Credit Card Debt

[Skye12329]

Im in a similar boat except  my debt is 7k Im not sure if you have done this or not but i would suggest locking your cards up. Thats what i did, and i have gone to using my debit till all debt is paid. CC is now an emergency till debt is paid. Whats worse is i dont even know how it got this bad. Mainly car repairs i know did a lot.

But i would say lock your cards up and try to get it down to less cards like a previous post suggested, that helped me a lot was consolidating onto 3 cards vs 8...

[subwaysandwich]

I don't know OP. Hope everything turns out well.

[b_diddy]

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@paturner wrote:

Ok so I need some major help! frustrated and feeling defeated....I have approximately $20.000 in credit card debt and my minimuim payments are adding up to around $800 dollar a month. Since these are minimum payments my balances aren't going down much. Im drowing trying to pay these payments every month and my other bills. I don't really know what to do or how to get out of this mess. My score is suffereing  because my utilization is so high so getting other cards are not an option unless would be store cards just to try and raise scores. Because the debt is unsecured probably can't get a consolidation loan. I have a house but don't think a second mortgage is an option at this point and definetly not for that amount. Looking for some help. 

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I know this is elementary, but will say it anyway, just in case ...

Before doing anything, If you don't know already, you must first understand where every dollar of your money is going in order to get any spending weaknesses under control.   If you're not good with Excel (or Quicken, Mint, etc), get out a notebook and pencil.  List out every expense for the past 3 months, i.e.,  card payments, utilities, installments, entertainment, gas, food, maintenance, miscellaneous ATM withdrawals, etc.  You may have to go to bank statements, credit card statement, bills, online, etc.  Of course, this will be tediousb but you must have a TRUE picture of your reality. It may be better or worse than you believe.  Then, you  categorize everything as MANDATORY or DISCRETIONARY... be tough.  If there is a big difference between what you have listed and what your bank account says you've spent, you know you have a leak somewhere, or something isn't listed.  You have to get it all down.  Obviously, the discretionary list is where you will want to start.  Eliminate the easiest thing on the list first, then the next and so on ... the goal is to eliminate the entire list.

Every dollar from the discretionary list should be going to some of the things that others have suggested here.  Going forward you should record EVERYTHING you spend.  If you can't put it on the mandatory list, STOP!  Don't buy it or don't do it.

I have absolutey been here before and wish you all the courage in the world to tackle this bit by bit!

[compassion101]

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@paturner wrote:

Yes...I have available credit on several of the cards and at least 4 out of the 13 cards I have....have balances of under $200....with 2 of those being under 100 dollars......I like ur suggestions b/c for me bankruptcy is not an option......I have a brand new house that I've made on time  on pymts for the past 6 years and a nice car that I just paid off....I've been bankrupt 2 times before and although it often seems like the easy way out....it is not....I also like the lending club option .....although my credit now is not great....it hasn't bottomed out completely..... I've also considered putting those smaller balances on some of the other cards but not sure if that would really help.....I've picked up another job but want to know best way to pay off using my money toward principal not interest......also one other thing....I have several cards with same APR......

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You keep spending more than you are making. You need to learn to budget and spend less than you make. No loans can help you until you till you accomplish and stick to a budget

[barbaralee]

If you have BK'd not once, but twice before I think it is time to lay off the credit once you get this cleared up.

[ezdoesit]

I am wondering what has happened in the past and present that you have had to file for bankruptcy twice and are currently in 20k debt has it been medical or living beyond your means?  You mentioned how the minimum is like $800 a month.  Currently can you afford the minimum payments if yes can you afford to pay more and how much more?

It sounds like a debt you aren't going to pay down in the next six months but I think depending on your current finances with some discpline you can manage and get it under control but it is going to take some time.

[elim]

 Time to cut em' up.  Cash is king until you get to $0 balance.

 A lot of us here are PIF'ers and use CC's for bonus, rewards, 0% finance, etc.

 IMHO...

 If I pay CCC's interest (especially that I can't afford) every month on non-emergency spend... "they hooked another trout".

 Use them!... Don't let them use you... ever!

 Plan your spends in the future to make money, not give it away.

[barbaralee]

I've always gotten the impression that a lot of people here are NOT PIF'ers. 

[EW800]

I am not an expert in this area, however I will share with you that up until about three years ago, I also had over $20K in credit card debt.  It was VERY painful and caused many sleepless nights.  Those were ugly times.  I did have to "settle" with one credit card company which is painful to the credit reports, however with all of the remaining credit cards, my wife and I set a path to eliminate that debt as fast as possible.  We then took literally every dollar we could, and sent it to the credit card companies.  We charged almost nothing for over two years, cut every expense we could and lived very, very frugal.  It was painful, however we then applied every dime we could to the credit card debt.  This included explaining to family and such that we just could not afford to buy much for Christmas gifts those couple of years and we bought each otehr almost nothing.  

It paid off big-time.  We now have zero credit card debt, other than a small amount I let report on one credit card each month for optimal credit card score purposes.  I cannot tell you how good it feels to no longer be OWNED by the credit card companies.  It is well worth all the pain of cutting back on everything and spending the very least possible, when we had to spend.  The way we looked at it was that every dime we saved, helped us many times more than that by getting us out of debt.  Getting rid of our credit card debt (high Util), also did wonders for our credit scores (below).  

I will also mention that once out of the credit card debt, you MUST make sure that you do not let the balances go back up again.  We are not living quite as frugal as we were, however we are still looking at every expense and making sure that if we cannot pay it off when the statement comes (actually I pay most credit card bills just before the statement cuts), then we do not purchase whatever it is.  My goal is to always have under 5% Util - currently under 1%.  

Best wishes.  You can do it with a lot of hard work - and it is SO worth it!  

[Anonymous]

I've been stressing out too. I'm just about 20K in CC debts myself. And I'm trying my hardest to get out of this within 6 months. Best of luck to you, and let's do this together.