder why the stores offer you these cards? Retail stores aren’t in the banking business. They want loyal customers who come back time and time again to their store. Research has shown that if a customer owns a store branded card, they are more likely to return and to spend more at the store. Anecdotally speaking, this has been true for me. I got a Victoria’s Secret card, now I buy things from them JUST because I have a coupon if I spend $50 or because I get a cute tote bag with…the Victoria’s Secret logo plastered all over (great, now I’m their walking billboard).
But let’s get back to the bebe card. I opened the card while I was purchasing a skirt and a pair of earrings. The skirt was expensive but the earrings were on sale and only $8. So with my 10-20% discount I might have saved $10 that day. After I got home and tried on the skirt with my shirts, I realized I didn’t like it so I returned it. I was new to credit cards at the time, and I didn’t understand how returns worked on the credit card. So I get a bill for maybe $108. I call the phone number on the bill to ask about what to do since I returned the skirt and the bill should only be about $8. They told me they would send me another bill right away. Stupid me, I don’t know why I didn’t just pay the minimum payment (more than the cost of the earrings) and be done with it. Instead I let it linger, waiting for an updated bill, the skirt didn’t get removed, so on and so forth… (plus I was bad at checking the mail at this time, so let’s be clear- this was MY money mistake and not bebe’s). In the end they sent it to the credit bureau. After the dust settled they did remove the skirt from the bill, but only AFTER my credit score was dinged! I will forever refer to this pair of earrings as my $500 earrings because god know how much they actually cost me when you consider all the problems it caused. And all for a $10 discount!
The moral of this mistake: THINK before all your financial decisions, even the small ones can turn into giant hair-balls if you don’t use your brain.
