Credit card companies love it when you carry balances. They love it so much they want to help you spend money!! For the longest time I carried a serious balance close to 90% of my available credit. Over the past few months, I’ve been able to pay it down significantly and have brought my utilization ratio down to 15%. Capital One likes to send me reminders that I have available credit to use. Every month I get a set of checks already written out to me in the amount of 80% of my available credit. They claim it’s so I can spend money the way I want to. Free money!!! Thanks Capital One. If you get these, please don’t use them. Send them straight to the shredder. It can be tempting, but being responsible with credit feels a lot better than running up a balance to buy a new set of golf clubs. Believe me; I’ve thought about it. I really would like a new set of clubs since my last ones mysteriously disappeared…

On a side note, I don’t know about anyone else, but those checks give me the creeps. They’re already written out and have a little too much information on them. With a little social engineering, a dumpster diver could do some serious damage. I toss these into the shredder immediately.