I only use one credit card, for the 2% cash back rewards benefits. I tend to make a payment as soon as I spend on it, almost as if I am using my debit card, so it doesn’t rack up.

Just curious… do you wait til then end of the month to pay the whole thing off? Or do you pay per purchase?

Edit: I pay it off every month, I understand you can just make one payment lol I was just wondering if anyone else had a weird/OCD way of going about like me 😂

I’m seeing a lot of ads about this recently but not much info available. My Chase account is charged off effectively today and I accrued about $12k+ in debt (including late fees for non payment). Every night is sleepless struggling to maintain finances, literally paycheck to paycheck. Of the 3 cards I own, this is the only one I’ve fallen off on.

I don’t even know where to begin or how to tackle this at this point. Any tips to remove and navigate through before further action is taken on their part? Is Relief a legitimate app that could significantly reduce my debt amount? Are there other ways I should go about this? Any info helps greatly 🙏

We have 1 kid. I work in the medical field wife has been SAHM the last 3 years but just got a new job last week as a lawyer. I racked up all this CC debt the last couple of years and now trying to tackle it since I can breathe a little with her working now. My credit sucks hers is above 750. Would it be easier to just get a personal loan through her and consolidate everything? Or balance transfer? Or tackle each card one by one. Kid just started daycare so I may be able to pick up a second job. Any advice appreciated.

Me-$100k
Spouse-$170k

CHASE SAPPHIRE- $7737 26%
CAPITAL- $5075 30%
WELLS REFLECT -$4800 24%
WELLS AUTOGRAPH- $4500 24%
PAY PAL CREDIT- $3700 0% until October
PAY PAL MASTER - $5100 26%

$30,875 credit card debt

Avant Loan
$8000 $240/mo

Student loans

Mohela $27,000 pay $473/mo
Aidvantage $50,000 $225/mo

No car payments
Insurance $300/mo
Groceries $450/mo
Rent/ Utilites $2350/mo
Daycare- $1250/mo

My husband and I have about $60k in credit card debt. (Most of this was incurred due to a failed business venture) We make a very middle class income and have kept up with all of our debt payments. However our credit is in the low 600s due to almost maxed out cards. About $30k of our debt is with chase and I am considering trying to do a 6 year structured payment plan with them. Could anyone give me their experience or insights into this program? I'm mostly just wondering how hard it is to get in. I'm worried somehow our income might be too high or something and they would rule we dont genuinely have hardship.​ We can pay back the debt but our current interest rate has been very cumbersome.

Hello All,

I’m looking to get advice on how to tackle my debt. I know I need to make more money. I’m currently in the second phase of interviewing with two companies, one for $65k a year and one for $70k.

Currently, I make $1500 biweekly. My savings are $5310.

My bills monthly are $500 rent, $315 private student loans. Eventually, when the save plan runs out, I will pay $167 in additional student loan payments.

https://imgur.com/a/WhwqZpC

Above you will see a list of my current debts. I am not proud, but it is what it is. I am trying to change my life for the better. I’m currently on a hardship program with Discover. I was denied for Citi and Chase, they said since I’m up to date on my payments I was not eligible.

Thanks for any advice, I really, really appreciate it.

I am at +1 week at being debt free and it still “feels” strange (especially since bills are due tomorrow and I won’t go into any debt to pay any of them).
I’ve only been on this subreddit for a short while (you all are awesome - keep up the great work towards achieving your financial goals!

Also:
I’ve noticed that while there is a great deal of feedback towards an individual’s specific situation or circumstances there isn’t a lot of shared resources/common knowledge for those who are IN debt and looking for strategies and methods to get of it.

Here is a few I found helpful and may be of benefit:

1. https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-get-out-debt
   
2. https://www.nerdwallet.com/finance/hubs/paying-off-debt
   
3. https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/credit-debt/debt
   
4. https://www.financialsamurai.com/the-best-strategies-to-get-out-of-debt-and-be-happier/

I hope these can help!

Should one prioritize saving or paying debt off? How much do you try to put into saving each pay cycle?

Got paid yesterday. Paid all my credit cards. No chance of them charging me interest. Set aside $1.5k to my HYSA. I’ve got spending money of $1k for whatever I want. Will splurge on take away and groceries.

Background: Currently have 16.1 balance on a 20k limit card with Navy Federal (card age 3.3y). I have another CC (10.6y age) with a local credit union with a limit of 500, $0 balance. So, total utilization about 80%. Transunion 574, Equifax 573, Experian 624. I have never missed a payment of the NF card, and missed one payment over 2 years ago on the other. Although, my payment history is 93% because I missed student loan payments for 3 months, and each account shows a missed payment. 0 Derogatory Marks. I did not pay an Affirm payment for over 90 days about a year ago, and that shows on the full reports.

