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[Deleted member 713885]

I need to get my shit in order..I waste to much money..

I have..
Credit Card at $2500. Intrest is killing me ($53)
Credit Card #2 @ $1500 ($30 interest charge)
Credit Card #3 @ $4000 $24 interest charge)

And..I owe the IRS around $9000..

 

[lachesis]

Pay off debts that are smallest first. If the amount is similar - then pay off the ones with higher interest first.
After paying off your credit card, get rid of it.

But before everything - know your spending habits and knowing where to cut is probably the most important thing. You just cannot pour water into broken jar and hope it would fill up.

 

[zelo-ca]

I need to get my shit in order..I waste to much money..

I have..
Credit Card at $2500. Intrest is killing me ($53)
Credit Card #2 @ $1500 ($30 interest charge)
Credit Card #3 @ $4000 $24 interest charge)

And..I owe the IRS around $9000..

Pay the IRS first, you do not want that debt in your life.

 

[JrBaconCheeseburger]

OP

That is actually not that bad.

The amounts are fairly low.

First thing you need to know is that it will not be paid over night. Hey the interest you are being hit with should just piss you off and teach you a financial lesson.

Send minimum payments to all but ONE card, Send as large a payment as you can to that one card and you will have to knock out one card at a time.

Those balances are perfect for snowball method.

You will be fine.

 

[Corrik]

What purchase was worth maxing 6 credit cards for? I'll never understand Americans and their worship of money and worthless crap.

Not everyone is in debt because they bought pointless stuff. What if he was so underwater that he had to use them to buy groceries, pay utilities, medical bills, etc.

Don't assume you know people's situations. Ask.

 

[jadedm17]

What purchase was worth maxing 6 credit cards for? I'll never understand Americans and their worship of money and worthless crap.

To be fair they up your credit until you sink : I was doing great until I charged a motorcycle. It's also worth noting time is money : I lost $1000 on that bike but I had it months before I would any other way.

Also who says it wasn't spent on experiences? Vacations, food, theme parks were a few thousand of my debt, and moving to Kentucky took another few thousand.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I paid off my Navient student loans this last week. Today I called to make sure autopayments were cancelled. The account will be closed before May 9th. I don't know why they wait so long.

There was over 60k in Navient loans or Sallie Mae. This was all from going to ITT-Tech and taking out high interest student loans.

It was awful because I wanted to be a nurse and I spent even more money going back to school. My wife and I hated the debt. She knew what do and I didn't. I had no freaking clue what to do.

What worked was Dave Ramsey's baby steps. I bought the $100 (on sale at the time) Financial Peace University kit. It's 7-9 CD's you can listen to in the car.

We both download the app "EveryDollar" and we made huge sacrifices. We donated plasma to make up for throwing all our money at debt. That sucked big time. We have the scars to prove it. We stopped doing that after 6-8 months because of our health.

We paid all those private loans off. I do have a few fed loans, but those should be done by early summer. Its very difficult, but Dave's plan works.

For example I'd budget $50-$60 a month for a game or something and then $20 for eating out. Otherwise all our money went to debt and things we needed.

Debt sucks and I sound like a commercial. I can honestly say it worked. Making categories for everything you need, making extra money by selling something, or doing extra work all adds up.

I could not have imagined I'd be this close to being 100% debt free 2 years ago. Not even close. I had all my inheritance put into an IRA that I can't even touch without a 30% tax. But it taught me a lot about the value of my money.

I didn't even get a Thank You. lol You'd think someone would say Thank You after taking out so many loans for school. The guy did say congratulations, but I called them. It wasn't the opposite way around. I wish they'd send you a card or some confetti in the mail for paying off so much.

 

[Corrik]

How much do you get for donating plasma? I wanted my fiance to donate eggs, and she wouldn't.

 

[Sapiens]

Honestly, just find more than one way to make money. Take on a second or third job and kill yourself for a few months.

 

[Kittygirl]

Contact the IRS. They'll work with you. I pay $50 per month according to our agreement towards a several thousand dollar debt. I'd pay more, and eventually will, but they understood I'm unemployed and trying to just get by.

 

[bigedole]

I really wish some form of basic accounting and money management was part of the highschool curriculum in the US. I was very fortunate to have parents that drilled this into me, but it's clear many teenagers going on adulthood have nfi what they're doing when it comes to money, and student loans just make that worse. I met my wife while she was in college and I was in the military. When we were dating, she insisted on paying for half of most things which I thought was pretty cool, but I wondered where the money came from. We were just dating, obviously none of my business, but as we got more serious I eventually asked her about it and she said she was getting an "excess check" where the loans give you additional money for things other than just school and she just increased that amount so she wouldn't need to work. I was flabbergasted. I mean, my wife is a very intelligent person, but it never occurred to her that this was just additional debt, credit she was spending now and would increase the financial burden on her later. We immediately dialed back a lot of what we were doing and eventually got married and paid off all of her student loans (>40k) in 2 years by eating rice and beans and doing nothing.

