Hi all,

First, I need to explain a few things... I own my past financial mistakes and am ready to pay off this debt and get my life back on track. I am currently $110k in debt. Fuck me. I take home ~$4,080/mo after 401k, HSA, health insurance, etc. I have recently had to put an entire new engine in my 2017 Grand Cherokee, adding ~10K to my debt, that POS. I still owe $15K on it and it is only worth ~$12K trade-in value. Below is my debt breakdown:

The start of my debt recovery process... We have moved in with the parents to eliminate housing cost, minimize food costs. I am putting away ~ $500/month in savings, as I want to get rid of this Jeep, maybe get something more reliable and hoping to buy a house in the near(ish) future. Currently have $2,500 in savings. I have opened three CCs solely for balance transfers which I have already set up auto pay and absolutely will not use. I am currently putting whatever extra I have towards the Chase Visa balance.

Is it beneficial to stop using my CC, only use my debit card?

I've seen people reference calling the CC companies and negotiating down interest rates and/or balance.. Is this a real thing? If so, what would I say to them?

Any other tips are very welcome. Please be nice, I am not the most knowledgable on personal finance, obviously, and am wanting to learn. ELI5, if you will.

Long story short, I have about 80k in debt between credit cards and personal loans. I can get down to around 50k by the end of July with selling things and paying down the debt. At that time I will have about 50k in my retirement account through work. It’s a pension plan not a 401k and is mandatory contributions at 12.5% of gross every check so there is no way to stop contributing to it. I cannot borrow against it and the only way to take it out is to leave the position.

I currently have a second job that is part time and I could pick up hours at and also would be able to find another job fairly easy at one of the local schools as they are hurting for workers. With the pay from the school and my second job I would make a little over what I make at my current full time job but would be able to pay off all my debt and be debt free.

My current job has a very high turnover rate so I feel that if there was an opening in the future I would be able to go back however I’m not sure if I would even want to considering the job workload and stress.

Just looking to get others opinions because this debt is stressing me out. I can afford the debt and have about $2500 left at the end of the month after all expenses and minimum payments are made so could have most of the debt paid off in maybe a year and a half to two years depending on if any emergencies come up or I could leave my current position and have all the debt paid off in 4 months(I would be looking to leave my position in July).

I have finally paid off my car after a year of car payments. I have been lurking this sub waiting for the day to finally pay it off. I had a 5 year loan but I am not someone who can sleep well at night knowing I am in debt so I was paying $1,000 a month.

Sacrifices had to be made kn order to achieve this. I couldn't eat out often, I couldn't go out with friends, and I had the meal prep the same cheap stuff for months on end. Knowing that I am debt free at only 20 years old brings me so much comfort and joy. Now its time to start saving!

I’m not sure if I can put this here or not but I figured I’d give it a shot. I’m a 24(m) I have about 6k in savings and 14k in a 401(k). I have 17k in car debt, $1500 in 3 credit cards total. I have a $1500 loan out on a motorcycle that I’m (600+) days late on. I know compared to others that I’m not doing terrible but I feel overwhelmed. If anyone could give some advice/insight that’d be greatly appreciated. Also I make about 5-6k a month. I’m also trying to raise my credit score.

Anyone used this or such programs with success?

Looking for some wider advice on how to tackle this mountain that my wife (30F) and I (32M) are in. We’ve been going to school for the past four years so solid income from both of us hasn’t been there for real. I had money coming in with my GI Bill and a part-time job that I worked at once a week while going to school. We’ve never missed a payment but we’ve been living paycheck to paycheck with our income. I’ve had a full time job for the past year and a half (56k) while my wife is finishing up school. We took out a consolidation loan in 2020 but since then we’ve had a pet emergency and other things come up, along with some YOLO’ing that led to it getting to this point. Here’s my breakdown:

Credit Cards

Amex: $5.1k (22.7%) $200 per month

Apple Card: $1.3k (24.0%) $100 per month

BoA: $3.3k ( (28.2%) $110 per month

CapitalOne: $14.3k (4.9%) $200 per month

Citi 1: $3.3k (27.9%) $110 per month

Citi 2: $3.0k (27.9%) $90 per month

Discover: $5.8k (21.9%) $125 per month

Kohls: $682.53 (30.2%) $50 per month

PayPal: $245 (N/A) $5 per month (Have been doing $50 per mo.)

USAA: $5.9k (21.9%) $152 per month

Loan: $15.7k (12.09%) $548 per month

Car Payment: $13.4k $385 per month

Rent: $1,400 per month

Car Insurance: $272 per month

Total CC Debt: $37.5k

Total Debt (Loan and car included): $66k

Savings: $3.5k

My wife works one day a week during school that we’ve been using for grocery money and other incidentals. Like I said, we haven’t missed a payment on anything. But after all the bills we only have a couple hundred left over for groceries, gas, and fun money. Once she graduates and gets a full time job, I think we could have everything paid off within 12-18 months. We just recently got our savings up to what it is due to a higher income tax return than what we expected, plus my wife's school refund. I would like to not touch my savings right now. Especially since we've already had to pay some money out out of it due to car repairs on both vehicles. I planned to pay off the smaller amounts first and then snowball them towards other payments. I’ve called all of my card companies asking if I qualified for any sort of rate reduction, payment reduction for a set amount of time or anything else because if I could get even a month or two of relief, it would go a long way. We're both at the point with our credit scores and credit utilization right now that getting approved for a balance transfer card is out of the question atm. Any advice is appreciated.

