Long story short my mom opened a few credit cards under my name when I was 18, ran it up to around $15k. Took some hits on my credit with late payments etc... finally paid off the remaining $7k in full, what a good feeling this is ) it's been weighing heavy on me for a while but it's time to rebuild. I only have 2 credit cards and I want to start raising my score, any advice?

*Apologies for the long post...it feels good to write it all out! Hope you find it interesting if you read!*

What a difference 10 years makes....

I have been lurking around this page for a while waiting to make this post, as this has never happened to me. At 50 years old, I am OFFICIALLY in the black. 100% of everything is paid. Besides the obvious, here's why it means so much to me:

I have been a SINK (Single Income, No Kids) all of my life.

1995, when I was 20 and a sophomore in college, I returned home for Spring Break and on a random afternoon, received a phone call from American Express on my Mom's house phone. I didn't have an American Express, so I let the phone operator that I was in school, and was not interested in applying....well, this is where it becomes interesting. She let me know that she was calling from the security department and that there was an American Express gold card out in my name with over $5,000 worth of charges. I explained to AE that I had no idea what she was talking about. A VERY long story short, my mother applied and got 5 credit cards in my name with my SSN# while I was away at school, charged up over $12,000, and never paid. I was stuck. I had to file a complaint with the police, the proceedings took almost a year, and she went to prison for 2 years. I never had to step foot in court. It was all in black and white.

In 2005 at 30, after getting my credit cleaned up and graduating school (I mustered up an Associates Degree amongst all the chaos), I was living it up and traveling, spending 3 months backpacking across Australia and New Zealand, then coming back to a decent job that I held onto for the next, well, 10 years. Even though I was making good money on the west coast (80k), I was living way beyond my means. It sure was fun though, lol.

In 2014, feeling good about my career, and my longevity in it, in the same year I bought a brand new car for 35k, and a small cottage for $150,000. Having no money for a down payment I took a 401k loan as I was living paycheck to paycheck. Although I was stable in my job, had great credit, and felt like I was making the right decisions as the house was going to build equity. I was putting away $ in a 401K and even though I had $20k in credit card debt from animals and vehicles breaking down in my 30's, I was managing ok.

In April 2015, just a year later, I was fired. On the spot. My boss and I were onsite contractors and it was mandatory to be onsite every day, even though we had little face time with the client. In almost 4 months, he didn't come to the office for 27 days pretending through emails, etc. that he was there when he was not, and I turned him in. 48 hours later I learned the "internal corporate levels of protection" as the Head of HR (which I did make the report to) was one of my boss' best friends. I was called into a Starbucks at 9am on a Monday by him and with a smirk on his face, he fires me, telling me to hire whatever lawyers I want. That day, I drove home, and looked at my bank account. $1200. That's it. That's all I had until unemployment kicked in and I found a new job. I cried on my front porch talking on the phone to my friends and when I hung up, I told myself that there was NO WAY I was going to let this happen again. I was destined to live a poor life, and I needed to do something about it. I was about to lose everything. A month later, my 18 year old cat was diabetic and dying. One diabetic coma episode caused me to charge another $6,000 because I could not bear to think of my life without her. One month later, she was gone. Another lesson learned.

I was 40, was unemployed with no family backing, and was $200,000 in debt, with $28,000 of that in credit cards alone. I still even had $8k of student loans.

Two months later in June of 2015, I got new job that I never thought I would get for $25,000 more than the position I was fired from. I was ELATED. I was getting paid $50 an hour for the next two years on a 1099 contract. $104K. I was into the 6 figures, however I did not receive any vacation pay or holiday pay, but had the option to work if I chose. I immediately started a notebook with my debts and each paycheck would transfer $200, $100, $300, whatever I could into a savings account. Every single holiday including Christmas, I worked and deposited that money as well. Well, 2 years turned into 3, then 5, then 8. Instead of spending, I continued with my plan. I went remote in 2017, moved a few times (rented out the house), traveled a bunch, and then I lost the contract in early 2023. However, I was quickly picked back up my the same company after a 9 month lull as they needed me back. I covered a corporate maternity leave for another company in the meantime.

