I’m 23 (F) I grew up in a community that truly supports each other. My family was never poor and we lived comfortable lives. I moved to NY two years ago going against my family’s wishes. As a volunteer, to support myself I used my credit cards, a lot. I grew up scared of credit, but it was so easy to use and I was refusing to let my family know that I was struggling. I am now 8k in debt, though I have a salary that should allow me to live normally at my age, I struggle to make ends meet with all of the payments. I don’t know if I should take a loan to pay off these credit cards (if I’m even approved), get a second job on top of my very demanding one, or thug it out. I think I really just needed to vent, I feel so completely stupid.
How is your credit score? You could open another credit card with 0% intro APR, transfer your balance onto it for a small fee, and slowly pay off as much as possible. If that isn’t an option, if you can take out a loan with lower interest than your credit card interest, then I would do it. I think the standard is about 30% APR on credit cards.
Really depends on how disciplined you are with personal finance.
The easy answer would be to open a credit card with a 0% APR and transfer all your balances to that card for a small fee. But this is only the right answer for those who are disciplined.
Many people tend to do the balance transfer and end up building the balance up again on the card, then they end up with two maxed out cards.
If you suspect you are not disciplined, consolidate your debt with a loan at a much lower interest rate and cancel your cards.
I know cancelling cards might be considered blasphemy in this subreddit and may hurt your credit blah blah blah. But if you genuinely will end up building your debt back up again, not having access to a credit card may do you more good than harm.
Stop charging. Keep paying off
8k is a number you can come back from within a year! Not the end of the world! Explore some options and speak with a financial planner in person to help you make a plan. Turning the tide and paying down (rather than continuing to accumulate) will get you far. You should not feel embarrassed to share this info with family, as they can help you find resources and make a plan that will work. Best of luck!
@Cypress
Yeah, just make sure you don’t fall back into the hole if you do the 0% APR thing. 8k is very doable especially if you said you make somewhat decent money.
Gonna have to sacrifice for a while
Umm, pay them?
This is not the correct forum, you should ask on r/personalfinance.
Set a budget and stick to it. A tool: https://www.bankrate.com/credit-cards/tools/credit-card-payoff-calculator/