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jannie_gw

My debt problems

jannie
12 years ago

I got into serious trouble maxing out 5 different credit cards, a total of about $35,000. Yikes! I contacted each CC company, told them to close the card and asked what's the minimum I can repay to get rid of thos debt. All 5 payments total about $3000 a month. I figure the entire debt will be paid off by early 2014, less than 3 years. I checked my credit score and it's between 660 and 680, not terrible but not good either. My credit report shows I'm using 44% of my income (around $7000/month) towards the debt. That's too high. But my own calculations show I'll have it down to about 30 percent by next January, just one year from now. I used the debt calculator on Suze Orman's website to arrive at these conclusions. My younger daughter is following her mother's patterns. She has racked up about $5000 in CC debt. I gave her $500 cash at Christmas amnd she used all of it toward her ccs. I'm not asking for advice. Luckily my home is paid off (no mortgage) and we have a fairly new car, so I'm not in dire straits over this. Just a word of warning to anyone who uses CCs a lot. Don't fall ito the trap I did. Every time I got near my credit limit, the credit card company would raise the limit or send me blank "cash advance" checks. Bad for me.

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