And that leads me (us, if you are still reading!) to now, 10 years later, April, 2025. I just turned 50 and I'll be making last deposit into my HYSA and my balance will be officially more than my remaining mortgage. It's my last debt. I have a 401K and a ROTH and will wait a bit to build up an emergency fund (which won't take long) and then make the transaction to pay it off. The house is now worth $310k. A 2013 Honda, 2021 Toyota truck, travel trailer, all credit cards, everything. It's all paid. From here on out, I only need to pay yearly property tax/homeowners insurance of $4k.

Having come from a poor childhood with a single mother, it's hard for me to believe that when I look around, it's now all mine. I don't owe anybody anything.

The feeling is unbelievable and I am so damn proud of myself!

Please celebrate with me (and my new cat, lol)!!!!! It's a new life!

in the past 4 months, i’ve paid off about $12k in debt. its been hard but i am proud of myself for doing it. i was looking for advice on handling my remaining debt and if it may be in my best interest to dip into my 401k to reduce the amount? any advice on the remaining car debt? im almost @ the 90-day mark so it may be classified as a repo soon which sucks because i have no car + this remaining debt affecting my score for car and personal loans. should i get another car loan soon and roll the amount over? (originally planned to get something cash).

these are rough estimates of my base income (my state has alot of taxes + my company fees for insurance) i am working on getting a car to increase my income at my 2nd job to help.

thank you all for your advice in advance!

So.. during Covid and the midst of having a child while having bad insurance, and a low paying job, I ended up building up a substantial amount of debt… and have been having insane anxiety attacks over it… Someone here on another thead mentioned undebt.it so I looked into it.

Running the gauntlet of putting all of my debt in was eye opening to say the least. Between credit cards, personal loans and hospital bills I’ve racked up nearly 60k… (20k is joint spouse and I and and the rest is just my own)

However I started working a 120k/year job (up from 66k) and my wife works a 50k/year.

Following the undebt.it plan based on my accounts and putting 3500/month I should be debt free (minus our mortgage and student loans) by Dec 26.. which.. is a lot shorter than I though.. it’ll be a challenge but any extra coming in will go toward tackling this and getting that time down.

Her student loans are finished next October and mine (I have less than half the loans my wife has) are in deferment until next June.

I know I can see it but it is still overwhelming.

Just a post to brag a little bit about our debt free journey but to also give you all hope and encouragement! Keep up your hard work, it will all pay off at the end (pun intended!). If you do fail a bit due to unforeseen circumstances, do not fret, it happens. Pick yourself back up and move forward!

We are currently debt free minus the House and Car and a few no-interest/no-payment until x loans. See below:

Car Loan - We have plans to knock out at least 1 extra payment per quarter depending on flexible cash.
Windows - We get a 12 month no-int, no-payment plan for whenever we need new windows. Keep in mind, we already plan for putting that money aside monthly and then paying it off the month before the promotion ends. Luckily, we did just submit the payment this month as the interest accrual on our savings was not enough to be worth waiting 4 months and accidentally missing the payment.
Home Depot - Yes, we had to put our new appliances on this, but they gave us 24 months no -int/no-pay. Like I said before, just making sure to save the balance in a high yield savings account to gain some interest before paying it off. This is scheduled for December this year.

We do also have two credit cards we use daily. Active Cash by Wells Fargo (2% on all purchases), and Chase freedom unlimited by Chase (1.5% on all, 3% on Walgreens and Takeout). We also keep an eye on their additional cash back opportunities that they add and remove from each week. We've gotten 10% on some takeout, plus the 3% regular cash back. Keep in mind, this is only possible for us to do as we did knock out our outstanding balances about 2 years ago and have been tracking our statements and payments to ensure we were paying off the balance by the end of the due date. This allows us to build up our cash back savings and use them towards gift card discounts for birthdays. Say they have a $20 gift card for $18 in points, sometimes more savings depending on what they offer.

Really though, this is just our situation and everyone could be different. In no ways is this a post that says it's okay to use the credit card. If you have issues with overspending, then it would be wise for you to NOT fall into the Credit Card trap!

