Feel free to share your debt woes or triumphs in this thread... Or feel free to look at mine for your own enjoyment.... Capital One Gold (9.9%) - $734.98 Discover Platinum (12.9%) - $281.00 TOTAL DEBT: $1,015.98 I paid off about $2,000 about a month ago from selling my old Honda Accord.
My debt is insane. I've made some payments on it already, I never use a credit card anymore, and by this Christmas I will have the worst of all my debts paid off. Though even what's left will probably be enough to have the highest total on this thread.
I have less than 3,000 right now, and that's all on my personal card I use for business travel. So really, credit card debt is a non-issue for me. Now the house, cars, etc.....that's different.
without getting to detailed Credit Cards : 1700$ or so between 5 cards (will be payed off by November) Cars : 2 Cars - 1. 0% for 60 months (16,000$) 2. 9.9% for 60 months (30,000$) will be refinancing soon Owe to relatives : 2200$ (payed off before Xmas) First time I have ever borrowed from relatives. I got in a heap of debt a few years back and it took a long time to pay off. I plan to pay the rest of my debt off and only use cash from now on. It is hard to get off the credit cards once you get into that dangerous cycle.
The wife and I got a Home Equity loan and paid off almost 20,000 in credit card debt last year. We were debt free for 6 months but now have about 3 grand in CC debt due to her being home on Maternity leave for 6 months. My new Motto is... If I can't pay cash for it, I don't need it. Of course that rulles out the High Defination TV and Rockets Season Tickets I want SOOOOO bad.
I'm 4 months from payin off my 25,000+ bankruptcy... I have no credit cards...I also have adopted the slogan "If I can't pay cash, I don't need it." and we don't even want to discuss the house, cars and such..
Visa and Plat Am Ex, zero debt. Albeit, I still haven't completed all the sexual favors that I owe to the good people of Visa USA in san francisco.
2 credit cards, no debt. I was taught, growing up, to pay my monthly bill in full on time... my parents did it that way and raised me and my siblings to do the same... so i've never had a single amount of debt on a credit card. i love my parents!
American Express - $0 Visa - $0 Car - bought outright. House - don't have one yet. Damn, Sonny, at least you're smiling! FranchiseBlade, we want numbers!!! J/k.
I'm the same way and was taught the same way. I see people get excited over getting 10% returns on their investment and they're paying 18% interest on their credit card balances. They get the 10% returns, so they celebrate by jacking up their spendings on the credit cards. Uuuh, something's not right about that.
The problem is that I have diabetes and was working several jobs, one of which(Acting) had insurance only under certain conditions. The others didn't have insurance at all. MEdical expenses piled up, and I had to use credit cards to cover it. My Credit Card debt at one time was almost $30,000. After Christmas it will be down to about $8000. I now have insurance and don't use credit cards for anything. I still have other debts though directly to some medical suppliers, doctors offices, labs etc. All in all it's taking me a long time to work my way back out of debt. I may be biased but I can see where a good national health care program could help things out. It wasn't as if I wasn't working. I had several jobs as a matter of fact, and worked hard at all of them, but because they weren't corporate jobs I didn't get the coverage I needed. I have insurance now, but I'm very sympathetic to those that don't.
Let's see: My credit cards: $7000 My private student loans: $10,000 My Fed student loans: $45,000 My wife's credit cards: $12,000 My wife's student loans: $85,000 Cars: $19,000 Grand total: $178,000 I think I'm going to jump off a building real quick. See ya'll later!
I don't own a car because of the motto: If I can't pay cash, I don't need it. Extreme? Well, if you had bad credit like I have, then you'd understand. Those bloodsucker car lots rake me over the coals the last time I lost my mind enough to actually consider one their ol' jalopies. Something like 22% interest. Phu-lees. 22%. No way in hell! I do, however, have a sizable debt to a government that will remain nameless for to make me smart.
Why not smile? It is better than crying. Besides when I refinance the car in March 2003, I am putting 3,000 down and I will refinance at 6.25%. So my payment will drop about 75$ a month and I will knock a year off the payments.
I only have one CC (thank goodness), and I have about $500 or so in debt on it. The problem is trying to pay it off...since I have more serious financial problems to worry about, and am still jobless after almost 3 months of searching, I don't know when I'll be able to do it. This has not been a good summer for me thus far...
Good for you! I did the same about 2 years ago & it really simplifies things; I keep 1 credit card around for emergencies & pay cash (or check card) for everything.
Dude that sucks. I know that a lot of my friends are having a DAMN hard time trying to get a job right now. The economy sucks, and people are downsizing. Its pretty damn scary. Good luck!!! If it makes you feel any better, I have a friend who was looking for a job for 10 months before he got hired.......