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@LS2982 wrote:
Went from being confident to just down in the dumps and depressed about it. Makes you feel like a failure at times.
Not gonna let this beat me, I had my fun now I have to do the right thing and pay it back which I have absolutely no problem doing. I had a problem. My solution now is to take pride in seeing this big number down slowly and slowly every month.
Don't let yourself get depressed. They're bills. Everybody's got them, and everybody's got to pay them. From what you've told us, it sounds like you didn't get in over your head, and that you make enough to pay down this debt in a matter of months, not years. I'm sure you want to get out of this situation as soon as possible and not get into it again; just be thankful that it's still manageable.
Hopefully, you spent at least some of that money on things you can continue to enjoy. When you're living on a budget, and you haven't spent any money on entertainment in a couple of months, you can get a little antsy. When that happens, take some time to appreciate the things you have; go crank up the volume on your truck's new sound system, for example. Just keep your head up and stick to your plan, and you'll get through this.
Do you have anything that has a high resale value that you can sell on eBay? That's one of the quickest ways to reduce debt.
LS - consider Lending Club... You should be able to get a decent rate from them and consolidate it all to 3 years. Then you are done.
Who cares about the INQ if it gets you in a better position. I would think you would have no problem with an approval from them.
Heck, you do a loan with them and I will invest in you! I do quite a bit of investing there....
Good luck - you can get this behind you. Just think of the "smart" money and how you should drive it.
LS2982,
I'll stand with you on this issue and say I have unsecure debt too, mines is $20K. My debt accumalated during the holidays too, buying new shoes, clothes, eating out a little more than usual, meeting spending requirements on existing credit cards, and a new one I recently obtain.
My mistake was when I stopped buying groceries, cook at home, taking my lunch to work, and eating out instead. I was living "the good" life. And the credit cards with dinning rewards didn't make it any better. I thought it did. Boy was I wrong!
I thought to myself, wow! This is getting crazy, and how did I arrive here. After some sleepness nights, I came up with a plan, and it has work for me. I applied for a personal loan with my local credit union, with a fixed interest rate for 36 months. Paid off all of my cards with the cash, and this was just this month. I've consolidated all of my cards, into one payment.
Now, I went back to using just cash, cut off the cable, downgraded my cell phone and cooking my own great tasting food at home! So don't feel bad, you and me both have debt on this forum. We maybe the only ones, but will both get our debt paid off if we stick to our gameplan.
Cory
@LS2982 wrote:
Is it a HP for just getting a rate? I noticed they wanted to pull TU.
It is a soft pull to begin with. You input your information and they respond with options for you. They will show you rate / term options.
Then if you decide to move forward and accept the loan, they will HP on TU.
But again, you need to do what is right for you - if an HP makes it work, so be it!
I will PM you.
My "mom' warning for this... if you do get a loan to consolidate this debt, put your cards in the drawer until its paid. Not many of us (myself included) have the discipline to pay the loan and NOT use our cards for a little bit here, a little bit there. and those little bits add up if we don't pay attention.
@LS2982 wrote:
Went from being confident to just down in the dumps and depressed about it. Makes you feel like a failure at times.
Not gonna let this beat me, I had my fun now I have to do the right thing and pay it back which I have absolutely no problem doing. I had a problem. My solution now is to take pride in seeing this big number down slowly and slowly every month.
Oh no! Keep your confidence level up. You CAN do this!!! You are a person who freely acknowledges mistakes. You asked for advice as many of us do here. The way I see it, wrongs having been admitted, let's see how to tackle the problem.
If someone spills wine on my white carpet, I'd better get out the Oxiclean and attack the stain quickly. It would do no good to carry on about how careless that person was, if only they hadn't taken the glass of wine into the formal living rooom, etc. My point is, what's done is DONE!
To your original question...I use a debt calculator that lets me list my balances and apr for each creditor and lets me use different repayment scenarios. I use it all the time, as I update it when one of my 0% BT offer is about to expire. I will then put in the regular apr. Anyway, I find that this calculator helps me with deciding the most efficient repayment strategy. It uses several versions of the snowball method. You can choose the repayment order based on balance, apr or use a custom option. If you'd like a copy of the Excel spreadsheet, just send me a PM.
@Anonymous January of 2012 my utilization was 78%. Yes, I overspent but I'd also been out of work for 6 months a couple of years before that. I barely made minimum payments, so the interest was piling up. Thankfully, not one payment was late. Now my utilization is @ 45%. Not ideal by any means but I'm happy that I'm making progress!
You will be fine. I'm sorry you've had to deal with well-meaning negative comments.