Too much credit card debt. How to get out?

[laruud]

So, my husband recently returned to work after a very long unemployment.  In that time frame, we racked up about $5000 in credit card debt(paying bills).  We don't make a lot, only about $1600 every two weeks.  Our have about $2200 in bills, not including gas or groceries.  We have 4 kids, so I can't get a job.  we can't afford the daycare!  My husband works about 60-70 hours a week.  What is the best plan to get these CC paid off?  I would like to only have an emergency one.  Please.  Anyone have any advice?

[Samac]

Is it across more than one card?

[Anonymous]

That is a really tight budget.  Can your husband get a second job? Or can you get  job you can do from home to supplement the income?

[DoroLucky]

(assuming it's across several cards) First I would take a look at the interest rate and if they are all about the same, start paying if off by the card with the lowest balance. If you ave any cards in 0% intro, I would pay those last.

[Mattopotamus]

The good news is, $5000 is not that much CC debt.  I was expecting at least north of $10k when I read the title. As someone else mentioned, if you have 0% cards pay the minumums on those and attack the cards with a higher interest rate.  Even better, if you have the credit scores try to move the higher rates to a 0% card.  The more detail you provide the better we can help (how many cards is the debt over? what are the % rates?, what is your credit score?, what cards you currently have that may have 0% offers?) 

[SouthJamaica]

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@laruud wrote:

So, my husband recently returned to work after a very long unemployment.  In that time frame, we racked up about $5000 in credit card debt(paying bills).  We don't make a lot, only about $1600 every two weeks.  Our have about $2200 in bills, not including gas or groceries.  We have 4 kids, so I can't get a job.  we can't afford the daycare!  My husband works about 60-70 hours a week.  What is the best plan to get these CC paid off?  I would like to only have an emergency one.  Please.  Anyone have any advice?

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I guess the best bet is to make a list of the cards, with the interest rates you're paying. You may have more than 1 interest rate, since the rates for purchases and for cash advances are different. Put the highest interest card at the top of the list, and the lowest interest card on the bottom.

Then, pay as much as you can towards highest interest account until you have it paid off, and pay minimum payment + $5 on each of the others.

Then when you get the top one paid off, work on the next one. And so on.

[Anonymous]

I think that your root issues are only going to be resolved by sitting down with your spouse and creating a budget. You said that you take home $3200/month, but you pay out $2200 in bills - that leaves $1000 a month for food/gas/other(laundry detergent, paper towels, soap, etc.) or approximately $250/week. Although possible, its not much to live on (ESPECIALLY for a family of 6!).

1) Create a budget showing your cash inflows and outflows and stick to it. If you are proficient in excel you can expand your budget to reflect income and expenses over an extended period of time such as a year. You can also chart different categories historically for your spending habits in those categories, and set specific spending limits for those. Our biggest pitfall is eating out! It is going to be much easier to stay on budget if you say you can spend $250 a week than saying you have $1000 a month.

2) I would then attack your recurring bill side expenditures. I would have hoped you would have already done this seeing that your husband was already on unemployment, but a second look is probably in order. Slash out any excessive items such as cable/netflix/newspaper. Many times cable and even cellular phone companies will lower your bill by calling and threatening to cancel.

3) If you have multiple credit cards with balances - have you taken payments to those cards into account with your $2200 in bills? If you are, is it just the minimum you have calculated to pay? If this is the case, I would suggest a loan consolidation at a local credit union. They will normally have reasonable rates and are usually willing to work with your situation.

Its great that you reaching out to figure out what to do in your situation. Since your husband isn't home much, you have the lead in determining how quickly you get out of debt. I wish you luck!

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

That is a really tight budget.  Can your husband get a second job? Or can you get  job you can do from home to supplement the income?

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With 4 kids and DH working 70 hours (commute time not specified) I'm guessing there's no extra job in the future.

OP please list out the cards, balances, limits, APR. I am skeptical there is any easy way out of this.

[pip3man]

$5000 in credit card debt is absolutely nothing at all... when I saw ur caption was expecting something like $40k... with proper cash management and budgeting u should be able to pay that off within 6months. Good luck

[red259]

If you have multiple cards make sure to focus on paying off the highest apr card first. If you have a card that will give you a 0% apr on a balance tranfer then I'd move anything with interest charges over to that card. Stop spending on credit cards until you are current. A high interest rate will eat you alive so you need to make sure to be making well over the min payment