Here is the state of my credit card accounts at How I Save Money.
You all know that I was TOTALLY ignorant about the use of credit cards and credit scores when I started and made some REALLY bad decisions .
I ended up with a large number of credit cards and carried balances on all of them for a LONG time.
A good deal of the credit card debt that I have was from paying my way through school. I was totally broke and put EVERYTHING on the credit cards…from books and tuition to bread.
I finally wised up when I started blogging, which was not too long ago so I have paid off a hefty sum on the credit cards in a short time period according to my calculations.
Credit Cards and Balances
American Express Blue $0.00
American Express Blue Cash $0.00
Citi Visa $2000.00 (7.9% til the end of time!)
Capital One Visa $1149.50 (o% til Dec 2008)
Discover Card $0.00
HSBC MasterCard $0.00
Chase Visa $0.00
Chase MasterCard $742.08 (0% til Dec 2008)
GE Visa (LASIK card) $3196.00 (0% til Dec 2009)
As you can see I have a large number of credit cards….but right now only four of them have balances being carried from month to month.
This is actually a big milestone for me so I am very proud of myself for getting it down to that amount. I have snowflaked payments and snowballed payments until I have gotten financial frostbite!
I am still working on getting those card balances down …but I know that one card will take a hit when the medical bills start rolling in next month. They gave me an estimate of what I would have to pay after insurance and it is still a big amount to me.
This just means I have to find more ways to save money in the upcoming weeks so that I do not get swamped by my finances.
I might have to start up on the Tuna Diet again!
Financial frostbite – love that phrase!
Congrats on paying down all of those credit cards! I recently started following a financial adviser, Dave Ramsey. He has a weekday 3-hour radio show and is on the Fox Business Network weekdays in the evening.
I assume you have since canceled and cut-up the cards with zero balance?
Um….actually I have not closed those cards yet because they are some of my oldest cards and contribute to my credit score.
What I have done is to stop using them so that I am not adding to the debt.
I only use my Chase card to build up cash back and I pay for the purchases within 5 days of making them so I am treating the card as cash (sort of) and I don’t pay interest on it.
I would call the doctor and hospital after insurace is through with there part and work out a payment plan that you are comfortable with. As long as you are making monthly payments(on time and the amount you told them) there is nothing else they can do to you. If you were to put this on you credit card you would be making montly payments to them with interest so why not do it with the doctor and hospital with out interest. Good luck it looks like you are doing good on paying off your credit cards. I just found your blog and will keep checking in.
I had surgery in Aug with no health insurance be thankful you had insurance.
@ Angie:
Ouch! How did you survive without insurance. I think even the amounts I have to pay after the insurance are ridiculous.
I just got a detailed bill (after fighting with the hospital to get the info) and I am comparing it in detail to what the insurance sent me.
I am trying to find out what ‘supplies’ are since they charged so much for it..and I have multiple bills saying ‘supplies’ for different amounts.
I really hate this but I do not want to mess up my credit so I am seeing what I can work out.
its a good idea to payoff your credit cards. you cannot start saving if the interest payments are burning a hole in your pocket.
I was lucky and had an Angel. My husband’s uncle is well off and paid for all of my hospital bills and related bills if we got health insurance. Needless to say i found a way to pay for health insurance because it was better than paying the $20,000. in bills. If he had not helped We would be very tough on us right now.
@ Angie:
Does your uncle want to adopt me? 🙂
You know it was really hard to accept his offer because of pride, but my husband’s grandmother said that he wanted to do it and it would not change his life stlye one bit. I also had to look at it as if i was in his position i would do the same thing for family or a close friend. So i decided to take his offer, I am just glad that he lives in Spain otherwise i would probably be kissing his butt on a daily basis.LOL!!!
We do have a long way to go on our debt and with the price of fuel, it may be a lot longer. My husband drives truck and fuel has been killing the paycheck. He leaves on Monday and comes home on Saturday and makes less now this year than he did when he drove for someone else. We may have to sell the truck and go a different route. Or I may have to get a job. Of course that is out of the question. LOL!!! I will get a job if needed but with what little skills i have it would not pay for me to work and pay for childcare and fuel.
Sorry to be rambling, just wanted to share. Keep up the good work on becoming debt free!!!
Ooo. . . financial frostbite! I can’t wait until I can say the same thing. Congratulations on getting your debt paid down!
That is awesome, LuluGal! Congrats on your success. It sure does feel nice to accomplish financial goals, doesn’t it? Peace to you and yours and happy new year!