A lot of Americans have credit debt debt, and I was no different. Here is the story of how I finally managed to erase credit card debt. Ironically, enough, I was working at a collection agency when my own credit card debt got out of control. Essentially, I spent all day calling people to try to convince them to pay their bills, and at night, I would home and turn the ringer off on my phone because it was constantly ringing with credit card companies that wanted me to pay them.
I had credit cards for years, but they had slowly got out of control. I would pay one and use that to pay another one. Or I would pay a couple with my grocery money, and then use the available balance to buy groceries. However, after a while, the fees and interest overwhelmed me, and I could not juggle them anymore.
All day at work, I would convince people to erase credit card debt by cashing out their retirement accounts like their 401K’s or IRA’s or by consolidating their debt at a high risk lender like Citi Financial. I would go over their budget with them, and figure out if they could afford a payment plan. Some of them joined consumer credit counseling. That was a non-profit service that allowed them to send a little money to the service every month, and then the service would send the money to all their creditors. I had many friends get out of debt this way.
However, none of that seemed like a good debt relief option for me. Luckily, I was able to borrow money from my parents. They did not have the money, but they borrowed it on a line of credit. Then I paid them directly out of my paycheck for a few years. It was a lower interest rate than I would have been able to get on my own, and there were never any fees so I was able to fairly quickly erase credit card debt.