Paying down credit cards and questons I am up to the limit on all my cc. Did not know about the 10% rule. Just learned about it today. I am starting a pay down plan tomorrow and will finish this month with an available credit of $185.00 out of $3,000 limit on 2 cards. I have very limited income $958.00 With s net of $913 to pay all bills and eat. My bills for the rest of the month are $525.00 When my income was way less I paid $250 for a credit card. MY first bill had a balance of $250. I had to pay on it in order to have available credit. The company refunded me $50 every three months until the $250 was returned to me because I paid on time and did not go over my limit. That was my first card this time around. It is 7 years old. I have 10 more with 2 closed with me still paying off the balance due. Around $50 a mon. Please give me your help on how to pay down this debt and keep some money in the bank. Thank You all, Kashmac
Welcome to Creditnet! OK, so after you pay all your bills it looks like you have about $388 to put towards your existing debt. Is that correct? And you currently have about $3,000 in credit card debt?
Hi Josh, thanks for replying. No I do not have $388 to pay toward my debt. I looks like I only have $63.00 after all bills and food are paid. I have 9 other cc to pay beside 1 at $500 and the other at $2500. They range from $900 at 35.6% to $300 at 22.5%. I pay min. or a little above min to stay current. My problem is I use my cc like they are my money. I realize now that they are not mine. So this peroid I will resist using them to make purchases. My total cc debt is $6100.00. As of today I have paid $678 with $833 that I plan to pay within the next 2 weeks. That is a total of $1,511.00 for this period. The net reduction in my debt looks like $461.00. Trying to complete all planed payments this period. Thanks for your concern. Kashmac
You can: 1. Find other income streams to speed up paying off your debt. 2. Find ways to reduce your living expenses. 3. Lower your monthly minimum payment by: a.) Getting your cc companies to lower your interest rates b.) Getting a new cc with a lower interest rate and transfer cc balances with higher interest rates to the new card
Yes- immediately stop making any new purchases on your credit cards until you get this under control. Next, put every penny you possibly can towards paying down the debt with the highest interest rate. Then, once that is paid off, move onto paying down the debt with the next highest interest rate. Can you cut any more of your expenses to free up additional cash for paying off debt? You're going to need to free up more than $63 per month if you really want to make a dent in the $6,100.
Josh thanks for your reply. So for I am on track only used 2 cards so far. One bank overdraft protection (no fee) form my low available. It made me go over my limit by $10. Lucky I checked the bank and the cc and replaced the money they paid my ck. account and it closed with no problems. I am working with my cc banks to plan the payoffs. It's called pay and take.
I think I could use a little more capital to work with. Thinking of borrowing $1200 for 1 year Repayable at 12% interest. Each person is limited to $300 max. Loan repaid each quarter. So for this month I borrowed $900. I could use $1200 more. I have paid $1180 this month. Let me know what you think about this idea.
I think 35.6% is now illegal, I seem to remember Congress passing legislation recently that limited credit card companies to 29.99% regardless of what their state law says under 12 usc 85.
Hi Lawdog2012 Can you find the section on this law that limits interest rates to 29.99%? Some cc companies are now charging 79.99%. Read this article: first-premier-79-rate-fees-credit-card-1265.
UPDATE I am ready to kick this payoff in high gear. Worked out the payment plan for each credit card. The big one gets paid off in February after I have paid off 5 cc before the big one by December. The big one is $2500 . AS you can see this is wrong as stated above. AS I pay off the big one that is it, no need to use it to pay the others. Thanks for all your help. Happy days are here again!!!
Now if I were to pay the highest interest first it would take 5.4 months. By paying the lower interest rate and lower balances first I pay off 5 cc by December. Two months later in February the big kid is paid off. I think I should be debt free by June.
Great news- stick to your plan, and keep us updated as you make progress and pay off those cards. Good luck!
Update: I got started today with my debt payoff plan. I paid my lowest balance first and will proceed to the next lowest balance next in that order. Most of us want to payoff our credit cards but we don't have enough money to get started. Well I say use what you have and find a way to make it work. It is the getting started part that is the hardest but one must stick to the plan and ..just do it.