Apps we use:

1. Spending by M.H.Riley - no ads when purchased cheaply, very straight forward and intuitive.
2. Microsoft Excel - Tracking our biweekly paychecks and having specific disbursements for utilities/savings/cc payments
3. Empower Dashboard - Tracking our net worth
4. CC apps - tracking our cash back and statement balances
5. Credit Karma - tracking our net worth, seeing the changes weekly or even daily. Also eyeing up specific CCs that could give us better cash back on other options (have yet to find a decent one for groceries/gas)
6. Youtube - Watching money saving/debt reducing videos/channels. (NOT INVESTMENT CHANNELS, lots of them are just clickbait!)

Anyways, stay strong because being debt free will be worth it in the end!

I’ve never been late on a payment, but I can’t seem to get my debt down. What are some ways that you’ve found to work best? I’ve removed apps from my phone that are big spenders for me, and I’ve removed everything but my debit from my wallet.

Looking for all the advice I can get! Please be kind, this is a first time for me and I want to mitigate this issue before it becomes unmanageable.

TIA!

I am a 21m going to university but working full time. I was in debt of about 8k in December i got down to about $2800. I currently make about $750-900 a week after taxes. My card was a 0% interest card but that ended April 1st so my apr will go up to 28.24 in may. I have cut down my total fixed expenses per month are around $900, obviously this does not include any spending that might happen like buying food, going out, and other stuff like that. I would love to see some breakdowns on how I could realistically get out of debt as soon as possible. Just so i can avoid paying any interest and stop stressing that I am in debt.

I'm 23 and accrued a lot of debt when I was 20 after having to flee an unsafe relationship. I've been steadily bringing down my balance between loans and credit cards. Recently I got an offer for a debt consolidation loan. The overall interest was lower, the monthly payment was 200$ cheaper.. so I've took it. The extra 200$ is allowing me to make bi-weekly payments instead of monthly to reduce interest. Just got this email and it feels.. gross. It's like, "Congrats! You're decreasing your debt! Let's entice you with more debt opportunity!"

So I’m struggling to get out of debt and bounce back after I had some car issues and missed a lot of work last year due to being sick and in the hospital.

I’m married my wife makes around $17 an hour and covers half the car insurance why it’s $70 , she pays the phone bill electric and sometimes half the groceries.

I feel overwhelmed all the time I transferred some debt to a new card so most of it is zero interest for 18 months however the card I used to clear up k had to put $300 on it due to my car breaking down a lot

Unfortunately, there was a loss in my family and because of that I will be receiving a pretty good beneficiary check. I’m going to be receiving about $49k and the biggest thing I’m excited about is paying off my debt which is roughly $14k. Now, I know this is very little debt in comparison to some people, but, it’s debt I incurred as a young adult and let go to collections. Life happened and I had other priorities but this has always been a thorn in my credit history and ability to fully become independent. I guess I’m looking for advice on what should be my game plan after paying off this debt? I don’t have any long term goals other than buy a house (need to rebuild my credit first).

40% interest if you have a late payment is crazy. This is a big reputable company as well. I got CareCredit for my dog when she needed a hospital stay and thankfully paid it off before any interest accrued.

Im 21 and have $3,300 in debt from online gambling issues last year I’ve committed to stop and now I’m paying it back.

I currently live at home with my parents still so I have very little expenses, and bring in $1,067 after tax bi monthly give or take with OT. A lot of my money is in assets, 2 cars (no payments), stocks, and 401K

My reason on my I’m trying to get this mistake of debt paid fast is because I feel like I’m wasting my golden opportunity while I have such little expenses to save up and set myself up for future opportunities. It’s starting to take a toll on my mental health, going to work and knowing that it will be going to the bank and not to me, very demotivating. But besides that here are my expenses.

Sorry for the long read but any advice would be appreciated, thank you.

-Current expenses- No rent No car payment Spotify premium- $12 Apple subscription- $43 Bill- $50 Shopping- $60 Food- $75 Gas- $200

-Debt Chase pay in 4- $305.28 Parents-$411.90 PayPal pay in 4- $690.89 0% interest discover credit card- $1,765.38

So here are my expenses. I know I could save a bit of money eating out. I spend a lot doing so because I’ve been struggling with taking care of myself and being wasteful. But this is what I’m working with now. Any ideas on how to try to knock down this debt? Also, when it comes to a second job, I’m planning on dedicating all of the checks to the debt with the highest interest and snowballing it. Do you think this is a good idea?

Struggling on finding a second job that aligns with my current schedule. Inshaallah I am waiting for my boss to switch my schedule to 3 days weekend nights so I can have more flexibility.

