If you're mired in credit card debt, you're far from alone. It's a critical problem in America, with millions struggling to dig themselves out. Don't despair, though. You can rid your life of this albatross. You don't have to develop ulcers watching your debt grow by double-digits each year.
Let us help, via tips and information in the Get Out of Debt nook in our Credit Center.
We can also help you if you check out our Credit Cards and Consumer Debt discussion board. Sign up for a free 30-day trial of our Fool Community to read through this and hundreds of other boards on gobs of other topics.
On that discussion board, you'll frequently find posts from others who are celebrating having paid down big piles of debt. It's inspiring and instructional to hear them explain how they did it and answer questions. Here's just one sample post, from "Lubbockdave." He titled it "Big time happy dance naked around the house!!!"
Sorry for the visual, but as of today my wife and I have paid off $37,000 in consumer debt... wait for it... wait... in 17 months! When we started in September of 2004, we had $6,000 owed on her car, $6,000 on my car and $25,000 in credit card debt. We paid the cars off first, since they had the lower balances and freeing up that payment we were making would allow us to attack the credit card debt better. We also shopped, and shopped, and shopped for a credit card company that would allow us to consolidate our three cards into one and give us the best interest rate. That was A LOT of fun, let me tell you! Threatening to move the balance and close the account will really MOTIVATE the folks on the phone. We finally twisted their arms enough to get a 3% balance transfer rate until the balance was paid off. That day we SWORE we would not charge [on our cards] again! Now I know some of you would say "why would you pay off a 3% loan when you could get a better return... blah, blah, blah" but let me tell you, the feeling we have owing only on our house is FANTASTIC. And now everything we earn is ours, except of course the house payment, taxes, etc.,. but no more payments on JUNK!
We did this on a base salary of $60,000. My wife is a stay-at-home mom -- toughest job in the world, I'd say. We did sell a few things, but mostly it became a lifestyle choice for us. We made sure we clipped coupons, shopped for things on sale and only bought what we needed. We took no trips, bought gifts for our kids only on holidays and birthdays -- made more gifts than we bought, and scrimped and saved as much as possible. We got really good with a budget and now communicate so much better, with everything, not just about money. I picked up extra hours at work, and even picked up an extra job or two and we KILLED the debt! We would have had it done sooner, but we had our second child this year in June, so that slowed us down a bit (which was a good thing -- I needed the break from work), but we never lost focus.
Now if I can talk my wife into living like this for three or four more years, we can pay cash for our next house and be completely debt-free by the time we are 40 years old! Wouldn't that be COOL!
See? Proof that it can be done, and without having to wear sackcloth and eat ramen noodles for the rest of your life.
One step to paying off this kind of debt, as Dave mentioned, is shopping around for a better deal. Consider calling up major credit card issuers such as JPMorgan Chase
Learn more in our Credit Center, which features some surprisingly interesting info about the credit card industry. Being smart about credit can potentially save you tens of thousands of dollars. Check out the following articles:
- The 8 Commandments of Credit
- The Best Low-Interest Credit Card?
- I Caught You Looking!
- Urban Credit Legends Exposed!
- $24 Billion to Card Companies. for What?
- Sneaky Credit Card Tactics
JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are Motley Fool Income Investor picks. To find more stocks that pay you to invest, try a 30-day guest pass absolutely free.
Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian does not own shares of any companies mentioned in this article.