Now we're very much on the same page and we live pretty well, but it was a tough lesson to learn. No one in her family had ever been to college before, and the concept of loans is only understood at a very basic level when you're a teenager. Most people just want to be able to have fun while going to school, but it comes with a steep price.

 

[Paasei]

Americans and their creditcards rofl, I'll never understand it. Might want to cut a few, if not all of them.

 

[SadlerX84]

I've been going thru a self-inflicted credit card debt situation for a while now and would just like some feedback as to what I should do to get out of it as it's ruining me financially and is very draining mentally to not be able to ever afford anything.

Currently, I have:

1 Card with $3000
1 Card with $3000
1 Card with $2200
1 Card with $2500
1 Card with $800
1 Card with $1500
School loan for $1500
Loan where I attempted to pay off some cards for $4600

All the cards are maxed out and all the interest rates are the same, somewhere between 25 and 29% on each. I've attempted to get a loan to pay off two of the cards which I did, but ended up racking them back up anyway rendering the loan pointless.

I applied for a balance transfer for 3 cards today but had no luck as my credit score is suffering majorly because of this.

At the end of the day, I don't make enough right now to make any forward progress after paying rent and making all my minimum payments, which are about $90 each.

Any advice is welcome.

Hey Tsurugi,

How are you coping after 3 months have passed?

I find it helps to talk about this every now and then to keep me focused and on budget.

 

[Cato]

Yeah, you should have been able to pay off at least one of those debts. Possibly two.
More important: have you stopped using credit cards and shred the ones you have?

 

[VAL0R]

Try Dave Ramsey's "Debt Snowball." He describes it in this clip:

 

[BANGS]

My father in law is taking out a loan that would clear out all our debt and then i'd pay him a much lower monthly payment. It's in processing so I don't know if it's gonna go though or not, if it does it will be life changing. I'll be saving 800-900 bucks a month...

 

[diablos991]

Fist is self control.
Second is speaking to a debt consolidator or bankruptcy lawyer for options.

Third is selling every damned thing you own to repay your creditors.

 

[captainraincoat]

honest advice here from someone in a similar position to you

Speak to a financial planner...even though he may say you are fucked he may give you some options to be able to consolidate your debts through other means

I had 3 credit cards to the tune of around 10k and a personal loan of around 20k for a car i wrote off but was still paying for..i was able to go on a debt agreement thorugh a third party at a slightly higher interest rate but it was better than getting fucked 5 ways from the multiple cards and loans

i understand that debt tends to roll onto the next one but cut up the cards and start getting in touch with their hardship areas to try and buy you some time to chip away at some of it

 

[Vicetrailia]

I paid off my Navient student loans this last week. Today I called to make sure autopayments were cancelled. The account will be closed before May 9th. I don't know why they wait so long.

There was over 60k in Navient loans or Sallie Mae. This was all from going to ITT-Tech and taking out high interest student loans.

It was awful because I wanted to be a nurse and I spent even more money going back to school. My wife and I hated the debt. She knew what do and I didn't. I had no freaking clue what to do.

What worked was Dave Ramsey's baby steps. I bought the $100 (on sale at the time) Financial Peace University kit. It's 7-9 CD's you can listen to in the car.

We both download the app "EveryDollar" and we made huge sacrifices. We donated plasma to make up for throwing all our money at debt. That sucked big time. We have the scars to prove it. We stopped doing that after 6-8 months because of our health.

We paid all those private loans off. I do have a few fed loans, but those should be done by early summer. Its very difficult, but Dave's plan works.

For example I'd budget $50-$60 a month for a game or something and then $20 for eating out. Otherwise all our money went to debt and things we needed.

Debt sucks and I sound like a commercial. I can honestly say it worked. Making categories for everything you need, making extra money by selling something, or doing extra work all adds up.

I could not have imagined I'd be this close to being 100% debt free 2 years ago. Not even close. I had all my inheritance put into an IRA that I can't even touch without a 30% tax. But it taught me a lot about the value of my money.

I didn't even get a Thank You. lol You'd think someone would say Thank You after taking out so many loans for school. The guy did say congratulations, but I called them. It wasn't the opposite way around. I wish they'd send you a card or some confetti in the mail for paying off so much.

