pay off my credit card debt

I have heard that if you have over $5000 of debt forgiven, such as the settlements that the bank gave me, then you need to pay taxes on the amount forgiven.

Does anyone know more about this?
Thanks

I am really looking forward to the last payment, of $171, being paid at the end of the month. This is the final payment on card number two. (Card number one was paid off in November!)

I am working more hours and it will be nice to have my payments cut in half.

I have agreements on three other cards, where I am paying $50. $29, and $40. These agreements have no interest charges and are good through April. I am just going to pay the agreement amount—through the end of the agreements and bank the money to make full payments when the agreements expire.
YEAH! Two down and three to go.

I got sick, have been out of work for almost a year and did not have that insurance on my cards.

Bank of America settled for 10 Cents on the dollar for two of my cards. I have bought almost nothing for the last two months so that i could make the payments. One will be totally paid off next month, another before the start of the new year. The other BOA account is scheduled to go to a collector and they will probaby settle too. That brings my total credit card debt down to about $6000.

I have managed to significantly reduce my interest rates I have $5000 intrest free through January, but am still paying $500 to $600 per month.

I am particulary cranky about this goal right before payday, because just about all extra is going to paying down this debt.

If you do debt consolidation, and cancel all your cards, what does that do to your credit rating?

BOA, is what I called it. No I am not refering to the slithering pet of Voldemort, but the entity known as Bank Of America. They jacked up the interest rate on my other card with them, as soon as I had paid off the other, for no other reason than they could. I called and spoke with two people, asking them to lower the interest rate—which the CAN do. Both refused, so I went and got another 0% card (with a credit union) for a banance transfer. The card that they refused to reduce the interest rate will be closed by September.

If I can resist purchasing anything other than bare necessities, or I can mainifest the money into my life, they all will be paid off by January.

One more payment on the card with the highest interest and it’s done.

It’s looking like it will take me another year to be debt free.

I got a new card today. I can transfer 2/3 of the money that is on my high % card to it. That means that I will have the high rate card paid off in three months. At that time, two of my other cards with promo rates of 0% will be going up to aprox 12% and I will transfer the balances back to the big card at a promo rate of 8.9% and only have to worry about paying two cards per month.

One year seems an aweful long time to do with out.

I am not going to make my August goal, unless I can really reel in the amount of money that i am spending on food. It is good in theory, but damb hard to do. I have two family functions that I need to attend and they will cost 40% of what I would normally be putting toward my debt.

Let’s see if I can squeeze it out of somwhere else…

Today, I figured out that it will take me almost a year to pay off my credit card debt.

I didn’t have a good month last month on this goal. I came up too short on cash so I spent $400 on a card that I paid down $500 so the actual pay down was only $100 for the month. Still adjusting to my $300 rent increase…Oh well, $100 is better than nothing.

Paying down the debt is only part of the issue. I won’t be able to sustain a debt free life unless I get used to spending less. I have been trying to take my food to work instead of buying it there and trying to skip the prepackaged foods for at home. This actually helps with my losing weight goal as too. I can pick up a five pack of Roma tomatoes for under two dollars and they are filling. Fruits and veggies can be cost effective and filling too. Small watermelons have been running $3.59 at Trader Joe’s and that is a lot of food. A heck of a lot more food than my favorite salad (Crissy Beef Salad) which costs $4.99.

I’ve started buying latte’s and diet pop again and those suck up the money. This must stop.