get out of debt

Update on what I still owe:
—Credit Union: $3000
—Chase Rewards HRC: $1309
—Capital One: $2250
—World Points: $0 (done and done!)

New total: $6559, up from $5940. (I managed to see a dentist for a cleaning, etc., for the first time in years, and a $20 copay turned into a $750 “we have to deal with your fillings right now” ordeal. Yaaaay. =_=)

K, so here’s what I did. I opened a low-interest-rate account with a credit union and transfered the Capital One and World Point balances to that card, for a total of $3000. That paid off both those cards. Then, I transfered $2250 from the Chase Rewards HRC card to the (empty) Capital One card for the lower APR. (13.9% isn’t super duper, but it’s a head and shoulders above 29.99%!)

So, I’m playing APR shufflemancy, it looks like, but in my defense I did call the Chase people and asked to have my interest rate lowered, and they said “no”. So, fine; I lowered it myself… by transfering part of the balance to a card with a lower APR. So there.

Therefore, my World Points card is paid off (I closed the account a while back), but I opened another account with a credit union, so that still leaves me with three cards to handle. My new priority is paying down the Chase Rewards HRC card because of its super-high interest.

Here’s the new breakdown. I’m still dealing with (1) APR, (2) current balance, and (3) limit.

1. APR: 1.99% (first 6 months, then 9.25%)
2. CB: $3000
3. Limit: $3000

1. APR: 13.90%
2. CB: $2250
3. Limit: $2500

1. APR: 29.99%
2. CB: $1309
3. Limit: $3800

If I pay $100 plus the interest on the Chase Rewards HRC card, I’ll have it paid off by about this time next year. And of course, I’ll still be paying at least the minimum amount (though probably just a smidgen more) on the other two.

Now, as for my student loans. Simply put, I have a shit-ton of them. However, I spent most of March and the beginning of April consolidating them and during that process I signed up for the “income-based repayment plan”... Since my income is… well, let’s just say it’s not good… my monthly payments are, at this point, $0. Obviously, I would really rather just pay off the loans, but I have to work on one thing at a time, here, or I’ll get overwhelmed. If there’s anything I’ve learned in my time as a Real Adult, it’s that I can’t put too much pressure on myself or else I’ll cave and nothing will get done at all.

Next step is paying off that pesky high-interest card!

Update on what I still owe:
—Chase Rewards HRC: $3180
—Capital One: $2360 (exactly the same!)
—World Points: $400

...which brings the total down to $5940… which is nearly exactly what it was last time: $6190. I discovered, upon being sent a brand new card, that my Chase Rewards HRC card account is NOT closed, and my lack of discipline and long-term thinking has caused the balance on that card to spike. As you may’ve noticed, however, I’ve been focusing on paying off the World Points card, and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel on that one. I managed to keep the Capital One card at (exactly!) the same level, so I guess in that regard I’m running in place. Overall, I’ve cut into the debt only by a little more than $200, but I suppose even snail’s-pace progress is still progress, right?

In my last note, I predicted that I could have the World Points card paid off by December 2013, if I paid at least $100 per month. I’m happy to say that if I stick to this plan, I’ll have it paid off in July, almost six months ahead of schedule! YAY. Then, I’ll be able to roll those payments over to one of my other cards.

Do you all think I should go for the Capital One card or the Chase Rewards HRC card next? Since both of these accounts are still open (as I recently learned), I have to consider three things for each: (1) APR, (2) current balance, and (3) limit. Here’s the break down:

1. APR: 13.90%
2. CB: $2360
3. Limit: $2500

1. APR: 29.99%
2. CB: $3180
3. Limit: $3800

Now, immediate logic demands that, as soon as I’ve paid off the World Points card, I cut up and throw out my Chase Rewards HRC card (whether or not I close the account) and start paying that one down for good; it has a higher balance and a higher APR. However, it also has more wiggle room (at this point) to cover my ass for emergencies and the like. Maybe I could freeze the card in ice instead? We’ll see. Whatever I end up deciding, I really do need to pay down both cards enough that the balances aren’t so high compared to their limits.

I’m still living at home, so I don’t have to worry about rent or food money (thank all the gods). However, I still have other bills besides these credit cards, and balancing them is tiring. Being an adult really sucks sometimes, yeah? I pay for a storage unit in New Jersey monthly, and late last year I started seriously working on getting my mental health shit together, so the cost for those services is really biting into my bill-paying funds. I am also in the process of consolidating my school loans and for serious getting a better-paying job somewhere in the Los Angeles area. Progress is slow on the latter front, but at least I’m applying for work now, when before I just talked about applying for work. Baby steps; baby steps.

