getting out of debt?

for those who have done it... how did you do it?

what techniques, tips, tricks got you there and which got you there faster?

Re: getting out of debt?

we got out of debt then bought a house ... so now we got the mortgage and all the extra stuff we bougth for it..
basically we just stopped using the cc's and paid off as much as we could ever other week (when we got paid)...
stoppped eating out (did that like 5 days a week) ; and i stopped shopping

if you can consolidate all cc's into one so you only have 1 payment per month to pay instead of a little her eor there.. savings really adds up

Re: getting out of debt?

this is what i am working on doing too. problem is, just as i've gotten almost out of debt, something would happen (ie - my cat needing surgery) that would put me back in it.

i have about 3K of debt right now, which really annoys me, though i realize that it could be a lot worse. i have consolidated everything onto one card, that has a zero percent interest rate for a full year and am making steady payments every month. they are not huge payments, but they are enough that by the end of the year, the debt will be cleared.

Re: getting out of debt?

HELOC on the house...but not a true HELOC...one of the fixed rate, pay it off in such and such a time one...

Re: getting out of debt?

Oprah did an excellent segment on this like a year ago....called the debt diet. You may still be able to find some info on her site. Also I like Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace...he also uses this thing called the debt snowball which is great.

Re: getting out of debt?

We consolidated everything onto one CC that had 0% interest and paid as much as we could on it each month.

We paid for everything in cash - if we didn't have it, we didn't buy it.

Re: getting out of debt?

We paid off ALL our college credit cards within a year after getting married. We moved into a teeny apartment and cooked every meal. Stopped eating out for lunch at work. Lots of packed lunches.
Now almost 2 years after we got married, we own a condo and we have only 2 CC's- One is DH's corp card, and the other is our mutual expense card. We only put things on it that we have talked about proir to buying, or incase of emergencies (IE: Car repair). Everything else we pay for out of our checking acct with debit cards. Simply put- if we can't afford to pay for something outright then and there, we don't buy it.

Re: getting out of debt?

Re: getting out of debt?

Pay off the smallest card first and then work your way thru the rest... meaning, pay the most on the cc that you owe the least on and then work your way up the cc debt ladder.

I'll see you on that ladder!

Re: getting out of debt?

I had $$$ student loan debt and what I did was pay the most to the one that had the highest interest rate and paid the minimum on the others. Once I would knock one out I would move on to the next highest interest rate. I did not pay attention to which one had the largest or smallest ballance only the interest rate. The reason is that ths method reduces the interest you owe and gets you out of debt fastest. Someone else mentioned paying smallest first then move on -- that is probably the most motivating b/c you feel like you have knocked out a debt.

Re: getting out of debt?

I did it!

I stopped buying aything with the CC's and I even locked the cards in my safe so that i couldn't use them.

Than I made large payments to the cards each month.

I did it less than a year!

Re: getting out of debt?

Re: getting out of debt?

Pay off the small CC first. Then transfer all your CC balance on to a 0% Credit card. You get killed with fiance charges when you only pay the minimum. Also,you need to start paying more then the minimum every month.
Cut back on vacations, dining out, clothes.

Re: getting out of debt?

I consolidated mine. Saved my life! I was so stupid when I was younger. I have been debt free for a few years now and its the best feeling ever. It didnt ruin my credit rating either. I used this place - http://www.mycesi.org/

Re: getting out of debt?

there have also been a few really good threads on here with different resources in the past- it might be a bit timeconsumingto search for them on here (since LIF doesn't reallyhave the best search engine ) but it'll be well worth it. Good luck!

Re: getting out of debt?

Get a 0% interest credit card and transfer as much of your balances as you can.

Then stop spending on the cc's and pay as much as you can per month.

Re: getting out of debt?

I made a spreadsheet of everything we owed (my husband and I both), how much interest was being accrued, and balances.

Then I made another sheet with our bills, how much they were, our take home pay, and how much we use on incidentals - dinners out, movies, presents for family, magazine subscriptions, etc.

We first started cutting out the things we really didn't need. Then we tried to see if we could lower the monthly bills somehow - pay policies in full to avoid monthly fees, change our cable plan to something lower, etc.

Then we called the credit card companies - all of them - and threatened to cancel if they didn't lower our interest rates. Obviously, if we had late payments, they weren't doing anything for us because it was our fault the rate was high.

Then we applied for 0% cards and each got them. We transferred the balances from the highest interest rate cards to the new card and set ourselves up with a plan to pay that card off in one year.

Once those were paid off, we concentrated on the others. I transferred my car payment balance, which was 12%, to the 0% card and paid that off in one year.

When we had the credit card debt paid off, we cancelled the highest rate cards and kept 2-3 cards each. Started paying with our debit card instead of credit card. And started making double payments on the really large loans like his school loan and my new car.

Now those are the only two debts we have, we both have great credit scores, and our hard work provided us with a new mortgage approval.

You can do it. It just takes perseverance and patience.

Message edited 9/7/2007 6:11:56 PM.

Re: getting out of debt?

Re: getting out of debt?

we are attampting to do it... we also opened up a 0% interest credit card and transferred all our balances to that. i will have to pay attention next summer to open another 0% to transfer our remaining debt before the finance charges kick in though, because there is no way we will have it paid off in a year.
it's very difficult, especially if your bills add up to more than you make... we really started budgeting our money, paying attention to costs of brands at the grocery store, stopped eating out etc... but we're still not keeping our head above water yet.

Re: getting out of debt?

Bump......
AllI have found were 0% credit cards, but the transfers but you still have interest.

Re: getting out of debt?