Plugging Along At 62 With Lots Of Debt, No Job And No Credit
James O'Connell of California wrote the Huffington Post in response to an item about credit card companies tightening payment requirements for cardholders. In May, Citibank suddenly closed the account on his last credit card, citing delinquencies on other accounts, leaving O'Connell with no credit at all. "No way to rent a car, or do anything else where a credit card is a must," he wrote.
Reached by phone, O'Connell explained how it came to that.
I was laid off from my job in December 2006. I was a configuration manager at a turbine company. It came at a very bad time.
Right after I lost my job we found out that dad had a recurrence of cancer from about 10 years earlier and it turned out to be inoperable. It was surrounding two main arteries. It had started in the lung and metastasized. He decided to just ride it out this time. We'd already lost mom in 2002 and I think he was tired. He was 87.
When I got the news my dad was terminal, I decided to take off from looking for work until he passed. We took him to see my sister in New Jersey, took him to the World War II memorial because he was a vet from the Philippines. And then we brought him back and he just rode it out until he passed in October 2007.
Because my circumstances were tight I packed up and moved into my dad's house with my two sisters. I started concentrating on trying to pay my bills with my unemployment.
I had been looking for work for quite a while and then last November I turned 62. I decided I better at least take Social Security. I still look for jobs but nothing has come up. I never found a job that wasn't way out of state. I'm a little old to be moving and starting fresh from scratch. I think as things stand right now I consider myself retired.
Is this a relaxing retirement?
I'm still pretty stressed because I have a lot of debt to clear. It's gonna take a while. I can't pay much to each person. My average was 25 to 50 bucks to each one. The state government and the IRS have audited me and found some way of getting money back out of me. It'll probably go on till I drop dead.
So these other debts are the reason Citibank took your card away?
It was my only valid credit card. A debt collector had called me up and told me I had that card and I could clear my debt with him by putting it on that card. I didn't even have the card yet. It turned out they had converted my Macy's card. They sold it all off to Citibank and Citibank converted it to a regular card.
My debts were all getting behind because I was running out of money. I had several credit cards with varying amounts on them. I had an unsecured loan with Capital One. I had three different gas cards.
At the time I got laid off they were all active and they were all being paid and then as it got harder and harder to find a job they were all getting delinquent. It finally caught up to me where I just had to default on some of them. I just couldn't pay them. Eventually they all went to collection. Some of them I was able to handle--they put me on zero-interest closed accounts and I'm paying them.
I at least take care of my responsibilities. My parents always taught me you take care of what you do. You take care of it no matter what you think or feel. And you do. You move forward. I just plug along.
How's your health?
I had two small heart attacks that I didn't know I had. That was about two years ago. They both happened in December. That's a bad time of the year for me. December's just vicious. Birthdays, holidays. Three times I've been laid off in December. It's not a month I look forward to!
I just move along. Do what you need to do. You may not be enjoying it, but you take care of business. I got family and stuff like that. I just lost a nephew, but the day after he passed away, I got a great great niece. His granddaughter was born.
HuffPost readers: Have you joined the record ranks of long-term unemployed? Tell us about it. Why not? Email arthur@huffingtonpost.com.
First Posted: 07-22-09 11:25 AM | Updated: 07-22-09 12:11 PM