Stepping Away from the Plastic

I called my credit card company this morning to activate my card...usually you just enter some info and an electronic voice tells you the card is ready for use...but this time I actually spoke to a human! I was trying to coax The Peanut out the door for school and didn't expect the delay on the phone, so it was a bit annoying. It took me a minute to get into being nice, I have no patience for this kind of stuff...probably the only time I'm rude. I'm usually the person who looks you straight in the eye in the elevator, smiles and says "Good afternoon" (good morning, etc...)....and I almost always get a smile back.

So it took an extra two minutes for me to confirm that I was indeed the person holding the card. Half way through I decided best to be civil (and hoped he didn't hear my sighs of frustration). The guy was pretty nice, and then he hit me with, "I see you've been with us for 21 years"....Whoa, Nellie!! (he didn't say Whoa, Nellie...I did)

It was cool to be able to reply, "Yes, and I haven't missed a single payment"...but that just started him on on some new program on how to increase my rewards. I managed to politely cut him off and scoot The Peanut out the door without incident.

I'm driving her to school and it hits me that I've had a credit card for half my life! That's almost three times my daughter's life, roughly 7,670 days...countless retail therapy dollars, plane trips, dinners, house repairs, frivolous purchases, on-line shopping trips...and this guy was telling me how to increase my rewards! What I really need is a lesson in stepping away from the plastic.