How much do you owe CCs?

[hulagirl87]

I would love to have no credit card debt! Unfortunately that's not the case. I'm not going to write how much we are in debt because no one else here seems to have any! You are all really lucky to be able to pay things off every month and now I am depressed.

 

[luvsJack]

Well, if you don't have anything in savings; doesn't DR recommend that you put $1000 in an emergency fund before doing anything else? And then take the rest of it and put toward the cc.

As for the question, we have a little less than $600 owed on 2 cards. I used them for an emergency (see, I could have used that $1000; if I had saved it!). Well actually it was two emergencies.

I plan to pay them in full shortly. Dh just made some changes to his employment that will increase his income and all of the increase will go to paying off any debt we owe.

Oh, and if you need dental work; get that done, put back some if you don't have it already, and pay the rest to cc.

 

[Amy&Dan]

I would love to have no credit card debt! Unfortunately that's not the case. I'm not going to write how much we are in debt because no one else here seems to have any! You are all really lucky to be able to pay things off every month and now I am depressed.

You are not alone! I think on threads like these, most peope who answer have no debt to speak of and therefore don't have the shame and embarrassment of admitting they have debt. Believe me, look at how many people opened this thread vs. posted on it and that will tell you many for whatever reason didn't respond. Probably because they thought "no way am I admitting that"!

We have cc debt too. Not as much as we once did and we are paying it off slow but sure. But things like dh losing his job, helping some family members, lots of emergencies in the past year, have made for some tough times. And yes, I will admit, too many trips to WDW! But we have learned our lesson and God willing, the bad times are over long enough to get our heads above water again.

Its not a crime to owe on cc's and its the norm sadly enough.

 

[NikitaZee]

I would love to have no credit card debt! Unfortunately that's not the case. I'm not going to write how much we are in debt because no one else here seems to have any! You are all really lucky to be able to pay things off every month and now I am depressed.

Don't worry hulagirl - you're not alone! We have credit card debt too - had to, when my husband was out of work for a bit. And yes - we're going on a Disney vacation anyway - we've made a lot of progress with our bills and life is good! BTW - almost 900 people have viewed this thread but only 42 replies - says to me that ALOT of people are carrying CC debt too but just don't feel comfortable disclosing it here.

ETA - Amy&Dan - I don't type fast enough - my post is so similar to yours a couple of minutes ahead of me

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

You need to see a dentist, use some of the money to pay the dentist to start your work and put the rest on your CC.

Thank you, I am, my sister's dentist will do a payment plan. Interest free for 18 months. I could afford $100-$200 a month, I could not afford a large sum of $2000 at once.

 

[ead79]

We used to have quite a bit of credit card debt, and it really is a drag. Now that we have finally paid it off, it's like a huge weight has been lifted. Now onward to DH's student loans and our DVC loan. And don't let folks get you down--just make a plan to pay down the debt and stick to it. You can do it!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Don't worry hulagirl - you're not alone! We have credit card debt too - had to, when my husband was out of work for a bit. And yes - we're going on a Disney vacation anyway - we've made a lot of progress with our bills and life is good! BTW - almost 900 people have viewed this thread but only 42 replies - says to me that ALOT of people are carrying CC debt too but just don't feel comfortable disclosing it here.

ETA - Amy&Dan - I don't type fast enough - my post is so similar to yours a couple of minutes ahead of me

Great minds think alike! I always read these threads since my debt bothers me A LOT and I always hope a bunch of people will come on and say "oh yeah we have x amount of debt" to make me feel better. It never happens!

I admire people who have no debt and want to be one of those soon. We are working hard to make that happen and it feels good!

I also just looked some stuff up, and it appears the average American family as of the end of 2008, had around $8300 in cc debt. With the bad economy and a lot of people out of work, I'd imagine that number is a bit higher now.

 

[KirstenB]

I'm carrying a balance of $2200. What I'm really kicking myself about is a 20k HELOC we took out a couple of years ago. We had a long-planned addition to the house that we knew would run us 10k (dh did the work himself, except for installing the floors). Unfortunately, our well failed, and we needed a new one, which was 7k. Add into that our younger dd was dx'd with autism the same year, more $$ flying out the window for treatment, etc. It feels like we've been paying $300 a month on that forever!!

Anyway, like that commercial, life comes at you fast!

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

We have low CC debt, but it is there. We are still going on vacation. We have almost no debt other than our mortgage - way below 40% of my monthly income after taxes - so we don't sweat it. Yeah, we could pay it off, but the last time we carried no CC debt for a few years, it significantly hurt our credit score. You figure that one out...

 

[NikitaZee]

We have low CC debt, but it is there. We are still going on vacation.

So happy to hear someone else admit this here on the DIS!! People have been flogged for this very statement around here...

 

[AristocatFan]

Okay, I'll be the minority and I'm not afraid to admit it. We have 26K just in CC debt. We started DR this past fall and so far have got our EF funded and are now tackling the smallest credit card. One day at a time..........

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

So happy to hear someone else admit this here on the DIS!! People have been flogged for this very statement around here...

