Couple Escapes The Depths Of Debt Family Honored As National Credit Group’s Client Of The Year

Carnette Ball covets the half-finished home in an upscale Spokane Valley subdivision.

She likes the way the four bedrooms are clustered upstairs. The arched entry to the living room and over the fireplace.

She says she’d like to have one just like it some day.

But for now the project represents much more for Ball and husband Cameron.

The loan that enabled Ball Builders Inc. to start building the spec home to sell would not have been possible before the family undertook a three-year program to clean up bad debts, Carnette said.

Their effort also recently won the couple the “Client of the Year” award from the National Foundation for Consumer Credit.

Cameron says the Balls were on the verge of filing bankruptcy in 1994.

He was a self-employed contractor working with his brother and a single employee when he noticed a lump growing in the middle of his chest. He was having difficulty breathing.

“I tried to work through it,” he says. “That just wasn’t working.”

Tests revealed Hodgkin’s disease, and Cameron was quickly committed to a six-month program of chemotherapy.

He tried to do less-strenuous work as he recovered, but eventually the accumulation of treatments made that impossible.

Even after the chemotherapy ended, full-time employment produced much less than his pre-illness income.

Carnette, meanwhile, had lost her job the same day Cameron’s illness was diagnosed.

The couple, she said, was strapped.

Debts included $15,000 - most on credit cards - plus payments on two vehicles, and health insurance.

“We’ve never not paid our debts,” Cameron said, but there had been times the couple was late.

His illness pushed them to the brink. He was ready to file bankruptcy. “We knew we had to address the situation,” he said.

Carnette, on the advice of friends, said “Let me try one more thing.”

They went to Consumer Credit Counseling of the Inland Northwest, a member agency of the National Foundation for Consumer Credit.

The Spokane-based agency put the Balls on a payment plan and put them in classes that taught them how to budget, plan for large payments like vehicle license tags and insurance, and how to use debt wisely.

Vendors stretched payment schedules and reduced interest rates to help the couple meet their obligations.

“We never make the minimum payment anymore,” Carnette said.

The devoted reader of “The Tightwad Gazette” also put together a class on money-saving tips for the Institute for Extended Learning.

She continues to present “A Penny Saved,” most recently to a class at Cheney High School.

In February 1995, she began teaching Consumer Credit Counseling’s “Dollars and Sense” course. And she has since joined the agency’s board of directors.

The Client of the Year Award took the Balls to Atlanta, where they appeared on CNN and were interviewed by USA Today.

The president of the national federation, Durant Abernathy, praised the Balls for their diligence and commitment to improving their money-management skills.

Mark Harnishfeger, head of Consumer Credit Counseling in Spokane, said the Balls “made incredible sacrifices to meet their responsibilities.”

The Balls, both Spokane natives, praise family and friends as well as the agency for helping them and sons Scott and Mark through the difficult period. Carnette says she has seen some clients go through one of her courses, only to return again later.

“People think that they should be instantly good financial managers,” she said. “We’ve got to learn that.”

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