I have 6 different debts (4 CC with 0% for 8 months) and 2 Personal Loans (PL) with (13% and 15%). With my income, I can pay off all 4 CC in 3 months (1 in April, 1 in May and 2 in June), or I can make a ding on the Personal Loans (first would be paid off in July and second Oct) then focus on the CC. Regardless of method, everything (all things being equal) would be paid off by December. The only difference is if I prioritize PL I’d pay $900 less in interest than if I do CC. However, no dopamine of crossing something off monthly. What would you prioritize?

This is my first time posting on reddit ever, and will be a longer post. I apologize if how I broke this down is annoying. I am also not looking for hate or some sort of backlash, I understand that I am an idiot, and I just simply want to get back on track.

Hello, back in November of 2024, I unfortunately lost my job. I had zero savings, and a bunch of bills to pay each month. Because of this, I managed to rack on a good chunk of Credit card debt, a majority of which was used to simply pay rent and get groceries, but I am not all that disciplined and spend a lot of money elsewhere (biggest spending via doordash or takeout). Luckily, I managed to find a good paying job and should receive my first paycheck around the 18th of April, so here's a breakdown of my current finances and what I can expect to receive:

Yearly, I am making a little bit over 59k (previously ~45k) or roughly $1,700 after taxes bi-weekly. Here's a breakdown of my monthly bills:

Rent: ~$730 (Varies about ~$20 higher or lower dependent on month)

Renters Insurance: ~$13

Car Payment: $480/mo ($26,315 to go) (to note here, I WFH, so I barely need to put any money into gas)

Car Insurance: $180/mo (I am actively exploring options here to lower this)

AT&T Phone Bill: $70

Subscriptions: $48 (After trimming another $40 already)

Affirm bill for something I bought prior to losing my job: $58/mo (I know this was probably a bad decision)

------------------------------------

Estimated Monthly Total for all above bills: $1,565/Mo (Give or take another $150-$200 simply for groceries or cat food (shits expensive))

I have 3 credit cards total. Prior to losing my job, I was already in about $10k in cc debt (All on my Citi card). Now after having to pay rent and other bills / my terrible spending habits, I racked up a (rounded up) $20k in total CC debt:

Apple: $4,196 / APR 20.24

Discover: $5,915 / APR 26.24

Citi: $9,319 / APR 19.49

Each and every one of these cards is about $100 from being maxed out.

Any sort of advice is welcome (truly any). Currently, my plan is to tackle the cards with the lower balance (Discover first simply bc the APR is higher), and try to snowball from there. I've been considering debt consolidation (10k loan to pay off the smaller ones) from the same CU I got my car loan through, but I am not sure if this is worth it.

Since everyone has debts here, struggling financially, I hope you all pass these hurdles and hardships. All i want to say is that here are also a lot of young kids who wouldn't want that in future ofc. What's the advice you'd give that can prevent them from getting in debt. Thanks!

What is the best way to go about paying off my credit cards so I don't accrue purchase interest charges out the wazoo? Debt consolidation loans? Or should I just turn the card off?

We paid off our last credit card last week🙌🏻 in the last month we've paid off almost $17k of in credit card debt (we are fortunate my husband got a very generous bonus). I feel like we can finally breathe that there isn't another bill due everytime we turn around.

We are going to add all of the monthly money that would've been going towards cards to start building our savings again.

Alright yall be real with me if this was a stupid decision.

Here’s my debt:

NFCU CC: $25,300 (limit is $25,000) Discover CC: $3,000 Couch loan: $2000 Smile direct :$1900 (stopped paying after their company went bankrupt)

So I signed up for the JG wentworth debt relief thingy. For $500/mo they’ll settle my debts for lower and I only have to pay the $500/mo. Honestly at that point I was pretty desperate because I knew I couldn’t make the nfcu payments and my car loan payments at the same time. They already got the couch loan to $800 & I’m waiting to see what else they can get down.

I know my credit score is going to tank but, I mean how much lower can it go rn🤣. But I just kind of wanted to start over. I don’t know if anyone’s worked with them before but so far it’s going good I think?