I’ll try to check in again soon.

Update on what I still owe:
—Chase Rewards HRC: $2400
—Capital One: $2360
—World Points: $1430

...which brings the total down to $6190… which is, actually, a lot lower than I was expecting. (Last time I checked in, my total credit card debt was $7930.) Since my Capital One card is the only card that still has an open account, I’m not surprised that its balance hasn’t gone down at all. (Actually, it’s gone up by $150 since my last update.)

Unfortunately, I never did really truly celebrate paying off the last card, and now I’m focused on getting done with the next one: setting my sights on the World Points card next, as you may imagine. If I make a payment of at least $100 per month to the World Points card, I’ll have paid it off in about a year and a half—December 2013 or thereabouts. That’s kind of depressing to think about because it seems so far away, and on the salary I have now, this whole “getting out of debt” thing is basically insurmountable. Then again, it’s a time that I actually can think about (that is to say, it’s not that far away and I can imagine it at all, as opposed to having even more debt that I can’t even imagine paying off at this point).

As I mentioned in my last update in this section, an extended relative moved in with us last summer and it’s just about gotten to the point that I need to move out in order to keep my own sanity. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to do that with the job I have now—I couldn’t afford it with the job I have now, even if I was already debt free, which is a sad nod to how much money I really don’t make—so I need to start looking for a new job. (I need to start looking anyway, though, but now I’m miserable enough to actually do it.)

Even if I get a better-paying job and don’t move out, I’ll be able to pay off these cards that much faster and will then be able to start paying off my student loans and will then be able to seriously think about living on my own again. Living at home is a necessary evil, I understand it, and my parents are wonderful (truly, they are), but it’s still… well, living at home when I really shouldn’t be. The least reason of which being that my parents can’t really afford me staying at home, either, no matter how loving and awesome they are.

Chugging along, as ever.

I finished paying off the Chase Platinum card!

Update on what I still owe:
—Chase Rewards HRC: $3170
—Capital One: $2210
—World Points: $2550
—Chase Platinum: DONE HELL YEAH

...which brings the total down to $7930. (Last time I checked in, my total credit card debt was $8015.) My little list will now be only three lines long because I’ve finally paid off my Chase Platinum card and it’s done and DONE. (The account was closed last year around this time, so I was just paying it off.)

I’m still trying to decide how to celebrate paying off one of my cards, but I kind of wanted it to be a family thing and not just a “I’m going to make a nice lunch for myself for once instead of just eating sliced cheese while standing in front of the open refrigerator” thing, but the family’s kind of been thrown into chaos because an extended relative is moving in this summer. I’ll get a picnic or something in there somehow.

The Capital One card actually went up from last time (it’s the only card that still has an open account) because I got a flat tire and had to pay for a new tire once I figured out that I couldn’t just plug the old tire. Ugh. Well, I guess that’s what a credit card is supposed to be for, right? Emergencies, or whatever?

Anyway, I’ve still been paying it down along with the other cards, so my total balance still dropped a little, flat tire notwithstanding. I also got a tiny raise at work, so every extra penny (and sadly, it really is just pennies) is going toward these last three cards. YOSH! I can do it!

And then I have to think about student loans. /cry T_T One thing at a time. Credit cards now. Student loans later. (Much later. /sob)

Update on what I still owe:
—Chase Rewards HRC: $3240
—Chase Platinum: $100 (!!)
—Capital One: $2000
—World Points: $2675

...which brings the total down to $8015. (Last time I checked in, my total credit card debt was $9644.)

I actually did what I said I was going to do, which was put my tax refund toward the card with the lowest balance. I did that and now I owe only $100 on my Chase Platinum card, which I will be paying off completely in July. The account is already closed, so the next time I update this goal, I should have only three cards to think about!

I still get annoying phone calls about “creating a plan to restructure [my] debt”—whatever the hell that means. Usually, though, the caller wants to know if I have at least $10,000 in unsecured (ie: credit card) debt. I used to say yes because I couldn’t really remember, but now I’m going to grin and say, “No, thank you. Goodbye” and hang the damn phone up.

I want to celebrate paying off one of my cards, but I’m going to have to figure out a way to do it without buying anything. Maybe an afternoon in the park with a picnic lunch? Hmm, I’ll think of something.

I still owe:
—Chase Rewards HRC: $3520
—Chase Platinum: $1050
—Capital One: $2209
—World Points: $2865

...which brings the total down to $9644. (Last time I checked in, my total credit card debt was $10460, so this is a major improvement!) It’s under $10000! YES! Success (albeit, a small success)!

