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Old 08-29-2005, 03:40 AM
Tree0164 Tree0164 is offline
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Default Re: Paying off debt - should we cancel credit cards?

Hi Niki,
Welcome! Credit card debt can be very stressful.

I would get the JC Penny card paid off first and then snowball the payment towards your next highest interest rate. You take all the credit cards that you have and look at the highest interest rate. This is the one you are going to tackle first. Pay as much money to that one and pay the minimum amounts on others. Once you get the first one paid off you then focus on the second one. You snowball the payment you were making on the first one to the second one.

Here is an example:
CC 1 min payment $100 percentage 19.2% balance $3000
CC 2 min payment $150 percentage 15.6% balance $8900
CC 3 min payment $50 percentage 9.9% balance $4500

If you have $500 a month to pay toward credit cards, you would
pay CC1 $300. CC2 $150 and CC3 $50. Once CC1 balance is paid off you would then pay $450 to CC2 and $50 to CC3.

To play with numbers yourself you can go to the snowball calculator

Another frame of thought from Dave Ramsey List your debts in order from smallest to largest with the smallest payoff or balance first. Do not be concerned with interest rates or terms unless two debts have similar payoffs, then list the higher interest rate debt first. Paying the little debts off first shows you quick feedback, and you are more likely to stay with the plan.

When my husband and I were paying off our debt, we used the highest interest rate first.
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