Damn, good job. I got about 35k loans, and I'm wanting to pay it off asap, but I'm also 32, not 22, and need to start my life. So I opted for selling mushrooms during the rainy season after my career job to get rid of it. It's working well actually, and I'll probably use it to catch up on retirement savings since I was a dumb ass in my 20's and saved zilch.

OP, you can also ask the CFPB for advice while they still have some power.

 

[tsurugi no mai]

Hey Tsurugi,

How are you coping after 3 months have passed?

I find it helps to talk about this every now and then to keep me focused and on budget.

I appreciate you keeping me in mind throughout the months. That's wild.

I haven't been able to make any progress, but I recently changed jobs and I'm making way more money now, so with time I should be able to clear my debts finally.

 

[cpp_is_king]

You got a loan to pay them all off then proceeded to max them out again? I’m sorry, but it sounds like “how do i pay off my debt” is not the question you need to be asking, but rather “how can i stop spending money I don’t have?” One suggestion would be to cancel all of your cards, but presumably you’d just get more again

Have you tried a loan consolidation service? They tend to be legit, but unless you also cancel all your credit cards, you’re just gonna be fucked again

 

[cpp_is_king]

I appreciate you keeping me in mind throughout the months. That's wild.

I haven't been able to make any progress, but I recently changed jobs and I'm making way more money now, so with time I should be able to clear my debts finally.

Are you sure? Because it sounds like a spending problem, not a debt problem. And if anything those just get worse when you make more money

 

[tsurugi no mai]

Are you sure? Because it sounds like a spending problem, not a debt problem. And if anything those just get worse when you make more money

Quite sure. I've learned a lot throughout this debt process. Quite obviously, my spending has been a problem in the past. But my credit card debt is not all spent on frivolous things. A lot of was necessity as well.

 

[jadedm17]

I've met lots of people that love it or hate it, but it's got a proven track record to help people get out of debt.

https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/get-out-of-debt-with-the-debt-snowball-plan

After getting a new card to transfer the balance of my highest for 18 months 0%, this helped me destroy my other three. I've been researching debt help for years and never saw this. Thank you.

 

[Death Dealer]

How much do you get for donating plasma? I wanted my fiance to donate eggs, and she wouldn't.

Plasma donation averages about 200-250 a month if you go twice a week.
Egg donation pays several thousand.

OP: It all depends on what your income situation is like and if you expect to earn more in the next few years.

The interest alone on those cards is at least 3-4k a year.

The only way I wouldn't file is if the credit cards agree to freeze the interest and just let you pay off the 19k over time.

The worst that will happen with a bankruptcy is your credit will be bad for 7 years. But it's probably already bad, and you don't need to be financing anything anyways. Know that when you charge money on a CC, the CC company just gets the money from the federal reserve, I wouldn't feel any guilt about filing. Just do whatever is best for you. 19k might not be too much debt to pay off if you were making at least 60k a year. But if you're working some $14 an hour wage job, it's a different situation.

 

[Squirrel Killer]

How much do you get for donating plasma? I wanted my fiance to donate eggs, and she wouldn't.

Donating eggs is no fucking joke. You have to take daily hormone injections for 3-4 weeks and be monitored by a doctor leading up to an in-patient procedure for the egg retrieval. During a retrieval cycle, you are very fertile and can't take hormonal birth control. Donors earn their money, which can vary depending on how many eggs they produce. It's perfectly understandable for even desperate people to nope out of it.

 

[ndreamer]

I use to have great savings (50+k) before i got a credit card, now i'm negative 13k in credit cards and a car loan. At least the car loan only has 12months left. If i can survive that long i can send all my money to cards and pay them off one by one.
The problem with not having money now is things just cost more to be poor, no credit means i can't buy customers orders until the transactions clear. could not pay my car insurance + registration now to get it registered i have to pay for 12 months instead of 6.

 

[n0razi]

On the bright side, at least you arn't 150k in student loan debt like I was out of grad school

 

[Alfadawg]

Just don't pay it back.

You're in a hole right now and it's going to make you mentally ill as well as crippling your quality of life paying it all back.

Credit Score is meaningless to you right now.

Cut the cards up and go credit free. Cancel your payment plans and just not pay. Any letters you get, just screw them up. As long as you are working and have an income, thats fine.

You don't need a house mortgage, you dont need a fancy car or clothes on credit.

Cut it all up and never look back.

