Hi Katclaw~ I just wanted to say that I totally agree with Lindamarie. You should most definitely check out Dave Ramsey's site (link below). I honestly believe that through Dave Ramsey, God has TOTALLY changed our lives, saved our marriage and helped make our family's financial future brighter than ever. Now, while almost everyone else is looking around wondering what the heck they are possibly going to do, we are finally sitting back and breathing easy for the first time in our 18 1/2 years of marriage! It is such an incredible and liberating feeling! We are finally debt free except for our mortgage, which we just got last year when my husband finished building our dream home. However, we fully expect to have it paid off in just a few years!! Dave has an awesome book called 'The Total Money Makeover'. It is available at Amazon, Wal*Mart and on Dave's site. It is a super easy read and it is the very first step toward finding your financial peace and freedom! Dave also has a program called 'Financial Peace University'. This is a life-changing 13-week program/class that teaches you how to make the right decisions with your money. In addition to teaching you so many amazing ways to financial freedom, Dave has many, many resources available to you on his website, including what you are specifically looking for at this time, financial counselors. Plus, if you are like me and the website looks a bit overwhelming, you can call them toll-free at 1-888-227-3223 and explain your situation. One of their counselors will be happy to help you get on the right track and show you how to handle those creditors. (Just remember, FOOD, SHELTER, TRANSPORTATION and CLOTHING must come FIRST! Everyone else can wait, including credit cards. If that dings your credit, then so be it, but those 4 things must come before anything.) Also available through his website are what he refers to as 'Endorsed Local Providers' (ELPs). ELPs are providers such as Lenders, Real Estate Agents, CPAs, Insurance Agents, Tax Preparers, Attorneys, etc. who are all endorsed by Dave. They are only recommended after being very carefully screened by Dave and his staff. My husband and I have been very pleased with a couple of these who have been recommended to us. Remarkably, so far we have not had to pay one red cent for any of the advice they have provided! However, if we should need the type of service they provide in the future, we would not hesitate to use them or recommend them to our family and friends. I hope and pray this has helped you, or someone else, in some way. I'm telling you, my husband finding Dave on the radio is the best thing that ever happened to our finances and to our marriage. Just try it! What do you have to lose??? Here is a link that might be useful: DAVE RAMSEY

Hmmm...Wasn't going to post for another couple months! lol But, CC#1 = $170.00 (maybe a bit less), & plans are to have it pd OFF by years' end. (I actually have till Jan '08 statement for the low rate to expire - which wouldn't be so detrimental due to the low balance) I hate the bank tho, and really wanted to pay it off sooner! But that didn't happen. CC#2 = Don't know exactly, but definately under $700.00. Next closing date is SOON. (I haven't been focusing so much on CC #'s 2 or 3, as they are fixed unless I default on ANY payment! - oh I don't like the sound of that 'clause') CC#3 = About $3150.00. AND...That "Oops!" CC bal is paid in full - YAY! (And I m SO patting myself on my back for THAT one! haha) PLUS, I paid our full mortgage payment(s) this month, plus about $150.00 over on 2nd. (YUP! I just couldn't pay minimum only. I want that 2nd paid OFF ASAP!) OH! AND...I started "paying myself first" last May - min 10%. BUT, after the first "pay myself", I decided to play "catch up" for the year, so I started paying myself 20% or whatever more I could. Also ran across an opportunity to lock in some CD's @ 5.45% APY - so I did that, and I trf'd some old 3 mo cd's into 6 mo cd's for the higher rate. They are in such a manner that I cannot easily get my hands on the money! LOL! So, basically, I'm living on the "below the edge of poor"! Christmas has been discussed, and we are going to do nothing except maybe take advantage of food sales, and IF we NEED something like thermals or sweats to keep warm, or a new battery for my trusty 18 yr old $2.00 hand calculator, or stuff to go into septic system... The ONLY gift we may buy is something for my Mother, which will probably be small $ amt gift certs for her favorite grocery stores or resturants (people from her church oft frequent places for Sunday lunch, and many times she doesn't go if it's expensive.) The GOOD thing is, we've had a sorta fairly mild summer. So, I've been able to use more $$ to pay towards bills. I have done some shifting on my pay plan to get CC #1 paid off (hopefully by years' end), and to get that "Oops" paid off. I've been SLAMMING on that #1 for awhile. (Sometimes it's a GOOD thing to hate a certain company - motivates ME to not give them any more $$$! LOL!) BUT, I'm going to have to slow down now, as winter is approaching - need to be prepared for those high heating costs for about 4 months! (We have heavy drapes, but bad windows! It gets SO cold here in winter, and I HATE the cold in my home!) I feel pretty good for now about my debt pay plan and how much I've paid off. I'm very impatient tho. I wanted more paid off SOONER. I've been obsessed with my bills and constantly reviewing them. (Sometimes 3 or 4 times a month lately - it's like I have a 'bulls-eye', and only one chance to hit it!) It's going to be hard to 'slow down' over the winter to adjust to high energy costs. We've already taken a big hit on less income in the household. We will adjust - at least for a short while. I will keep reviewing where we stand, and hopefully we will survive! IF it comes necessary to start digging into my pittance of savings, it's time for some serious decission making...(like I haven't already been thinking about that? Yes I HAVE!) For NOW, I need a big pat on my back for what I have accomplished! LOL! (I've a feeling next year is going to be even tougher than this!)

