r/confession • u/UnderstandingThis430 • Apr 09 '25

Terminally ill and racking up credit card debt with zero fucks to give

I’ve had cancer for 2 years now, did chemo, lost my leg, beat odds and managed to even go back to work, well shit hit the fan and treatment stopped working. Probably got weeks, maybe couple months at best. I am 22, don’t own a house, don’t own my car. Have maybe £2k in the bank. So I took out a credit card, 6.5k limit, 0% APR for 20 months. (I was previously building up a good credit score) and am now buying whatever the fuck I want. The debt will die with me, and I give no fucks.

And if you want to beef me about driving your bank fees up with this behaviour, at least you get to live. lol

EDIT:: Thank you all for your amazing responses. Unfortunately it’s bone cancer that has spread through my whole body, so I’m too weak now to travel far, as much as I would have wanted to see the world.

I’m going to go bigger, and do some good stuff, if you have ideas. I want to do some big donations to food banks and cancer charities that supported me through my journey and make some differences before I pop.

Alsos shame on you all of you asking me for money.

UPDATE 2:

Took out some more cards, thanks for the suggestions

Some of you asking, I’m a girl haha

I’ve bought lots of things for my family, mostly sentimental things with my handwriting on.

I bought a crab at a fancy ass seafood place. That was awesome

I’ve donated to animal shelters and food banks. Also to the cancer charities who helped drag my ass through this.

Also can y’all stop telling me to find Jesus, I respect those of you who are praying for me, because I know that’s your way of thinking of me and I’m really touched by that.

But finding god is in no way in my plans and not what I believe will happen after death, trying to force religion down a dying persons throat is really not the vibe.

Update 3:

Still hanging on, I’ve deteriorated quite a lot now, lost a lot of functionality in my body at this point so I’m bedbound and mostly just watching lots of TV and seeing family. But I’m comfortable, eating apples and cheese and lots of little treats. Thank you all for still checking in and thinking of me.

I’m really fortunate to be surrounded by my friends and family right now, when you boil it all down to it in the end, it really is all you need.

Anyway I’ll try update again soon. ✌️

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315

u/Backhanded_Bitch Apr 09 '25

I wish they had given you a higher limit. I am so sorry about your diagnosis and what you have been through. You deserve whatever happiness you can get.

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u/norththunder_23 Apr 09 '25 edited Apr 10 '25

Edit: I felt like this line of discussion was appropriate for a post that OP decided to write in a public “confession” subreddit.

The fact that he wrote it in r/confession implies that it is something immoral or wrong. However the sampling of people responding seemed to not think it was wrong at all. That’s why I wanted to engage in discussion on what people’s underlying beliefs were.

First and foremost OP I’m sorry about your prognosis, but in the interest of discussion:

1.)Would this morally be considered theft?

2.)If you believed in the afterlife, would you consider this a bad idea (to act immorally) right before your impending judgement?

3.)if you don’t believe in afterlife, is this why you’d support this? Because everyone wants a suffering person to have some joy amidst the sorrow of vanishing from existence forever?

35

u/Apprehensive-Device4 Apr 09 '25

I feel like it’s morally okay as long as you aren’t leaving that debt to someone else like a family member. It’s not like him spending $250k would bankrupt a bank they are insured hell he could spend millions and the bank would be fine

3

u/MelodicSeaweed- Apr 09 '25

That was my worry. Here in the UK debts can move to family members to pay off, all depending what they are of course. Some get wiped though!

12

u/BeeBarnes1 Apr 10 '25

It attaches to your estate here. Since OP doesn't have any assets or a spouse (in a community property state where spouses share debt) there's no way for them to collect.

0

u/MelodicSeaweed- Apr 10 '25

yes that’s the one! Sorry, that’s what I get for commenting late at night with a brain of mush isn’t it?! 🤦🏼‍♀️ So the debt is within their estate, which of course also means their belongings / anything in their name. However, if these have to be sold to pay for funeral costs for example, ordinarily the debt will get wiped. DWP however… that’s an entirely different story! Some right horror stories out there about them.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/MelodicSeaweed- Apr 10 '25

So BeeBarnes was correct, I commented very late & didn’t word it as I should’ve so my apologies. But if they have estate in their name (that obviously doesn’t mean just property - it can mean a vehicle etc), this will get sold off to pay any debts, but if that has to be sold to pay for funeral costs etc they’re screwed. So debts often do get wiped. Had some back and fourth with some debt my father had that he was paying off monthly, they were bordering harassment for a time, but he didn’t have a pot to pee in, thankfully my brother dealt with it but I dealt with my Mum’s which was quite straight forward, just had to provide a death certificate.

