topic My Debit Story in Rebuilding Your Credit

My Debit Story

Anonymous — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 19:53:35 GMT

currently I owe on the following:

2 bank of america cards ( one with a balance of $4,942 with no interest till
February 2014, 22.99% after that and one with a balance of $4,505 with 19.99% APR)

1 discover with a $1,395 balance at 19.99%

1 bill me later account: $1,426 balance with 19.99% APR

1 walmart card with $700 at 22.90% but no interest till October 2015 (from a Black Friday promotion)

all told around 13k in debit..

I work 40 hours a week and make $16.52 an hour at my one job. I also work from home 40 hours a week as a moderator at a forum and I make $10 an hour there.

My rent is $600 and includes everything (utilities, internet, tv, etc.)

I pay $190 a month car insurance

$150 a month for mine and my dad's cell phones

around $200-$250 for food, gas, entertainment

that's basically my budget and where I am at with my finances. I am trying to get this debit off my back. I put a little towards one card, a bit towards another but it just doesn't seem like it does any good you know? with those APR's i have the interest is killing me in itself.

It would be great if I could get those APR'S down a bit, my credit score is 684 but my credit utilization is high.

where to go from here? I am trying but it seems like I am not getting far..

thank you!

Re: My Debit Story

ficogirl1 — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 02:46:25 GMT

While your interest rates are high, I don't think that is you major problem--I think you need to look at where your money is going each month. Based on you numbers, your gross monthly pay is about $4243 month (40*16.52=$660.80+ 40*10=$400=$1060.80/week) which would mean that your take home pay should at least be $2700/month. If that is the case and your monthly expenses are $1190 (600+190+150+250), then you should have at least $1500 available per month to pay your debts. WIth $1500 you should be able to pay off your debts by the end of the year.

There are a number of methods you can use to pay off the debts, one way that a lot of people use is the snowball method. Basically how it works is that you pay off your debts by paying off the smallest one first. Where you make the minimum monthly payments on all of your debts and then any leftover money is used to pay off the smallest debt first and once that debt is paid off, you use that money and add it to the minimum you were paying to the next smallest debt and you do this until all of your debts are paid off. This is not the only way to pay off your debt, there are other methods, but the key is to pay them off.

Re: My Debit Story

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 22:33:39 GMT

thank you ficogirl