Hi all,

I am looking for advice on if a balance transfer to a new CC would be ideal in my situation.

I am $3700 in debt on a Capital One card with no benefits and interest of 29%

My credit score is lower than usual and at 710. I am looking between the Discover it card and the Citi Simplicity card. I am currently doing pros/cons of both cards. I am just wanting to attack this balance as much as possible while taking advantage of a low interest alternative.

I make about 50k at the moment.

any advice i would appreciate thank you!

Im 21 and have about $40,000 in debt

$20,000/car

$12,000/Personal Loans (about 10 different accounts)

$1,000/Tax debt

$7,000 Student Loans

I pay my car monthly. The rest of my personal loans and student loans, I have defaulted. All of them range 1.5-2.5 years old. I was extremely stupid for a long time and got myself in some giant holes. I feel like a failure, and over the last month or so I’ve wanted to take action but have felt scared of where to even start because it’s so late.

I don’t want to go to court and have my wages garnished. With all of this being said I have some questions.

1. Which debts should I pay first, should I pay them all at once?
2. Should I contact debt collectors/agencies and work with them/tell them of my plans to begin repayment?
3. Can a debt collector still take me to court if I begin to pay?
4. Is compiling all debt into 1 big loan a good idea?
5. I have moved since all of these loans. If there is a court order, how will I know I need to go if my mailing address is different?

Thanks all so much. This has been eating at me for such a long time, but I’m in a place financially where I can begin making payments and turning all of this around. I feel like a failure, but after reading so many of the success stories here, I feel motivated to get back on track.

Hi all,

So I ended up with some money left over on payday, and instead of spending it on stuff I don’t really need, I paid it down on one of my credit cards. Discipline won!!

For the first time in nearly 10 years I owe less than £10k.

Just wanted to share a success, using tips I got here. I already got rid of one debt last month.

Hi! I want to pay off some debt on a Discover credit card. It’s about $2000 total butttt only about $900 is being charged interest. The other $1100 was under a 0% interest promo.

I would like to pay $900 towards this debt. Is it possible to pay it towards the $900 that is accruing interest? If so, how can I go about doing it this way? Calling them directly? Please help! Thank you (:

Hey, I've paid off my debt before, but it is back again. I've recently came home for a bit to work and save money and pay some off but I'm scared when I go back and if I become debt free again its just going to happen again. I know it sounds so stupid, just don't go in debt. It happened last time with car troubles, then I honestly don't know, I think I was just like "well it's there again, what a little more?"

I'm so determined to get out of debt and have savings, does anyone have any experience with this? I feel like I can always think of something to buy and nothing "big" but it add up. Any books? YouTube videos? Podcasts? Anything?

I have 2 US-based credit cards and I want to work with MMI to pay them off with a payment plan. I’ve recently moved to Canada but I do still have an address in the states that I was planning to use, but it would be easier if I could just have them send correspondence to my Canadian address.

I’m scared if I mention it they’ll say I’m ineligible so I’m wondering if I should even bring up the Canada thing at all.

This coming May is my three paycheck month (I'm paid every 2 weeks). I will have an extra $2,300 that month. I want to put it to good use but I'm not sure which would be better:

1. Car Loan. 6.8%, about $22,000 left.

2. One of my student loans. I have 8, highest interest at 5.05%, ranging from $1,700 to $5,000 each, about $24,000 total. I can completely pay off one of these loans and put a good amount onto another.

3. Pay off one student loan, and put the rest toward the car.

I already put at least $1,000 monthly toward the car, but only pay the required $270 total on the student loans.

Thanks in advance folks!

Hi all!

I recently made a list of some helpful resources to look at. I found these to be especially helpful for debt!

• Debt support: This page talks about job loss and unemployment stress, as well as tips for how to cope and make a plan to move forward.
• Coping with Debt is a PDF that provides information on how to manage debt, bankruptcy, and debt consolidation.
• A 12-step recovery program for people who want to stop incurring unsecured debt.
• Upsolve is an app that helps you get screened and file for bankruptcy. You can also consult with a lawyer for free.

As the title says I'm a college student, I have a job and everything but it's part time only work a maximum of 20 hours per week (flexible and on my own schedule) maximum I pull in bi-weekly before taxes is ~$600, so rough ball park is $1000-$1100/month that I typically put towards any cards that I can to avoid any interest, i'm just annoyed about 2 things, one is the discover card, I purposefully got a small cash advance against my credit limit to pay off a higher interest card, but now i'm being charged interest because of how the payment setup works at discover (still don't quite understand that), it's only ~ $6 a month though so i'm not too worried.

