So, anyone here have Credit Card debt?

[YorkieLover]

We earn points with credit card charges, but we never charge more than we can pay completely off every month. (Learned our lesson early on how easy it is to buy things, and how hard it is to pay back ... been there, done that ... don't like the strangled feeling you get from owing too much.)

[whitequeen96]

First of all, Lori, that sounds like a wonderful business! I wish you all the best of luck!

Now, re: CC debt. At the end of 1998, my husband and I had $33,000 in cc debt! It was even worse than it sounds (which is pretty bad!), because we were making very, very little in our business. (Plus, we owed about $55,000 on our mortgage.) $25,000 of the debt was used to pay for part of the business and the rest was because we lived on the cards when times were lean. (We also lived on potatoes and rice.)

I am proud to say that we now have ........................ $33,000 in cc debt! But wait! It's actually a good thing! We have 2 cars, free and clear. We had finally paid off almost all of our cc debt. Our mortgage was down to $30,000, but the interest rate was actually higher than what I could get with credit cards. (We suffered mightily, but maintained an excellent payment record.) So I transferred the mortgage debt to several cards, with $8,000 at 0% (wheee!) interest, which must (and will!) be paid off by Jan. 2006. I have $9,000 at 2 percent, $8,000 at 3 percent, and $8,000 at 4 percent, for the life of the loans! So I'm now paying an average of 3 percent for what was my mortgage. With me putting the old mortgage payment towards the cards, we should be completely out of debt in the next 3 years!

This is just to tell you that you CAN get out from crushing credit card debt. We didn't use consolidation and we didn't go bankrupt; we just shopped the interest rates and scrimped and pinched pennies. Any extra money went to pay down the debt. We have very little savings, but we know that we could (if we have to) use the credit cards again in an emergency. We'll start building the savings account when the debt is gone.

[YorkieLover]

whitequeen ... I know it is so easy to get into credit card debt, and sometimes it is almost unavoidable ... but you are to be admired to 'doing the right thing' ... as hard as it must be. I know of several people who were just totally irresponsible, making charges left and right for unnecessary items and meals and trips ... wracking up tremendous bills ... and when it got too high ... just file for bankruptcy to get rid of it all, or so they say. Someone pays for all that irresponsiblity, and that's the other consumers.

My word is my bond, and if I say I agree to pay for things I've bought, I mean it. A deal's a deal, right? So, keep up the good work and keep your goals in mind, and someday soon you will be 'free' ... and you will feel so liberated!

[Debbie42]

In October of last year dh and I went through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University classes and I am happy to say not only do we have no credit card debt any more we have no credit cards whatsoever. He makes a lot sense about not needing any credit cards so we don't have them. The company I work for offered the classes which are $99 but if you went to all of them they paid for $50 of them and the $49 they took out of my check in two payments.

[bestmidwest]

Lori-your new business sounds VERY yummy, I mean profitable! I really wish you the best of luck getting it off the ground.

Debbie-I am in a Dave Ramsey yahoo group and we are really starting to take control of our financial situation.

We have a little bit of credit card debt, comparatively...I would say we have about $1800 total. This is something that we can actually pay off within a couple of months so I'm not too worried about it.

We had two cars free and clear but DH just went and bought a (used) truck. I don't blame him though..he got a very good deal. His car was on its last legs and he has wanted a truck forever. He will definitely drive it for the length of the payments and beyond, like we always do. I was lucky to buy my van outright. That is such a great feeling.

I think we should pay of the credit cards and just get rid of them! We have the Visa debit card (with United miles too), what else do we need?

My student loan is a new thing for me. But I did consolidate it and the payment is something we can really handle even if I don't get a job! I am breathing a sigh of relief about that because I didn't want to strap the family if I couldn't get hired right away. Thank God for Stafford loans.

[Debbie42]

I learned a lot from the classes a lot of the things that Dave Ramsey said was like why didn't I every think of that.

[kolie565]

No credit card debt for me. I only have a pre paid debit card I use for online purchases and thats it. Keeps me out of trouble.

[mayfly]

WOW I am impressed that you all are doing so good! They say the average credit card debt is $5000! I have had friends that had theirs up to 40k!

[bestmidwest]

Originally Posted by mayfly

WOW I am impressed that you all are doing so good! They say the average credit card debt is $5000! I have had friends that had theirs up to 40k!

I think one of the things that really helped me was joining FlyLady and coming to the realization that "stuff" did not make me happy. We were always thinking that we needed to move to make more room for our "stuff." After decluttering for so long, I was able to get to a point where I can wear everything in my closet, I have all of the furniture I need/want and I LOVE what I have.

For instance, I had about 8 sheet sets for my bed. Who needs that many sheets? You need two sets tops. One to put on while you wash the other. But before, if I saw a good deal on high TC sheets I would always buy them. That was totally wasting my (our) money, and I can think of lots of other examples.

[Teah]

Between my DH and myself we have about a dozen cards that carry a balance. Once we decided to purchase a home though I began cutting up cards and calling the companies to close accounts, we are down to 4 between us and usually double the minimum payment.

[AndersonGal]

I don't use credit cards.




Too darn bad my dh does.