I’ve hit that stage where I’m done ignoring my debt and pretending things will magically fix themselves. Between credit cards, a lingering car loan, and some random stuff like vet bills and a store card, I’m sitting at around $32K total. I’m not behind on payments (yet), but I’m just spinning my wheels — barely touching the principal while the interest eats me alive.

I’ve been Googling nonstop and now my brain is overloaded with info: debt snowball, avalanche method, debt consolidation, relief companies, balance transfers, debt validation, even bankruptcy… it’s a lot. Everyone has a different opinion on how to pay off debt, and half the time it depends on who’s trying to sell you something.

What I don’t want is a fake “just skip your daily coffee” type of tip. I’m trying here. I’ve cut back where I can, I’m picking up extra work when possible, and I’m tracking everything in a spreadsheet. I just don’t know where to start to make a real dent in it.

So I’m asking people who’ve actually been through it: what worked for you? How did you stay motivated when the numbers barely moved? Did you use a service, negotiate directly, or just grind it out month by month?

Also — is it even worth trying to save an emergency fund while paying off debt? Or should I just go all in and throw every cent at the balances?

I’ve been seriously considering signing up with Sky Blue for credit repair, but I’m getting whiplash from reading the reviews. Some people swear it changed their lives and that their score jumped 100+ points in a few months. Others are saying it's a waste of money, super slow, or that they just send generic dispute letters anyone could do themselves. I’m stuck in the middle trying to figure out if it’s actually legit or just another overhyped service. I don’t mind paying for help if it actually works, but I’ve been burned before and I’m a little skeptical of companies that promise quick fixes. I’ve already tried doing the dispute process manually and honestly just don’t have the time to stay on top of everything, which is why I’m even considering this. But with how split the Sky Blue reviews are, I’m not sure if I’d just be throwing money away. Has anyone here actually used them recently and seen real results — not just the automated “we’ve sent disputes” kind of thing, but actual score improvements or account removals? Would love some real-world experiences, especially if you’ve compared them to other services.

im hearing doordash isnt really worth it.. Someone made $100 in 5 hours???? CRAZY. Im in school and work so I need something I can do on my own time please and thank you.

I’ve been researching credit repair companies, and The Credit Pros keep popping up with pretty solid ratings on most of the review sites. They’ve been around since 2009, and I’ve seen they offer credit monitoring, unlimited disputes, and even access to FICO-certified experts and budgeting tools. On ConsumerAffairs, they’re rated 4.9 out of 5, and Trustpilot shows them at 4.7. Even the Better Business Bureau gives them an A rating, although the customer reviews there are a bit more mixed.

That said, I’ve also come across some complaints—especially about billing issues and questionable results. A few users on the BBB site mentioned that they were charged even when there wasn’t much progress on their credit reports, and one guy said he got multiple withdrawals without any changes to his score. So now I’m kind of torn. The idea of a professional team handling my disputes and tracking everything sounds great, especially since they offer a 90-day money-back guarantee, but I don’t want to sign up for an expensive monthly plan and feel like I’m just paying for automated letters.

Their plans aren’t cheap either—monthly costs range from $69 to $149, plus an upfront “first work fee” of around the same amount. That’s more than some of the other services I’ve looked into. But if the results are actually solid, I’d be fine paying for it. I’m just not sure if their service is truly worth it or if the high ratings are just marketing.

So now I’m asking: has anyone here actually used The Credit Pros in the past year or so? Did you see real improvements in your score? Did they follow through with what they promised? Or was it just a lot of flashy features without much actual change?

Hello everyone! I am here with one question, should I take a personal loan to pay off my cc debt?

Some info - I have a little less than $9k in credit card debt. I am urgently attempting to do the snowball (avalanche? I can’t remember) method by paying $200 on two of my cards and as much as I can ($300-400) per month. It is hard managing the payments at different times of the month as I am living near paycheck to paycheck. My three credit cards are all around 24-28 % APR. I was looking at a navy federal personal loan that ranges from 9-18% APR for loans up to 36 months. Would it be a good idea to try for a personal loan at a lower rate than my credit cards and just pay as MUCH as possible each month (hopefully more than what my monthly payment is to cut down on interest) or should I just keep going as I am now?

I am a 22 y/o male with a wife and daughter, I am inexperienced in this area and I just want to pay this off ASAP so I can get my shit together. Any advice is greatly appreciated!