No, my crime was to take up those enticing offers of low-interest personal loans and no-interest credit cards.
Such gullibility has led to a just controllable noose in terms of what I owe the folk on the Mound.
Not that I am alone in succumbing to the barrage of mailshots and cold calls. Most of the nation is in hock to one lender or another, with our collective personal debt topping a staggering £1.4 trillion.
And now we know, all too painfully, how those institutions' largesse was being funded.
As a financial hack, it would be difficult to top the last 24 hours for drama and excitement.
HBOS's battered shareholders and bewildered staff will be anything but excited this morning as details emerge of the proposed marriage with Lloyds TSB.
Be in no doubt. This is no merger. It's a takeover plain and simple.
Lloyds T
SB will have the whip hand. It will have its chief executive and its chairman at the controls and Scotland will wave goodbye to a major plc head office and scores of high street branches.
The full impact on the nation, and more specifically its capital city, has yet to emerge, but already Edinburgh, its business community, its band of lawyers, accountants and advisors will have been left reeling by the enormity of this week's events.
Amid the fallout, we are likely to see one positive emerge – a return to a more conservative, prudent style of lending.
Long before the credit spiral, my first attempt to extract a few hundred quid from the bank entailed a postal application, a probing interview with the local bank manager and a few anxious days awaiting the outcome.
My personal loan was successful, but within a decade the whole process was condensed to a ten-minute phone call.
In this brave new world that's only starting to emerge, borrowers can expect the return of the sweaty palms.
Amid this financial meltdown/crisis/catharsis (delete as appropriate), we have seen the authorities and politicians take a frontline role.
Worrying for many, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
And further intervention may now be required. The type of short-selling of shares that played more than a part in the HBOS rout needs to be nipped in the bud.
If it's not, then there must be a real fear that the contagion could spread.
Already there have been market murmurs, no more, of a possible HSBC/ Royal Bank of Scotland tie-up (latest: investors will be relieved to see RBS shares rise in morning trade).
At the risk of sounding too parochial, should that happen, here's a simple piece of advice for the last person to leave Edinburgh: please turn off the light.
