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By Russ Kent
News Journal
MANSFIELD -- Bob Barnett blames credit cards for his lack of credit.
"I couldn't stop," the 29-year-old Mansfield resident said. "I got my first card when I was 20 or 21. I got my second card when I was about 25. They kept sending me applications and I kept sending them in."
But the time Barnett was 28, he said he was more than $20,000 in debt.
"I paid the minimum balances," he said. "I got cash advances on one card to make payments on the others. When I started I was buying clothes. I took some vacations, went out for dinner. But for the last year I really didn't buy much of anything. I just ran up more debt paying off existing debt."
Last year, Barnett contacted a consumer credit counseling agency and is now paying off his debt one payment at a time.
He's not alone.
"The balances that people owe have really risen due to credit cards," said Kathy Virgallito of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Central Ohio, which has an office in Mansfield.
"Plus, a lot of people have additional debt -- car loans, mortgages, second mortgages."Credit has become easier to get in recent years, even for people with bad credit and bankruptcies.
"Sure, you can get it," Virgallito said. "But you pay a lot more for it. Still, people are willing to pay the extra. They're willing to take on more credit to purchase things they normally wouldn't get."
Companies like CCCS help consumers get out of debt.
"Traditionally, the people we see are in their mid-30s," Virgallito said. "They're homeowners. They have moderate to low incomes. But they're people who have been living on the edge. Something usually happens -- a divorce, job-loss, medical expenses -- that makes it hard for them to keep making payments."
Clients of CCCS meet with counselors who go over their budgets and make adjustments. In some cases, they can get credit card companies to reduce interest rates to help pay off debt.
"We're non-judgmental," Virgallito said. "We give them knowledge and we give them options. Sometimes it's just a matter of changing priorities, cutting back on non-essentials."
Sometimes it's more.
"Our average client has about $12,000 of unsecured debt and five or six credit cards," Virgallito said. "We'll set up a plan that allows them to pay off their credit within no more than four years."
They also provide counseling.
"We don't have many repeat offenders," she said. "Most people learn to live happily without that debt."
That's exactly what Barnett is trying to do
"I don't want to go through this again," he said. "I was afraid to answer the phone. I was afraid to go to the mailbox. I still get four or five credit card applications in the mail each week. Now I just throw them away."
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