Has anyone have any luck getting a balance transfer card around this amount & scores? I have been paying a minimum of $430 a month + extra payments of varies amounts every month, and getting about 250 in interest each month.

I have been trying to get a CLI with NF and will take any amount they give me, in an attempt to get my utilization down. I have been trying to get a transfer card to stop the interest, but was denied one some months ago. NF lets me do a CLI request with a soft pull, but my other bank will be a hard one. Report is currently showing no hard inquiries, but I am concerned about doing hard pulls and continuing to get denied. I would assume these banks would be expecting high utilization for people applying, but perhaps my scores are just too low at the moment.

The remaining balance was paid off today. I’m officially debt free 💪🏾

I have begun aggressively paying off my debt, I had 5 credit cards. I paid off 3 and have 2 remaining. One with a balance of 2.2k and one with a balance of 1.2k interest at 26% for both.

I make $1000 a week after taxes, my car payment is $236. My credit card minimums are less.

I want to pay the car off so I can out that $236 into an IRA on top of what I already invest. I owe 2.3k on the car

I want to pay off the car next month, and then tackle the remaining 2 cards.

Does this sound like a good plan? Thankyou

I don’t know about you guys, but as I get older (30s), I realize how much debt has affected my ability to plan for the future. Because of this I have worked hard to pay off my debts.
Today I just paid off my car loan!
30k - 3yr loan - 6.5% interest.

I paid 866/month for 3 years. Finally feel free!!
And a best is that I also do some mechanical work on my car myself so I’ve been able to get my car functioning well and hope to have it for another 10+ years.

Just felt like I needed to share since I don’t really talk much about myself to those close to me.

I do not have a clean narrative. It was not a straight line. There was a year where I made almost no progress because I burned out and stopped caring for a while. There was a period where I had to use a card again because of an emergency and the setback felt crushing.

But I kept coming back to it. Not because I am disciplined in some special way. Because I kept reading posts in this community from people who were further along and remembering that finishing was actually possible.

The thing I want to say to anyone who is a year or two in and wondering if they will ever actually finish: you will. Not because the path is smooth. Because you keep starting again after you stop.

The debt is gone. I have not fully processed it yet. I just needed to write it down somewhere it felt real.

So I’ve had some credit card debt spread across 3 credit cards for quite some time, and as a grad school student working 2 jobs I was able to make regular payments. Upon graduating I went back home to visit my family as one of them was very sick with cancer, and while staying there I was applying for jobs with no luck. Long story short, I was unemployed for 6 months during which time my fiance and I were struggling financially more than ever before. Family members had to help us pay rent and groceries, and I struggled obviously to pay bills and cc payments while I applied for a ridiculous amount of jobs. I got a personal loan to help pay off my cards, leaving only one card with a bit still on it, but because this time was so difficult I ended up having to still use the cards.

Now I have a stable job that pays decent, but I am drowning in high payments PLUS payments for the loan that was meant to have helped clear the card debt. I know that obviously I shouldn’t have done it, but I am where I am now and I just need some advice about how to take this down. Half of my paycheck goes to making these payments and idk what to do. What are my options here? Would it be bad to get another loan and pay it all of with this (basically try again to do what I did before?)

EDIT: I should mention that I have a learning disability with numbers that makes it really hard to calculate, track, understand, and manage my finances. i also had to put more than one rent payment on credit cards during my unemployed rough era, which is why they’re higher.

Hey all, so long story i was bad with money when i was younger, up to a few years ago, and had a series of unfortunate events this year get me backed up with late payments. I have 2 loans that need to be paid off in the next few months. One balance for $1293, due by november 17 2026, another for $3660 due by Jan 7 2027.

Payments for $1293 are 161/month usually but i am behind by $1066.18

payments for $3660 are $369/Month usually but i am behind by $1943.25

If I get paid bi-weekly, what is a good course of action to take to make this happen on time? I have a payment for each coming out this friday. After the $1293 is paid off, I can use that monthly payment towards the $3660.

I considered a debt consolidation loan to pay these off then aggressively pay off that loan within a few months by packing on overtime at work, but my credit isn't great (its a work in progress, but getting better) and I dont want ANOTHER loan to worry about. My only consideration with that would be if these loans are paid off, I now have $530 to hammer out that loan per month.

I do not make enough money to just pay lump sums, and still have basic necessities to pay for (bills, gas, medications, groceries etc).

Looking for some help, I appreciate it and come to yall with hat-in-hand.

for context i plan to become a new york state teacher… #letmeknow

edit: yall will downvote anything this is a question man

What would you do if your 92% of your income goes to monthly debt payment?