Lucy 2222, I'm glad that your credit card debts aren't at the usual high rates that they charge - usually 15 - 18%. That makes it much more difficult to get the amount still owing reduced, as so much of the regular payments must go to pay interest. If it's any consolation - store-issued cards are usually much more difficult to clear, as they usually charge 25 - 28%. I'm glad that you don't have any of them to cope with. If you can have the persistence to keep plugging away at the payments without getting the feeling of satisfaction that comes with getting one paid off fairly soon, I prefer paying the extra amount monthly, or at least most of it, on the HELOC, as it carries the highest interest rate. And if interest rates go up, it could be raised even higher. On a larger amount still owing. As credit card debt is unsecured, in case of serious problem, the credit card co. can hound you, but not take your house. As the people that carry the HELOC have secured debt, the loan being secured by a lien against your house, they could cause your house to be sold, if things go really bad with that one. That seems to me another reason to get rid of that one as soon as possible. Are the interest rates on the Visa debts fixed throughout the full term that the amount is owing? Sometimes they offer low rates, but that rate is for a limited period, e.g. a year or so, or even only a few months. After that, the interest rate becomes much higher. And usually if one doesn't make the full minimum payment, or the payment is a day late, etc., the rate goes to the usual higher rate immediately. I hope that you won't run yourself down into the dirt for getting into this problem. Lots of people have sort of wandered into a similar kind of a bind. It's really easy to get bogged down in debt - really easy: as you've found out. But while I ask that you not hate yourself for this mistake, I also ask that you be honest with yourself, and face the real issues and choices that you have made that are hurting you now. You have made a really good start, in recognizing the problem, and making a reasonable plan to get the problem fixed. A plan that is, according to your evaluation, do-able. As someone has suggested, I agree that it would be a good idea for you to get some information from the library to help you along the line of learning how debt works and how to manage it. It's really a situation where you gave yourself a pay cut - for, as you bought the goods that were more than you could afford on your current earnings, you set up a situation where you had to pay for it out of future income. Not only that, you had to pay rent on the money that you borrowed to buy goods before you had saved enough to buy them with your own money. That rent on the borrowed money is an expense to be paid in future , that you would not have had to pay had you been less impatient, could have waited until you could pay for the items out of your income at the time. After you get the loans paid off, please follow the suggestion offered above, of saving most of the $900. monthly to build an emergency fund to be available in case some unexpected but necessary expense crops up. When one has a such a cushion, it eases one's mind greatly. And can I offer a further suggestion? But that you go even one better ... get some materials that will help you learn how to manage your investments so that they produce better results for you than many obtain, plus reducing or deferring income tax, etc. In over 20 years as a personal financial advisor, I've told a number of people that learning how money works is an interesting hobby ... ... and it's a hobby **that pays well**!! Maybe you could retire early. Or retire a millionaire. Dream some great dreams ... but not of the castles in the air kind, but of ones that can be brought to pass, with increasing skill, effort, some self-control, and persistence. You can do it - and when you need some advice, or support, or to cry on someone's shoulder - come any time. We want to see you succeed in this noble enterprise that you've chosen. Good wishes for getting these debts whittled down. ole joyful

You should run the numbers to see which way is actually the least costly. Then after you know that you can consider other factors such as your ability to actually make payments, speed of paying off debt, etc. Take the outstanding balance of your existing mortgage with the current rate of interest you have and figure out your current yearly interest. For example if your existing loan has a $250,000 balance and your current rate is 6 percent, you'd take 250,000 x .06. In that example the current yearly interest is roughly $15,000. Then take the projected new balance after you add in the other debt plus refinancing costs and compare the yearly cost. Going back to this example, if you're going to add $85,000 of debt to your mortgage and go to a 6.5 percent rate, the new numbers would be an outstanding balance of $335,000 and an interest rate of .065, for a yearly interest cost of roughly $21,775. In this case going with the home equity line would be slightly less costly, because that would cost you $6,456 a year in interest, whereas the refinance is going to cost you $6,775 a year in interest. Of course, your own numbers may or may not work out that close. If the 6.5 percent mortgage represents a rate reduction over what you're payiing now, it's a lot more likely to be attractive to roll your debt into the first mortgage than it is if you have to go to a higher rate. And if you do go to a higher rate, how much higher you're going makes a big difference, too, in how these numbers actually are going to figure out in your own case. A final factor to consider is how you actualy plan to pay off this debt. Paying interest only on a home equity line can buy you a few years of a lower payment, as compared to rolling all that debt into your first mortgage. Yet you're not actually retiring any of your debt, so that only makes sense if in the next few years you plan to sell your house and pay off the home equity line with part of the proceeds of the sale, or if you anticipate getting some other chunk of money in the next few years that will allow you to pay off that home equity line. If you're going to stay in your house for a long time and will be paying off the outstanding debt little by little, refinancing the first mortgage probably makes more sense, because at least then your payments will be retiring some of the debt and not just paying interest. That's assuming, of course, that you can actually make that higher house payment without excessive difficulty.