[Trinita]

Balance is $588.

I just send them $40 like 3x month…

Any tips?

[Samantha]

When you get your tax refund, use the majority of it immediately against your credit card.

[Donna]

When you pay extra over minimum payment, always specify extra payment is to go towards principal of the loan.

If you don’t they will apply it towards interest and the principal stays the same.

Useful: Should I pay off highest credit card or lowest first?

[Lisa]

Sounds like you are doing great. Keep chipping away at it. You’ll get there.

[Vicki]

I haven’t had an interest payment since 1989. Trick is to never buy more than you can pay off at the end of the month.

Also, I gave up TV, cut all cable, eating out, took on a second part time job to pay off my car then I quit the second job. Give up things to get it paid off. I used to pay my credit card several times a month if I had a little extra.

Go at it like a Pitbull until you have it paid off. I was single then and on a low paying job and I did it.

[Lori]

If your town has a marketplace the go through your things & sell everything that doesn’t bring you joy or a necessity.

[Lisa]

I would just pay it off and suffer til you get paid again. This way you will learn.

[Brenda]

Don’t think of your payments as always needing to be an even amount paid on a certain day. If you pay all of your bills and there is $27.42 or whatever, left then throw it all on the debt.

Everything helps.

Don’t miss: I am behind on all of my Credit card bills and some of my car payments

[Tracy]

That’s not a high enough bill worth transferring you will pay it off in 5months if your paying 120 a month on it…

[Pauline]

Keep at it and make sure you’ve cut it up so you are not tempted again.

[Marissa]

Pay as much as you possibly can – the interest accruing is wasted money on top of wasted money!!

Give up ALL non-necessities until it’s paid off!!

[Abigail]

Thanks to online banking & payments, I can monitor pretty closely when my payments have cleared & figure out how much money I have left to get me to my next paycheck. (I’m paid on the 10th & the 25th & I’m salaried, so I know how much my next check will be.) I figure out how much per day I have & then if I’ve got a credit card bill, I’ll make an extra payment of $20 or $50. As soon as it clears, I do it again.

If for some reason I’ve used those cards, this let’s me pay off pretty quick. I try not to use, but sometimes the points are worth it or it’s a renewal tied to the card. Or, God forbid, car repairs…

Explore these too: HELP! I have $3000 in debt to my credit cards

[Chasidy]

Find a debt calculator- you plug in the interest and how many months/payments to payoff. It will show you the amount your dumping into interest.

It’s an eye opener that’s for sure. With my ulta MC I pay it off a few days after use. Score on rewards and no interest.

Super high interest on that card.

[Melody]

You’re doing an amazing job working on getting things paid off!! Way to go!!!! You said you have 2 other cards you are paying off as well?

Make sure you are paying off the lowest balance first to get rid of those interest charges and fees, then on to the next. Paying more than once a month doesn’t help with a card like it does with a mortgage so just make sure you have more than the minimum due every month or you get nowhere because of how the interest and fees are structured. If you have to pay the minimum on the other 2 cards while the other one gets paid off then that’s what it may take.

Credit cards are a hard lesson to learn. My parents didn’t teach me and it broke me. It took a long time to get out from under them but once I did I swore to never go back. Once you get free of them make a payment to yourself into a savings account for emergencies so your hard earned money goes for what you need instead of to interest and fees.

You deserve it! You’ll feel so much better out from under the credit card devil!

Don’t forget to take a look at: Does anyone know of any credit cards that have 0% interest for the first 12 months, or something similar to that?

[Raquel]

Looking at the other comments you said the interest is 20% or more.

$588 at 20% is $117.60 added in interest.

If you’re paying $120/m towards the balance you can see not much of that is going towards the principle.

If the interest is more than 20% your payments are not making a dent and your balance will continue to increase.

Option 1: increase amount paid to be significantly more than the interest.

Option 2: transfer to a lower interest card so all payments will go towards reducing the balance.

[Charlotte]

Look at your statement and see what your occurred interest is, your due date each month, and your minimum payment, whatever money you pay, payment towards interest is applied first, then any left over, applies towards principle.

If your minimum payment is not met, more interest is charged.

If anyway possible, just try to pay it off, then close it! Believe me, the credit card companies do not want you to pay it off!

[Sarah]

Try to get the 3 monthly payments into one lump sum. Figure out when your interest rate is added onto the balance and then hit as much as you can afford before the interest hits the card.

When it rolls into next month your interest rate will go down a little bit lower because your payment is lower.

[Kate]

You could switch the balance to an interest free card. There are some that have a fairly low transfer fee.

Once you do that, you are only paying off the principle and you can get it paid off much faster.

You can check also: What the cheapest way to collect donations is without paying credit card fees?

[Barb]

Sounds like you’re doing great; the only other option is to sit down with husband and really, I mean really go through each and every purchase to see where else you can squeeze out another $10, 15, 20 or more, it’s so easy to get wants confused with needs, marketing today makes you believe otherwise, no eating out until its paid off, none, no coffee, no soda, nothing, can you shave $5-10 off groceries somewhere, no prepackaged items; cut cable, find cheaper cell phone plan, no landline, call about lower insurance rates on cars and home, just dig deep to find where to find extra money.

[Risa]

I think what you’re doing is perfect! Keep chipping away at it and if you can do more, do more! Otherwise it sounds like you’re on the path to have it paid off in just a few months!

[Melissa]

The issue is that every month, you have to pay the high interest on the card so let,’s say your interst is at 18%, each month you tag on that amount and you. May be spending more each month. Find a better interest credit card, look into transfer balance promotions and pay off as much at once as you can.

If you can pay at once, and cut in other areas, do that.

[Author]

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