Credit Card Victory, Part 1

The big news of the day is that Shiner and I can get married now.

Longtime readers know that last year, shortly after Shiner and I decided to get hitched, he added up all his credit card debt at my request and was (understatement) surprised and alarmed to see that it totalled almost $42,000. That was more than his annual salary.

So I freaked out about getting married to someone with so much debt, he freaked out about how freaked out I was, the wedding was off, there was much crying and angsting and a not insignificant amount of swearing at the supreme suckiness of the situation. Finally we reached an understanding. He rejiggered his cards so that he had $13,797 on two 0% APR cards and $28,138 on his American Express card. I told him I wanted the interest-accruing debt, all of it now crowded together on his AmEx, paid off by the time we got married in January 2009. Otherwise we'd postpone, vendor deposits be damned.

Some people will tell you ultimatums are passive aggressive, but I believe they are neither passive nor aggressive. Saying "this is what I need in order to feel safe and good about myself, and even though I love you I cannot sit right with less" is just about the most heart-twistingly honest thing I have ever said to anybody.

As of this morning, his AmEx debt is no more.

We are getting married, really and truly for real.