Life is too short to wait for everything to be "perfect" to live it...

 

[Amy&Dan]

So happy to hear someone else admit this here on the DIS!! People have been flogged for this very statement around here...

I guess we are getting braver!

Honestly, everyone I know is very sensitive on this subject.

And count me as a flogged person. When you put in your sig how many times you've been on a Disney vacation and even hint you have debt, it can get very, very ugly. Hopefully a certain poster who got on my case isn't going to visit this thread because frankly, I don't have the energy to deal with him right now!

I look back on some of my "foolish" purchases and I can't say that most of them I'd undo. The trips to the beach and WDW we took my mom on before she died come to mind. I"ll take being a fool with money any day while I live those memories over and over!

 

[NikitaZee]

I guess we are getting braver!

Honestly, everyone I know is very sensitive on this subject.

And count me as a flogged person. When you put in your sig how many times you've been on a Disney vacation and even hint you have debt, it can get very, very ugly. Hopefully a certain poster who got on my case isn't going to visit this thread because frankly, I don't have the energy to deal with him right now!

I've had two glasses of wine with my dinner tonite - I'm in just in the mood for a debate like that!! For some reason, I am braver with my posts when I'm tipsy

 

[bumbershoot]

So happy to hear someone else admit this here on the DIS!! People have been flogged for this very statement around here...

Actually, people who are in debt AND drowning in it, at wit's end, no money to pay for anything but their minimums and trips...THOSE are the ones generally flogged.

Not the ones who just have some debt but it's not destroying their lives...

Believe me, look at how many people opened this thread vs. posted on it and that will tell you many for whatever reason didn't respond. Probably because they thought "no way am I admitting that"!

Could also be people like me who might have car & DVC loans, but no CC debt, and didn't want to glom onto the rest of the Zero answers.



OP, you have this huge amount of money coming to you. Why make payments? I assume you have NO savings, no emergency fund? FYI, that's what emergency funds are for, to pay for emergency dental work. So if you have no emergency fund, fund one with 2K, then pay for your dental work with that fund!

Use the other 5500 for the CCs.

I had no idea you had a CC that you could use, when you were worried about paying for dental work...if you HAVE the CC, and you have a huge problem that you have to throw money at, use it! And if you have a giant windfall just as you are needing to have dental work done, *use that money* for it!

That way you will have 5500 of your CC debt gone, which means you can start to refill that emergency fund faster.

 

[JDUCKY]

$1300 left to pay off (out of $2000 total). Paid off in 26 more days!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We attempt to follow Dave Ramsey (and I use *attempt* loosely b/c we are proceeding to go against his advice in purchasing a second home for a move and doing nothing with our first home and managin the mortgages on both).

We have only our DVC loan remaining (about $13K) and an official $30K deficit on our present home in value. (actually higher, but unofficial as homes are at a standstill on sales).

Usually with big pays like that--we apportion part of the amount to a debt and set aside a little bit for fun.

If the big pay would pay off something--we would pay it off.

We try to balance responsibility with fun.

We would also adjust our withholdings to avoid such a big payout on a tax refund (unless it was a one time credit such as the homebuyer credit or an adoption credit or something).

And while we follow Dave loosely--we do not suspend our life due to active debt. We just do not have that fire under our rears and we are okay with that. It is *personal* finance for a reason. We've been stuck in BS2 for a long time and we are fine with that. But we are more responsible than we used to be.

 

[Silent1CB]

$0 for at least the past 7 years.
Use it for everything & pay it off monthly before bill even comes in. They pay us cash rewards.

It wasn't always like that though. At one point YEARS & YEARS ago, we owed $16,000. Young & stupid. Never going to do that again. Sick part was we had 2 incomes back then too. We've been 1 income for 4 years now and still haven't had a month where we couldn't pay it off.

I grew up with a dad who taught me good financial lessons and that debt was bad. Got out into the real world and thought I was smart and could handle it. Blew it early & took a long time to fix that. Went back to what I was taught & never going to mess up again. Debt worries me sick. Even our mortgage is gone now.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

Thank goodness $0! It took us a long time to get there but finally made it

 

[Amy&Dan]

Actually, people who are in debt AND drowning in it, at wit's end, no money to pay for anything but their minimums and trips...THOSE are the ones generally flogged.

Not the ones who just have some debt but it's not destroying their lives...



Could also be people like me who might have car & DVC loans, but no CC debt, and didn't want to glom onto the rest of the Zero answers.

And just to let you know, if you post on the DVC Board and say you have a loan on your contract, well, it can get you beat to heck over there. On that board, if you follow the trend, you will assume that very few finance their DVC when in fact the vast majority do. Again, I think people are loathe to admit debt around here because I am sorry, it can get ugly.

I don't drown in debt, and I don't just pay minimums. But yeah, I got flogged one time. And I know you weren't referring to me, but I have to say it can and does happen.

I still say the fact that over 900 people have opened a thread that has only a couple of pages of responses could very well indicate a lot of people do carry debt but have learned around here to keep that fact to themselves or just consider it too personal to post about. Which is probably smart!