The Damage

I thought I would lay it all on the line - below is my debt progress (don't laugh -OR- feel sorry for me):

June 2007 Debt: $13,642.54

July 2007 Debt: $12,583.36

August 2007 Debt: COMING 08.28.2007


My debt as it stands today:

CC #1 - $678.13
CC #2 - $951.80
CC #3 - $698.63
CC #4 - $539.97
CC #5 - $969.53
CC #6 - $1580.68
CC #7 - $2248.14
CC #8 - $775.90
CC #9 - $937.92
CC #10 - $2153.89

CC #11 - $785.42 PAID OFF 08/01
CC #12 - $285.00 PAID OFF 07/03

So my TOTAL debt as it stands today is $11,534.59. WOW, so I've paid off $2107.95 in less than two months! Actually, a bit more, but I only post updates once I receive my statements (I don't know how to figure interest!).

CC#10, I hope, will be updated tomorrow. That is my evil Victoria's Secret card (okay, it's not evil, and I really loved it for many years actually). My cards are listed from highest APR to lowest, and that is the order in which I will pay them off. I feel good about this, and that's why I decided to start blogging about my journey. Right now I try not to think anymore about how I got this far in debt, but I just focus on getting out. No sense in crying over spilled milk.

Another victory for me in the past two months has been getting four of my APRs lowered. My number one piece of advice for anyone with credit cards - especially when carrying balances - DO NOT CLOSE THE ACCOUNT. That is the number one reason I am carrying balances on like 5 or 6 cards with 20% to 30% interest rates. It's crazy! But it's the excuse that they give me, "unfortunately, we are unable to lower your interest rate at this time because your account is closed." When closing the accounts, I thought I was doing a good thing, I wouldn't be able to use the card if the account was closed. Because lets face it, obviously the temptation was to great for me if the account was active - I tried freezing the cards in a block of ice (run hot water over it and the card was good to go in less than 5 minutes), I tried cutting them up (memorized the VS account number - it's all you need when ordering online). But everything I've read about credit scores is that you actually want your accounts open, and try to keep your debt to credit limit ration low. So I've actually got one account re-opened and a $300 increase on another, hoping to boost my credit score. But back to the lower APRs, I was able to lower them by a total of approximately 35 percentage points. I haven't figured out how much difference this will make in actually dollars. I'm still going to continue to pay my previous minimums (so that those extra dollars will go toward paying down the balance). Don't worry, I'm not just paying the minimums on my cards - I'm using the "snowball method" - so I am paying the "minimums" on all the cards but the one with the highest APR - on that one I am paying all I can afford. I will continue using this method until am debt free!