I did it 10yrs ago and never looked back.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

1. Stop generating new debt. Your old habits will keep you in debt.
2. Pay off the smallest debt first while paying the minimums (a little bit above if you can) on the others.
3. Sell some stuff (garage sale, Craigslist, ebay, etc) to make a dent in some of it.

It's tough. I'm working through this myself. Several credit-cards are hanging over my head, but other than that just a Mortgage (no car, no student loans, etc).

 

[Super Mario]

I would look into consolidating the debt into a personal loan, especially if you can get better interest rates elsewhere. You might want to get a second job too. Maybe something part-time to help knock the bills away

Americans and their creditcards rofl, I'll never understand it. Might want to cut a few, if not all of them.

Responsible use of a credit card is the best method of payment, period. My upcoming vacation was entirely paid for by points. Not to mention there is the zero foreign transaction fees, $0 fraud liability, chargeback protection, etc. Why I would give that all up is beyond me.

 

[cryptoadam]

How much do you love your credit rating?

Just Settle in Full with the collection companies they usually give you a % off. So they could knock of 30% of your debt on the CC and set up payment schedules. You will need for your card to get to final stage collections and for the card companies to sell your debt to a 3rd party collector though and of course that will kill your credit rating.

 

[SadlerX84]

Quite sure. I've learned a lot throughout this debt process. Quite obviously, my spending has been a problem in the past. But my credit card debt is not all spent on frivolous things. A lot of was necessity as well.

How are things coming along now? You mentioned your are earning a lot more money in June.... hope you are making some headway and I would love to hear how things are progressing.

 

[cryptoadam]

declare bankcruptcy or default on them. Often times you can SIF on your cards at 30-50% of what you owe.

Your credit is already gone to shit, so a BK probably wont hurt as much. You can from their rebuild your credit with 1 500-1000 limit card that you buy and pay back right away. Heck some banks will give you more loans if you are BK.

Once your cards reach a certain time frame the CC company sells your debt to a 3rd party collections agency, and since they make money from collecting they will SIF/PIF you at discounted rates. Any collection is better than no collection for them.

 

[tsurugi no mai]

How are things coming along now? You mentioned your are earning a lot more money in June.... hope you are making some headway and I would love to hear how things are progressing.

I've got three cards paid off and my loan halved. I still have a lot of work to do, and I doubt my score will be anything to brag about for a while, but I'm making progress. I'm very grateful for that, at least.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

The right thing to so is not blow your money to start with.

The next thing to do if you're already in hot water is to pay off the debts with the biggest interest rates first.

Doesn't matter if a credit card company makes a mistake and issues you a CC with a billion dollar limit. Doesn't mean you have to max it out just cuz you got it.

It's a shady business preying on gullible people, but to be fair you got to have some self control too. You can't expect the world to babysit you. Right now, if I really wanted to I could go buy an Audi. I have enough cash on me to buy one outright. Doesn't mean I have to. But some dude out there will some reason buy a nice car even though he already has one and he'll be broke after buying a second car.

Can't babysit everyone.

I'll always remember my brother goofing around and filling out a CC form..... IN HIS DOG'S NAME. Believe it or not, they sent him one. So much for checking info before issuing a card! lol.

 

[SadlerX84]

I've got three cards paid off and my loan halved. I still have a lot of work to do, and I doubt my score will be anything to brag about for a while, but I'm making progress. I'm very grateful for that, at least.

That's awesome dude.... so you have managed to trim off just over 5k in half a years time. Kudos dude.

Just keep it up and you will be debt free in no time.

As for the credit score brag thing... Any increase is a victory no matter how small.

I have my entire credit score history from when I started my debt-story in an excel... I will link it below so you can see it in all it's blandness!

I have to admit that it didn't make sense at some points... score would randomly drop even though I hadn't changed anything but lowering my debt for the previous 3-4 months. (Don't let this get you down though... all corrects it's self in due time)

Anyway... really glad to hear you are making good ground. Proud of ya.

 

[tsurugi no mai]

That's awesome dude.... so you have managed to trim off just over 5k in half a years time. Kudos dude.

Just keep it up and you will be debt free in no time.

As for the credit score brag thing... Any increase is a victory no matter how small.

I have my entire credit score history from when I started my debt-story in an excel... I will link it below so you can see it in all it's blandness!


I have to admit that it didn't make sense at some points... score would randomly drop even though I hadn't changed anything but lowering my debt for the previous 3-4 months. (Don't let this get you down though... all corrects it's self in due time)

Anyway... really glad to hear you are making good ground. Proud of ya.

Wow, you've really come a long way since the beginning. What steps did you take to ensure the perfect credit that you currently have?

