A Success Story of Paying Off a Credit Card Debt

12/04/2012

Reduce Debt

Paying Off a Credit Card Debt

Who loves success stories? My wife does as she is passionate in reading her Cosmopolitan pages. I do love stories of success as well (no Cosmopolitan reading though). This time I will tell you the one where a personal-finance blogger finally got rid of her debt “slavery” and eliminated her monstrous debt.

Three years ago, this blogger had a card balance of almost $40,000 (!) to start with and now she has announced that she managed to exterminate her credit card debt and get so long-desired $0.00 balance of her card. So these three years she put all of her powers and implemented multiple strategies to make this terrible debt disappear.

So here are some of the topic-related tips – ones I found through personal year experience, and some came with the specifics of the story told above.

You can pay the debt yourself

Even if you accumulated a lot of debt, you still can succeed – take steps to manage it in a right way. The internet keeps a wealth of similar blogger stories as receipts and testaments on debt elimination. As an example, you can use some free budgeting tools. Mint.com and Wesabe would do the trick. Both are personal-finance management websites being a free tool that carefully analyzes your financial data and gives you the best advice on managing and saving your money.

Another option (more comfortable) could be a usage of a budgeting software like YNAB (You Need a Budget). It aims to take a control of your debt and expenses. Probably, YNAB would be one of the most rated software programs in this market as Amazon reviews claim.

Have your goals set

From our personal promises to “kill” a debt we transfer to concrete steps.  Setting a certain date when we are planning to reach our goals would be a specific roadmap to estimate our progress.  Setting goals is a great tool to keep ourselves going in the right direction and focus on our debt liquidation program.

Some bloggers would offer you a web help again – online tools like DebtGoal, which help you to create a debt reduction plan. Though having a free week trial it then turns into a fee-payment solution (on monthly basis).

Create a debt elimination plan

Broke a leg? Then stop running not to make it worse! To get out of your debt you should stop incurring more. Some strategies will make it easier for you to discover my point.

You can consolidate or refinance your debt in some cases (but beware the possible effect on your score), or go my way and address your debt successfully by using balance transfer credit cards.

You could speed up your debt reduction process by transferring the debt from a high interest rate card to lower interest ones. You’ll be paying less interest with a this kind of  transfer, but applying for a new card has a short-term effect on your credit score and can cause the balance transfer fee payment. Furthermore, pay big attention to rates changing after the promotional rates expire.

In the past, that scheme worked for me. I eliminated my debt in this way, but had to make the commitment of paying it off during 0% introductory rate period.

Nothing but eliminating the debt

Resist any temptations to party with your money. Stick to your debt elimination plan. As for me,  when I finally retired my debt, I swore to never get a going forward balance for my credit card.  Like a never-marry-again vow which I should stick J Anyway, I don’t buy things that I won’t be able to pay for in the end of the month. For emergencies ever occurred I keep a special fund which replaces the need for using a credit card.

Watch your track record

When you start your debt elimination program, keep track of how your credit is doing. It could be wise, in fact, to get your credit standing snapshot – before, during, and after you’ve done some things on debt reducing. This will make your progress charted and measure the success of your debt/credit management efforts.

Furthermore, you can visit AnnualCreditReport.com and get your free credit reports or consider some commercial products from Equifax. They can give you the access to your FICO score.

Keep the champagne for your victories

Indeed, even small successes bring us positive feelings. My point is that dealing with debt you should not be too restrictive to yourself. Get a break! Treat yourself to simpler rewards when you reach your debt-elimination goals one by one.

Increase your profits

Cutting back is not the only cure. Try to earn more in order to strike your debt with multiple “weapons.” At least, you can get an extra income by finding yourself a second job or starting a side business. It will accelerate your debt payment, provided this business has a strong saving strategy.

Have accountability

You can share your stories with other people by writing blogs or using forums. This is how you can have a side support and encouragement, as well as psychological incitement to handle your financial issues. Personally, I believe in blog’s cheering nature as you can also get a tip from someone who has the same experience or found a solution.

If you are not a blogging person, you can help yourself by only keeping a diary or a journal. Writing in the tabs on your progress, notes and ideas will help you to stay on track.

So we are back again to the story from the beginning. Remember that personal-finance  blogger who paid off her debt in three years? Congratulations to Tricia who managed to eliminate a debt of $37,614 in thirty eight months! You CAN do it! As well as to write your own success story.

Written by Alexander Treston on behalf of Alexander Collins and Forexeasystems Forex robots.

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A Success Story of Paying Off a Credit Card Debt