“Dear Steve,
I did not realize that the interest racks up a credit card biil like it does. One late payment (about 1 hour late) has made my interest go up to astronomical proportions. I haven’t used my card in over a year. I pay regular payments, my bill goes even highr with each payment. I have probably charges about $1,200 over 5 years but my bill is over 4,000!
How can I possibly pay this credit card off? It’s like I am not even paying anything on it every month because the balance NEVER goes down. The card company said I could hve it paid off in 5 years if I paid $300 a month. Who can make that kind of payment? I am sacred to death that I will never get this thing paid off!
Susan”
Steve Rhode is the Get Out of Debt Guy and has been helping good people with bad debt problems since 1994. You can learn more about Steve, here.
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You need to look at the total fees being charged each month (interest, late fees, online payment fees, membership fees) and see if any of those can be removed. You need to make their ‘minimum’ payment but make sure you are covering all the costs being added or you will never pay on principal. Once you have that figured out, analyze all your spending. Can you find a restaurant dinner to cut or a weekend trip not to take? Do you really need premium movie channels etc? Put that money on the credit card too. Start clipping coupons- look at grocerygame.com. I have been saving around $250/mo doing that and it definitely helps. Also, if you haven’t looked into insurance rates in a while call a agent that can analyze several companies for you. You may be able to save money doing that which could then be applied to the credit card.