One of my cards (the $800 one) got closed and I have a few items in collections now which pisses me off to no end because it's going to be 7 years before those are off my record. It almost makes more sense to just not pay them if they're going to be on my record for that long whether its paid off or not.

I appreciate you checking up on this thread and on me, it means a lot!

 

[SadlerX84]

What steps do you want to know? How I raised my credit score? Or how I kept on top of it on a daily/weekly basis?

As for the collections thing... I was in a similar situation with a mobile telephone provider and it was 1 step away from turning into a CCJ (County Court Judgement).

I called the provider up and explained the situation... grovelling every stage of the way. We agreed that I will pay immediately and because this was my first offence with them, they will remove the black mark against my credit profile. (Took three month's for the correction to take effect)

As I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, if you don't get hold of somebody sympathetic, just call back and try to talk to somebody else.

If I am not mistaken... at least in the UK you can actually request a correction via credit agencies such as Experian/Equifax etc once and old collection is paid in full.

I use a program called YNAB. (Got it on Steam when it was on sale many years ago... but only used it when shit really hit the fan)

Ignore everything past September on my screenshot above... As it's not a true representation of my budget anymore. (That sounds like a stereotypical response to a relapse I am sure) I decided after all this Brexit business to move to mainland Europe and an unfortunate limitation on YNAB is that it doesn't support multiple currency accounts. (In order words I have two budgets now!)

Note : May I made no progress in my budget as I was off work with pneumonia... that was a big set back for me, but you just gotta roll with the punches.

I don't know if it's just me but I eventually found it very fun and therapeutic to do the budget... seeing that you are moving in the right direction is a great boost and keeps you focused.

Edit : Below is my interest paid over my whole debt story... makes me feel sick now -

 

[tsurugi no mai]

What steps do you want to know? How I raised my credit score? Or how I kept on top of it on a daily/weekly basis?

As for the collections thing... I was in a similar situation with a mobile telephone provider and it was 1 step away from turning into a CCJ (County Court Judgement).

I called the provider up and explained the situation... grovelling every stage of the way. We agreed that I will pay immediately and because this was my first offence with them, they will remove the black mark against my credit profile. (Took three month's for the correction to take effect)

As I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, if you don't get hold of somebody sympathetic, just call back and try to talk to somebody else.

If I am not mistaken... at least in the UK you can actually request a correction via credit agencies such as Experian/Equifax etc once and old collection is paid in full.

I use a program called YNAB. (Got it on Steam when it was on sale many years ago... but only used it when shit really hit the fan)



Ignore everything past September on my screenshot above... As it's not a true representation of my budget anymore. (That sounds like a stereotypical response to a relapse I am sure) I decided after all this Brexit business to move to mainland Europe and an unfortunate limitation on YNAB is that it doesn't support multiple currency accounts. (In order words I have two budgets now!)

Note : May I made no progress in my budget as I was off work with pneumonia... that was a big set back for me, but you just gotta roll with the punches.

I don't know if it's just me but I eventually found it very fun and therapeutic to do the budget... seeing that you are moving in the right direction is a great boost and keeps you focused.

Edit : Below is my interest paid over my whole debt story... makes me feel sick now -

Yeah, how you raised it and maintained it essentially. Maybe I'll have to try the same thing, because I really don't want those marks on my record for so long.

The interest image didn't show up for me, but I can only imagine! This year alone I've paid 600 in interest on my two 3000 cards.

 

[SadlerX84]

Yeah, how you raised it and maintained it essentially. Maybe I'll have to try the same thing, because I really don't want those marks on my record for so long.

The interest image didn't show up for me, but I can only imagine! This year alone I've paid 600 in interest on my two 3000 cards.

I have updated the links for the images... but I ended up paying over £3400 in-total just on interest.

The main factor for the increase in credit score was just lowering my overall credit usage... they say using under 50% of your entire available credit line helps a lot. (Anything over 70% is classed as high risk)

Main tips would be to keep your oldest account open and the one with the highest credit limit... rest you should close.

 

[tsurugi no mai]

I have updated the links for the images... but I ended up paying over £3400 in-total just on interest.

The main factor for the increase in credit score was just lowering my overall credit usage... they say using under 50% of your entire available credit line helps a lot. (Anything over 70% is classed as high risk)

Main tips would be to keep your oldest account open and the one with the highest credit limit... rest you should close.

That's so insane. Luckily you've pulled yourself out of it and learned a lesson though, that's what's important.

I'm around 76% utilization right now, so it's slowly going down. I'm just itching to pay everything off immediately, I want it off my plate after all this time.