My two personal loans are just directly pulling from my savings I have about $1200 in there right now.

My main reasoning behind creating this is I just received a job for the summer and into the fall (6 months) that'll pay me $1160/week before taxes. I'd like to cut down on the loans that I have (at least the one with interest) and get everything as best as I can and hopefully for once in my life start saving money (absolutely burn holes in my pockets)

Looking for advice about 1) best way to go about all of this and hopefully eliminating that debt (should I get rid of the loan with no interest if i'm making payments on time?) 2) what is the best thing I should do about this salary? Should I invest it? Put it into savings? Max out an IRA? And to that extent what about the "ratios"? I want to set myself up in a good place for my future now and get rid of these loans. This is everything that is currently pressing me. I probably should create a budget but for now I want to worry about these and will likely manage my finances once I have a more "concrete" lifestyle.

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I just found out that my mom has taken out another huge car loan and I am extremely concerned about her spending habits. She travel nurses so she makes decent money but i honestly don’t even know how she is paying her bills every month. Here is what I know she has:

Braces for younger sister: (6k)

Boobs: (10k)

Car 1 that’s severely underwater: (~60k)

Car 2 she signed for today: (90K)

Mortgage: not sure what’s left to pay but it’s 800 a month

And this is just what I’m aware of. She has a bad habit of blowing money on new hobbies that she doesn’t stick with, expensive meals, and clothes. I’m severely concerned for her financial state and I do not know how to approach her in a way where she will listen to me. Has anyone else been in this situation with a family member? If so how did you approach the subject?

I made some budgeting spreadsheet and was able to see I was paying $1,000 in credit cards on just minimums. I started to do the snowball effect and have paid off 3 cards. In November, I got a bonus from work and that kickstarted the rest. So happy to slowly pay off my last big credit card of $3100!

I don’t know what info you need but we are considering a HELOC (still super preliminary).

We have about 125k in debt from like 8 variable accounts (weighted interest is probably about 6%).

Living paycheck to paycheck (make 9-10k take home)

It is hard to give you exactly our monthly bills because so much of it is also looped in with paying debt off so maybe 1k-2k extra per month.

This year I reduced my retirement contributions and consolidated and closed all credit cards. We have a plan in place to pay off everything but it gets pretty confusing. Enter the HELOC…

If we took out debt-related bills and replaced it with what I found online with a HELOC, left over bills would be about 5-5.5k per month (leaving us with 4k remaining, which I would apply 50% to the HELOC and 50% to building a savings. I would also increase my retirement contributions bc I quickly realized our tax bill this year is going to be a bitch with the change.

Does this seem like a horrible plan? Are there other considerations that I am missing? I am willing to pay a higher interest rate if it means less confusion, more investment into my retirement accounts, and being able to build a savings account quicker.

If anyone has any thoughts, I’d love it. Thanks!

I bought a car in August 2023 using a Lightstream auto loan, but really it's a personal loan. Car was $80k but the loan is $60k @ 10.79% interest. 789 FICO and I make ~$150k. I've been very aggressively paying it off because 10.79% interest is absolutely disgusting. The current balance is down to $34k. On my current schedule, I only have 6 more payments left but I wanted to see if I can lower the APR to save some money over these next 6 months.

I have an offer from Amex but it is 10.98%, so no good. Discover is 10.99% for 36 months. A 24 or 12-month loan would be ok too if it lowers the rate. Not looking for an auto loan because the car is unique and I don't want to deal with a lien.

Any other options?

Looking to consolidate 20k. Has anyone had a positive experience with a debt finance company ? If so, can you share with whom? Appreciate the feedback.

This triple paycheck month on my biweekly pay schedule. I’m splitting it half to debt and half on an affordable vacation. How do you use these months to help your cash flow?

-Tech boot camp I went to in desperation got a letter of abatement, collectors still have to refund me 8k and whipe the rest after illegally collecting a year after the letter went out. This is obviously a huge piece of it. Get to pocket the money since I went hard at my credit cards prior.

-7.5k WF cc -> 0 -4.8k Discover cc -> 0

I feel fucking amazing. Don’t lose hope. You can do it too. I can finally breathe. It all came together.

I don't count student loans because why lol

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I made a mistake with my due date and my credit score dropped 108 points to 540. I am so devastated. All my cards are maxed out and I owe 7.1k....

I owe my girlfriend, friend, teacher over 7k. I owe unemployment 8k (UGH) and I just feel like a fucking loser. I am turning 27 on Sunday... I think I can get my credit score to go up to 640-660 if I pay those off, but I could have been well in the 700s...

How common is it to have this kind of credit score in your 20s? I have a sales job so technically if I got a deal or two I could wipe this ALL OUT.

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But idk yeah how common is this in your 20s? ....

Fell for a scam paid it off before due date after getting a second job in a panic and refinancing.

Now I get to get my savings back!

My thought process was I'll never get that money back but avoid paying interest.