I’m going to put my entire tax refund toward the card with the lowest balance (Chase Platinum) after which it will be mostly paid off. I think (after the payment using the tax refund) I may be able to pay off that card in 2 or 3 months, after which I can use the money I was putting toward that one and roll it onto another card (probably the one with the highest interest rate).

In other related news, my student loans have started requiring payment. I got a bill in the mail for more than $850 and just laughed outright. I don’t make that much in a month (since I work for just over minimum wage at a part-time job), much less have that much to pay my loans, student loans or not. I sent the company handling the loans information related to my taxes and yearly income so they’ll understand that I just don’t make enough to pay that kind of money.

Right now I’m just going to focus on the bills I can pay; I know those school loans aren’t going anywhere. (It’s not like I can file for bankruptcy on student loans, after all.)

I still owe:
—Chase Rewards HRC: $4160
—Chase Platinum: $1526
—Capital One: $1234
—World Points: $3540

...so it’s not all bad. The first and last one I owe less than six months ago (though admittedly not by much), but the middle two I owe more. As of now, my total credit card debt is $10460, which is almost exactly what it was half a year ago.

In the last three months or so, I completely ran out of money and had no source of income to off-set the bills, so they began piling up. I figured it wasn’t worth it for me to even open them if I couldn’t pay them, so I just put them in a pile on my desk and left them there. Well, no longer.

At the beginning of July, I finally got a (part-time) job which will allow me to at least make minimum payments on all my cards. I’m going to call the companies (they’ve been calling me nonstop since about mid-May anyway) and tell them that money is on the way and ask them if they can do something about the high interest rates or late fees or something. I doubt it, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

It’s not much, but at this point, something is better than nothing. At least I didn’t backslide as much as I thought I had. And also, I haven’t had to declare bankruptcy so far. Let’s hope it stays that way.

—Chase Rewards HRC: current balance is $4300.

—Chase Platinum: current balance is $1500.

—Capital One: current balance is $1000.

—World Points: current balance is $3639.

My total credit card debt is $10439. My estimation three months ago was $10200, so I’ve done a little back sliding, but not as much as I expected to for the holidays. I want so much to get it under $10000 I can almost taste it.

Wouldn’t it be nice if money grew on trees?

I owe juuuuuuust under $10,000 and have exactly -$10.91 in my bank account. Yes, that’s negative $10.91. [Sigh] And, I have no job.

I hate you, economy. I hate you, stupid bankers who’ve screwed the rest of us. I hate this situation.

So, after last Autumn’s gigantic meltdown in America’s financial sector, a bunch of banks died and/or were bought out by other banks. That means nothing to me except that I was issued new credit cards from these “new” creditors and all the somewhat arbitrary names I gave each of them no longer fit. Therefore, I’m changing the names I gave in my last post and will not be referring at all to cards that have already been paid off.

HRC Visa—> Chase Rewards HRC
WaMu Platinum—> Chase Platinum
Capital One—> Capital One (stays the same)
Bank of America—> World Points

Now, to make a note of how I’ve progressed since last September. A lot can happen in a year, and I’m more in debt than ever when it comes to my college loans. I’m not worrying about that until I get out of school (see my goal to earn a Master’s degree), however, and many people take college loans as “an investment in the future” instead of “borrowing against the future”, as is true with credit cards. That said, I just thought I should mention that I haven’t made any significant progress in terms of paying off that debt.

—Chase Rewards HRC: current balance is $4200. effective APR is 15.02%.

—Chase Platinum: current balance is $1650. effective APR is 27.24%. this account was closed by the company in July 2009 and now I’m just paying off the balance.

—Capital One: current balance is $1000. effective APR is 3.90%.

—World Points: current balance is $3350. effective APR is 15.50%.

My total credit card debt is $10200. Since the estimation a year ago was $11800, it’s progress… but not much. I expected to have paid off a lot more, but I actually owe more on the Platinum card, and the HRC card is holding steady at about $4000. I’ve made it a practice never to use credit cards for cash advances because the APR tends to be 25% or more, and that’s just ridiculous.

The World Points card has become the “emergency” card, which I keep with me just in case. The Platinum card’s account, as I mentioned, has been closed, so I cut up the card and tossed it. I gave my friend the HRC card; I haven’t gotten a renewed card for the Capital One account, so I assume he’s still holding onto that one for me, too.

I keep pretty good records in Quicken and have file folders for all my statements, but I have no source of income, so this could get really tricky really fast if I don’t find some work soon. I had work but was laid off because of the aforementioned financial meltdown.

WHERE’S MY BAILOUT, DAMNIT?