See i know this is not the right place for all of this but honestly i am not doing good and being from india, i dont see many places where i can part time specially becuase of the place where i am persuing my masters from. I have a total debt of 35K and it has been hard managing that. I never that I'd be desperate enough to post it here someday but here i am. Any help. I am a CSE guy in second year. i won't beg but instead I'd work and earn but i need your help.

I was young and stupid, trying to get out of all that now. Have about $7600 across two credit cards, and about $5k on two payment plans I had to take out for dental care.

I'm trying to pay these off. Then close the $5500 credit limit credit card, and keep the roughly $2k to still have a credit card but I'm cutting it up and not touching it.

I've never had late payments and always pay on time, it's just a lot and having so many at once feels like I'll never win.

Any advice for who to go through or steps?

I'm a 23 year old daycare teacher and I'm about 7k in debt 😭😭😭

I just want to know what my options are and how I could do this. It's such a big stressor in my life. I'm so impulsive with my money and I want to just save and never spend again. I feel like I've really learned my lesson this time and I want to just start fresh.

I'm more so looking for options that can help aside from saving. I'm saving the best I can right now and I already live paycheck to paycheck. It's a credit card I have to pay off and it's kicking my asssssss with interest

Does anybody have any advice on how I could pay this off? Any advice is GREATLY appreciated please!!!! Thank you so much everyone 🩵

Never thought I’d be here in my twenties, especially because of BNPL. 😭

I’m currently dealing with around 5k of debt and honestly, it’s been one of the hardest things I’ve experienced so far. The anxiety of knowing you owe money but not knowing exactly where it’s going to come from is horrible.

But I’m going to get out of it. I don’t know exactly how yet but I’m coming back to this post when I’ve paid it all off. I want to be able to tell someone else who is sitting where I am right now that you can get through it too.

If you’re currently in debt and feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone. 🫂 It’ll work out somehow.

See you on the other side. ❤️

29 M, I have more or less 18k in debt with a payment of 600€ a month. The fact is that most of the people here write from USA where the salaries are way more than Europe ( Italy ) . I earn 1200€ a month more or less. I don’t have to pay the house because thank god I have one of my own, but with my salary I’m going down every month with all the expenses. I’m going down of like 100€, I’m not saving anything. I have 300€ left in the bank and every month are less 100. I’m starting to think to ask help to my sister or parents but that would be probably the end of my life as a human being because I will become the disappointment of the family. My debts are mostly for the car (12k), new AC that I stupidly put 2 years ago (3k) and mostly other debts made to pay off things monthly. I don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t do drugs. Changing job right now seems impossible as the job market is completely stuck, but I’m trying. But even if I find a new job the salary is pretty much the same. Sorry for my english but I’m from another country and not my first language.

Nearly debt free... only thing left is my mortgage. It was a multi year journey. Spent all my money that I made in my 20s and had a blast. Had the debt royale flush going into my 30s and decided to change course, get serious, and do something that future me would thank me for. Basically followed the snowball method, paid off smaller debts first, starting with the credit cards, then the car note, then the student loans, then my condo.

Then I bought a larger condo. That's the mortgage that I carry today - and I rent out the previously paid off condo for long term cash flow as I shift from paying loans to saving for retirement. And I did it all myself, no spouse, not living at home, and no roommates after college.

I even paid back my mother, who didn't have much income at the time, but she gave me about 1k when I was at my poorest, which was the year after I finished college so I could have groceries and gas for a bit longer. I paid her back $1,500 and she was like, what's this money for. I said, paying you back the money you lent me when I was a student. She accepted it and was thankful - but she didn't even remember giving it to me or that I owed her anything. I carried it on my conscious for 20 years and she didn't remember it. That's life.

Yes, it took me 20 years to pay off my student loans (private undergrade and out of state grad school). I never missed a single payment, not during the great recession or COVID. My father was the co-signer on those loans, and I was very proud to tell him it was paid off so he didn't need to worry since he's long since retired. He was appreciative but seemed to have put it out of his mind a long time ago. I think it was a 30 second conversation with him. No big parade, no party, just "okay thanks for letting me know".

Out of all the debts paid, the student loans was the most emotionally satisfying. Owning a home and a car is also satisfying don't get me wrong, but in a different way, more like psychological safety, as it feels like that's my floor. If everything goes to hell, I always have that place to live and that car to fall back on that nobody can take away (yes, I know property taxes).

Now the name of the game is retirement, all that savings going into tax deferred plans. All that interest expense saved that's going to me instead of some bank and then gaining interest of it's own. Now the only thing left to do is not screw it up. Thanks for reading.