On Monday, I wrote a diary titled "You Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine: Credit Card Debt," which turned into a frank yet polite discussion amongst Kossacks about credit card debt and how to pull yourself out of it.
The conversation was extremely helpful, and I recommend anyone who missed it to read the above link and excellent advice given by Kossacks who had freed themselves from tens of thousands of dollars of debt.
Thanks to that advice and suggestions by those who commented, I have since:
- Asked all three of my credit card companies to lower my APR due to my long history with each as a reliable customer who pays on time. Two of the companies agreed without problem. My highest card is now 29%, my next highest is 21%, and my lowest is 14%.
- I paid three times the minimum on the two highest interest cards, and began transferring the balance of the 29% card to the 14% card (no transfer fees at all). I had initially been scared to use my savings to pay down my credit card debt, but as one commenter pointed out, the credit cards carry more interest than my savings are earning, and I can't really consider myself to be saving money until I'm free of debt.
- Since Monday, my $3500 debt is already down to $3275, and I completely paid off my Macy's department store card (only had a balance of $30, but it feels good to have one card completely paid down).
- I started transfering a bit of each paycheck into a seperate checking account, which I am using for the sole purpose of paying off my credit cards. It's a checking account that earns 4.5% interest, which is fantastic, so I'm glad to be earning money toward paying off my debt.
Thank you all so much for helping me with this. I feel very positive about the progress that I know I will make with my new plan of action, to keep paying off the 14% and transfering the other balances to that card. But while a lot of this seems like basic knowledge, I didn't understand or was too scared to try before. So I really owe my progress completely to Kos.