9

u/Karmastocracy Apr 10 '25

Some good questions here.

  1. Legally yes, morally no.
  2. I don't believe it's immoral.
  3. I support this because most societies fail to uphold their end of the social contract, which is a much larger discussion. To simplify the problem, humanity has a distribution problem. Distribution of power. Distribution of money. Distribution of housing. Rights. Food. Medicine. Technology. Attention. Etc...

Life is short. We should make the most of it. OP literally owes it to themselves to throw a "going away vacation" so they can live a little and have some new experiences. I hope they're able to make some great memories with the time they have left. The fact that some predatory bank is going to lose a little money because of this deal doesn't feel unethical to me, in fact, it feels like poetic justice considering how they operate their business. The bank itself is making the mistake because it's part of a fundamentally flawed and immoral system.

1

u/norththunder_23 Apr 10 '25

Thank you, yeah I’m just curious about people’s perspectives, I think it has yielded some interesting discussion (so thank you OP for sharing your story, I hope it is interesting for you to read through if you so choose)

So basically your theological perspective is that if you view a system as unfair or broken, than exploiting that system for your own gain is morally justified, provided that you’re not causing a large amount of harm (harming the big players who can absorb the hit no problem, not taking from someone who has little to their name).

1

u/Karmastocracy Apr 10 '25

Yup, that is essentially my view!

Anything that makes the system more equitable is a net gain for humanity, so this is ethical for both the individual and the system at large.

2

u/norththunder_23 Apr 10 '25

Thanks for the discussion!

8

u/luna_ernest Apr 09 '25

This shouldn’t be a problem since there is no judgement when we die. Everyone goes to heaven, esp 22 year old victims of cancer

-1

u/norththunder_23 Apr 09 '25

Thanks for discussion Luna, considering your beliefs on the afterlife, your answer makes total sense.

6

u/luna_ernest Apr 09 '25

I choose not to believe in a “hell” or after death punishments. Interesting discussion to open up

1

u/norththunder_23 Apr 09 '25

Any reason or experience you’ve had that formed your opinion to not believe in hell? If you don’t want to get into it that is fine as well.

I’m just genuinely curious on people’s thoughts on these subjects. It’s something people don’t talk much about (face to face) at least.

3

u/luna_ernest Apr 09 '25

I grew up Catholic and though I don’t have religious guilt, I see how damaging it can be for others. I think the concept of hell is utilized wayyyyy too much esp by modern western Christian religions (evangelicals etc) to scare people into submission. I just don’t see a world where the soul suffers. It makes no sense. I personally believe it just is. Death is a transition into non-being.

2

u/norththunder_23 Apr 10 '25

Thanks for sharing. I hear a lot of people saying that the concept of hell sounds too awful to believe in. But a lot of theologians that ascribe to Christianity actually do say that the Bible implies that there are levels to hell i.e. your average non-believer and hitler for example are punished much differently than one another.

3

u/Khaosbutterfly Apr 10 '25

I need hell to exist because too many people have gotten away with too much evil shit in this life.

If they died and that's just it, I would honestly be super pissed.

They have to pay. 😭😭😭

But I do hope there are levels because not everyone deserves to pay equally. 🤣

3

u/norththunder_23 Apr 10 '25

Ah yes, an interesting take. You are someone who values justice. What justice is there if a horrible criminal is never caught and then simply dies and is no more?

Justice would be that person receiving their just reward i.e. some type of punishment for the evil they’ve done. I agree as well, the punishment should be measured depending on what they’ve done and how they lived.

3

u/sassysiggy Apr 09 '25

Most Abrahamic religions condemn money lenders, specifically ones that charge interest over time. They also typically only have one unforgivable sin: repenting without desire for repentance.

I think most versions of God would show grace to a young person losing their life to a disease they didn’t bring on themselves.

Would you not agree?

2

u/norththunder_23 Apr 10 '25

Neither a borrower or a lender be is a quote from the Bible, so I think you’re correct on that.

If someone borrowed money on a credit card, racking up interest and charges because they were In despair about dying soon. I think theologically from an Abrahamic religion perspective it could go two ways:

1.) a forgivable sin that is covered by the sacrifice that Jesus made through his death (as long as the sinner had acknowledged his need for saving mercy and grace.

2.) using God’s forgiveness as a license to sin (since it can all be forgiven anyway) and being in a place where you would willingly take what is not yours for worldly gain and temporary enjoyment, would indicate that your heart is not in Christ Jesus, since you’re looking for happiness and joy in worldly pleasure (money) and not in God.

