Years ago, when I found myself deep in debt to the tune of about $10,000 from college books, partying, car fixing and everything else under the sun, and nothing to fall back on except credit cards, I thought it was hopeless and I would never be completely out of credit card debt. I had a couple of high interest cards too, so it seemed like paying over the minimum was futile since the balances still never seemed to budge under the weight of excessive interest rates.
Then, about five years ago, I consulted the biggest nonprofit consumer credit foundation - Consumer Credit Counseling, or as I call it CCC. The friendly counselor was an older guy, I remember him because he had a bit of an accent and his last name was Houston, pronounced like “House” then “ton”.
Anyways, he set me up on a payment plan of $210 every month, and negotiated the interest rates with each of my credit cards individually. About 4 years later, and 50 money orders later, I was debt free. At least from the first round of debt. Sad thing is, as I was paying off that debt, I racked up a little more! TO be continued….
I got a credit card offer in the mail yesterday from Bank of America offering zero percent APR for almost a full year. You have to be careful with these kinds of offers though, because sometimes they jack the rate up after the intro period. I don’t know about this one though, because I didn’t have the time to read the fine print.
It’s always advisable to read the terms and conditions on any of these offers, especially the ones that seem extremely generous.
I just heard a new ad on the radio this morning for a for-profit debt management service which promises to clean up your credit quickly using methods “the credit card companies don’t want you to know about”. Um, excuse me, is this just referring to the non-proprietary use of rate negotiation, that I can do myself? I have a hunch it is something like that, and they are hoping that uneducated consumers flock to them in hopes of getting some sort of free reduction in debt.
Most debt management programs will negotiate your interest rates with your credit card companies anyways, which is something most people don’t realize that they can actually do themselves.
This is kind of a widely known credit preservation tip, but some people still do not practice it when they are paying off credit cards and/or cutting them up and never using them again. When you stop using a credit card, and you’ve got it paid off, go ahead and cut it up if you truly will never use it again, but regardless of that fact, do not call and cancel the credit card.
Leaving open lines of credit is actually good for your credit score, even if you’re not using it and it has a zero balance forever, your credit score can benefit from keeping it open.
Some people say “but I really feel like it’s not really “paid off” unless I cancel it. Well, I would say if you have a credit card with an annual fee, this may be a concern, but if you have no annual fee and you know you’re not using it, who cares? You’ll never accrue any interest on new purchases, and the company should not send you a bill, so it’s out of sight out of mind anyways, right? Same as cancelling it, only better for your credit..
Hello everyone. I’m glad you’ve found this site. I have put this weblog together because almost everyone I know is struggling with debts that seem to be out of their control, and credit card companies just seem to be increasing interest rates, as well as loan rates and mortgage rates. With all of this against us, how can we ever get ahead?
That’s what this weblog is all about. I’ll share with you my personal journey from drowning in credit card debt to getting every cent of that debt cleaned up and paid off. Also I’ll share with you how to find the best credit cards with the best interest rates, and how to also budget your spending and strategic ways to pay your bills so you pay yourself first - not the mortgage companies, credit card companies and loaning banks.
So welcome, and I hope you learn a little something here!