Oh NO You Did NOT!

My worst fear: a charge appeared on my credit card when I have been diligently NOT using my credit card at all this month.

Now me, being an all or nothing girl, immediately panicked. I recognized the store and with it being on a bad side of town, truly believed someone had stolen our credit card.

My husband, a whole lot more level headed than I am at times, told me to call the credit card company to ask about the charge.

So I called. Turned out that I had made the purchase over two months ago! Yep. Back in November, I made a purchase at that store. And evidently it did not clear at that time. And after a while, it was removed from the "pending" section of my online bill.

The credit card company told me that legally, a store has up to six months to claim the credit that is due to them. So instead of the charge showing up when it was supposed to (and when I had money to pay it off), it shows up at a time where I am not able to pay off my bill AND now that charge is accruing finance charges?!?!

I HATE CREDIT CARDS! Worse yet, I hate myself for bringing credit cards into our lives. My husband never ever wanted to have a credit card, and with nagging in the EARLIEST years of our marriage, he got one. I have learned my mistake. And now, sadly, we are paying for it.