get rid of my debt

it’s a love-hate relationship for me and my credit cards. I love it when I get to pay them on time and get really nice perks like gift certificates and even cash backs. I hate them when something’s wrong and I miscalculate or pay less or miss a payment and having to pay interest. i really hate them when they miscalculate something like crediting my waived annual fee or even not agreeing to wave my annual fees. Anyways, i’ve been a good girl lately and i feel it paying off. it really pays off to keep track of debt because at the end of the month, i’m not surprised seeing my statements and not baffled as to where my money went.

Ok something weird happened to my credit card. i wasn’t charged my 4th monthly installment this month. i don’t know why and the CSR didn’t know why. All he knows is that I’m going to get billed next month. OK. I seriously think they want me to fail at managing my money and bill me for another freakin’ high interest when they charge me for 2 months next month. they did this to me last feb! i hate it! But i’m going to be a good girl and pay them now because I know exactly how much I owe them and they’re not going to get another peso for interest from me.

Three months ago, Feb 13 to be exact, I had 84K of debt. That not only shocked me but really motivated me really start thinking of the future. I can’t be like this forever. What if I got laid off? I don’t want to have that debt in my name for the rest of my life. And I certainly don’t want to have 0.00 balance on my savings.

As of today, I have paid off 40% of my debt. Wohoo! I now owe 50K. That’s still a lot, but I’m counting each month that I am able to pay all of it off little by little.

My plan is basically to finish everything this year but I don’t know if I can do that. Let’s see!

I just learned a really surprising lesson today which most people probably already know – credit card companies are not your friends.

I just received a second card today from a certain credit card company. i didn’t apply for that second card but it had a higher credit limit and an even higher annual fee. But the ‘good news’ as from my credit card company is that the annual fee would be discounted and it would even be the same as my old card. So I called my credit card company to confirm and to ask if this promo of a discounted annual fee is just for the first year and a surprising news came in. it was no surprise when she told me that this discounted annual fee is only good for just the first year and that i will be paying 2 annual fees. and since i am not really using the card and just maintaining this because of my loan last year, i aske her to cancel my existing card so i would only pay for an annual fee on my 2nd card.

the surprise i got was that i will be billed an annual fee for this card on August which is just 3 months from now when i received that card. i said that was unfair. i will have only had my new card for 3 months AND i don’t even have plans to activate it. the rep says it’s because my card is treated like an upgrade and that i will be billed on august along with my old card’s annual fee (which i decided to cancel). how can it be an upgrade if i had the option to keem my old card? that means i’ll pay for both card’s annual fee on august.

so i asked her if i could just have both cards cut and just maintain my loan which even has a different account number. she said no it’s not possible and i have to maintain one card. i asked her how much is my loan’s current balance and it’s still about half today.

i told her you know what, i will just have to transfer this balance to my other card from another credit card company because i don’t want to pay the annual fee for a card i have not yet used for a year. it’s like i’m going to pay it 9 months in advance.
f@ck ‘em. i was mad but not at the rep because she was kind and i was thankful she gave all those information to me. she even called me up after a few minutes to say i needed to settle P400.00 for the replacement card i ordered a month ago.

so since i cancelled my previous card, before july i will call them again and have my balance transfered to my other credit card so i can close it. if they offer to waive my annual fee, i’ll keep my card and after 1 year, i’ll request for a card with a lower annual fee. if they don’t, i’ll have to either pay the remaining balance of my loan or transfer it and then cancel it.

The budget plan I created a few months ago really helped me stay on track. i mean, i’m not always on track but it helped me plan ahead of time whether an unexpected purchase or expense is going to impact my budget. it also helps me keep track of my expenses, how much debt i am paying, how much i am saving. it is helping me realize what my financial goals are for this month, for this year, and for the next two years and how to achieve all of those goals.

Six more months and I will be able to get rid of my biggest debt which is eating up 1/4 of my net pay. i am really really looking forward to that day when instead of paying this to a credit card company, i will be paying this to myself. :)
wow. i wonder what that feels!

Well, the reason I wanted to get out of debt is to start saving. I have started saving but I am paying more to debt than I am paying to myself through savings. After realizing how much money I am loosing over stupid and non-essential expenses, I really had to do something about it.

