What a financial setback taught this woman about money management 

Friendships can end for all sorts of reasons. Maybe you had a major disagreement, or maybe you gradually drifted apart over the years. Lisa Feares lost a friend in a particularly painful way: a financial betrayal.

Decades ago, when she was just starting her career, Feares got a call from a close friend asking for help paying for a $169 purchase. Since Feares didn’t live nearby, she had her credit card company add her friend to her account so she could receive a credit card to make the purchase.

“I didn’t understand, being young, that I was co-signing for someone,” she said.

The next time Feares received her credit card statement, she realized her friend hadn’t only charged $169: she had run up a $12,000 balance. “Back then, we used to get statements that came in the mail,” Feares said, and the bill was so long, it barely fit in the envelope.

Feares had just bought a car and a home, so she didn’t have enough cash on hand to pay off her credit card right away. Even after confronting her friend and returning some of the purchases she made, Feares was left with a $9,000 balance. Worst of all, her friend refused to pay her back.

“She never ended up paying me anything,” Feares said. “It was definitely a betrayal.”

Feares began making the minimum monthly payment on her credit card bill, but with interest continuing to accrue, she wasn’t able to make much headway. “I realized I had to just start paying more every month,” she said. After more than a year, Feares still carried a balance of $6,000. She knew continuing to make small payments wouldn’t be enough to make a dent in debt with such a high interest rate, so she took out a personal loan at a lower interest rate to pay it off.

Using a personal loan to consolidate her higher-rate credit card debt gave Feares an instant sense of relief. If you’ve found yourself in a similar situation, a Discover® personal loan could be a helpful tool to pay off your higher-interest debt and help you take control of your finances. Discover® Personal Loans has no fees of any kind, flexible repayment terms, and loan amounts ranging from $2,500 to $40,000. Plus, you can check your rate and monthly payment before applying with no impact to your credit score.*

Being able to pay off her debt allowed Feares to turn her focus back to her education and career. After working for years as a teacher and school administrator, she now teaches college courses, including one about personal finance and money management.

Today, Feares thinks of the personal loan that allowed her to pay off her higher-interest credit card debt as a blessing — one that allowed her to get back on track with her education and career. Ultimately, Feares learned something valuable from her financial setback, a lesson she tries to impart to her students today. “It wasn’t me that got me in that trouble. I was very good at money management,” Feares said. “You have to be careful about who you let access your credit cards.”

Whether she’s teaching her students how to read a paycheck or how Social Security works, Feares underlines the importance of staying on top of your finances. “I love to see people be able to fulfill their dreams, whatever that looks like,” she said.

_{While real people and stories are featured in the article above, the above party did not receive a personal loan from Discover.}

_{For debt consolidation, even with a lower interest rate or lower monthly payment, paying debt over a longer period of time may result in the payment of more in interest. A Discover personal loan is intended for personal use and cannot be used to directly pay any Capital One account (including any Discover or Capital One credit card), secured loan, or post-secondary education loan or expense.}

_{*After you check your rate, if you move forward with an application for a new Discover personal loan, you will need to consent to a hard credit inquiry that will appear on your credit report.}

_{Discover makes loans without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, or familial status.}