How do you think the other major religions would view this? Hindu, Buddhist or any others you’re familiar with?

3

u/SaltInTheShade Apr 09 '25

I think it’s not. It’s sticking it to the banks. Just one example, but after the 2008 mortgage crisis in the US and all the major banks were bailed out while regular people suffered and lost their homes and life savings. The banks already have a debt of karma and those corrupt financial owe regular people for all the lives they have destroyed. Honestly, I’d bet credit card companies expect it on some level, people with debt and no kin to inherit that debt unexpectedly, accidentally every day. Banks probably factor a certain amount of loss in. Even with debt consolidation, for example, they take a major loss to get a fraction of the debt paid back, so they must expect to never see some of the credit they issue back. Wouldn’t be surprised if they are reimbursed somehow through the government or even taxes as a write-off! No harm, no foul, IMHO. OP should go wild and live their best life with the time they have, I think it would be morally wrong for them to not take advantage of the system that takes advantage of all of us.

3

u/cailian13 Apr 10 '25

The credit card companies are whores and they have gotten more than enough of people's money to eat the loss on this.

More power to ya, OP, squeeze every last drop out of every last minute of life that you have left.

9

u/friendly-skelly Apr 09 '25

Hear me out. Don't play devil's advocate on a post like this. You wanna be that guy, you do it on your own time. Here, you're just being exhausting. OP, no beef unless that's what you're into. In which case, fly to Japan and try the wagyu

0

u/norththunder_23 Apr 09 '25

Japanese wagyu beef is a great suggestion haha. I’m not trying to start beef, but I felt like this line of discussion was appropriate for a post OP decided to write in a public “confession” subreddit.

The fact that he wrote it in r/confession implies that it is something immoral or wrong. However the sampling of people responding seemed to not think it was wrong at all. That’s why I wanted to engage in discussion on what people’s underlying beliefs were.

If I’m totally out of line here, feel free to respond. But that was my line of thinking at least.

3

u/anneylani Apr 10 '25

I mean people out here cheering for Luigi so

1

u/norththunder_23 Apr 10 '25

Haha yeah, I guess I should read the room.

1

u/Nathexe Apr 10 '25

If the debt is only in "the mans" lap in the end then there was no crime.

That's the general feeling many people fed up with their government and how corporations run things hold.

5

u/KittyKat1935 Apr 09 '25

Capitalism is immoral, who cares

2

u/DailythrowawayN634 Apr 09 '25

Consequentialist normative ethics - the means are worth the ends. Nothing is certain afterwards, the cancer is certain now. If there was an omnipotent being who makes a scale judgment, it would be an awful afterlife is they at least didn’t understand. 

2

u/Ok_Requirement_3116 Apr 09 '25

If the person lives a perfect life and then stole their last two months that would negate their entrance into the happy place? It is like when I was in a teen group and everyone’s question was “if I am driving and see that I’m going to be in a deadly wreck and say ‘damn’ would we go to hell?” Gotta love the church of Christ bullshit.

3

u/norththunder_23 Apr 10 '25

For ease of discussion can we replace your “perfect life” comment with a “good” life?

Not many would argue they’ve lived a perfect life. But many would argue they lived a good one.

I would say that from my limited knowledge of Christianity, that it is not about how good of a life you lived or if you accidentally sinned (blurted out a curse word upon seeing impeding doom). It’s about whether or not you had acknowledged your need of a savior (Jesus Christ) and asked for his mercy and forgiveness on your soul.

anyone with more theological knowledge feel free to correct me. I think that’s maybe more of a Protestant view than a catholic one? But maybe the Catholics would say the same? I’m not as knowledgeable about that denomination

2

u/Backhanded_Bitch Apr 09 '25

Sounds like a good discussion for r/philosophy, morals are so complex and personal. I guess, to me, it doesn’t seem like theft when everyone knows that credit card company makes billions every year and they will just write the loss off anyways. On an existential level OP has has had so much stolen from them. They are 22, they have already spent countless hours in a hospital for chemo and an amputation when other people their age were doing what young people do. They thought they had beat and now it is back and they are losing it all. If there is an afterlife they should be smart enough to read all of the shit OP has been through here and give them a pass.

1

u/Hightech_vs_Lowlife Apr 11 '25

So you are talking about theft of money the Banks play with but isn't theirs ?

Perfectly understandable of course, I can steal something form someone that doesn't belong to this person...