I have always pictured myself (and aimed) to be in a different financial situation when I reach 25. Because of my carelessness and immaturity I will still have debt when I turn 25 but I know that because I’m starting a more mature outlook in my finances now, someday (hopefully) while I’m still 25 my debt payment will be finished and I can really start saving for my future. I learned it the hard way but still, I learned. Hope all my efforts pay off!

BTW, I paid all my debt for this month and didn’t pay interest which makes me SO HAPPY. Hope next month will be better!

I just had my 4th card cut. I now have 2 personal and 1 corporate card. Not sure if keeping 2 cards is okay but I’m not sure i’m okay with keeping less than 2 cards. I know i can survive without credit cards but I don’t know maybe the fear of not having money in case of emergency is holding me back.

Well, as much as I didn’t want to, I used my credit card twice when I bought some stuff for my vacation. I paid them all up today. I also thought the laptop I bought will start payment this month but it turns out they billed me for two months today, for Feb and March because Feb should have been billed last month but wasn’t.

Now I am beginning to really hate credit card companies.

Anyways, I paid them all up and I paid a little more than I should but it’s okay it’s still going to reflect on the next bill. I forgot to bring my bill so I just rounded up the numbers.

Not only did I use my credit card but I bought an air conditioner from my sister. I just.. I just.. well I just inquired but by the time she called I just couldn’t say no. :( Anyways, I am happy about the aircon I’m just not happy about my debt. She agreed that I could pay it in installment for 5 months but I just want to be so debt-free now that I sold my PSP Slim. NOOOOO!!!

Well, it’s okay because at least now I can pay for half of my debt and I haven’t really been using that PSP for more than 6 months now!
I sold it to my BF for 5K because he wanted to sell it and I thought we wouldn’t be able to sell it for more than 6K.

I bought it in the US for $169 + tax, bought a casing for $20 + tax, bought a memstick for P1.2K, upgraded it for P500. I believe at that time the exchange rate was below $1 = P45 but computing at P45 with tax in alpharetta at 8%, I spent P10885.4 and my BF sold it at 7K.

Woohoo! Anyways, with that money I’ll be able to pay for half of my aircon debt. So I’m still good. If I didn’t sell it I would have interest accumulating again.

I’m sad about my psp but i’m glad because i’m not using it and it’s the price i have to pay for spending like that! :(

My only reason to be happy about this goal is that for the first time in a long time, I received my billing statement and didn’t have to pay for a late or a finance charge.

Why am I doing this to myself? Why can’t I just cut all my credit cards and just stop buying stuff? Did I learn a lesson this time?
Hope so.

I wouldn’t have remembered to log in to 43things had i not seen the reminder i set last month. But I’m happy to say that I am on track. yey! Well, i paid all my monthly debt due this march 9 and march 16. i even paid more than what is due last month because i advanced an interest i foresaw but turns out I didn’t have to pay it. yey!
The only bad thing i saw was that i used my credit card twice… i shouldn’t have but i did. i now owe the ff:
1. laptop
2. bedsheet purchases
3. laptop bag purchase
4. debt 8 months to pay

i am on track because for the past months, I have been paying like P1200.00 for interest. i couldn’t stand it anymore so that really made me think i need to do something about it. i’m glad to say that this month i only paid P350.00 for interest and next month, because i’m in good standing now having paid everything already, i will be paying P0.00 for interest! yey!

i’m thinking of paying some of my purchases in advance so that next month won’t be too hard for me. but again, i need to follow my budget plan! :)

Currently I have 3 personal credit cards and 1 corporate card.
I don’t really have a problem with the corporate card because i never use it and can’t use it without any approval from the company so that’s that. Of my 3 persoanl credit cards, I only use two. One has a loan which is still has 9 months left for me to pay and one has an installment plan which I will start paying on april.

Yesterday I’ve set my mind out to close the card i’m not using and keep the other two but I’m rethinking my decision today because some of my friends who are/were like me suffering from debt had all their cards cut and closed.

So today, I have decided to cut and close out the card i’m not using, cut the one with the loan and close it after my loan (which i so want t o be over!) and keep only one card.. for now.

my decision could change again tomorrow but it’s definitely going to be either keep one card or keep none at all.

So there, another step towards my getting rid of debt.