Saying Goodbye to Credit Card Debt
Guess who no longer has credit card debt - THIS GIRL!!!!!
Last night I was in bed using the Mint.com app on my phone, and I noticed that my direct deposit hit early. I earned exactly enough from my second job ($305) to pay off my Dell card. So I jumped out of bed, ran to the computer, and scheduled the payment.
I got the Dell card in 2003. I remember thinking I would never max it out because the limit was $3500, and who spends that much on electronics? Well, apparently I do. Over the 4 years that I used the card, I bought a laptop, a desktop, a Dell Axim PDA (anyone remember those things?), a camcorder, two flat screen TVs…. Yeah, I maxed it out. Sadly, I don’t even own any of those things anymore.
At one point, Dell thought I was trying to steal my own identity (long story) and locked me out of my account. I couldn’t make payments or even talk to customer service. Finally, I found email addresses for some important people at Dell on Consumerist, which I used to plead my case and get the missed payments removed from my credit report.
Looking back over my payment history, it cost me around $6200 to pay off that $3500 in debt over 8 years. That’s ridiculous, especially since I don’t even have anything to show for it. My slight obsession with shiny new techy things did nothing but cause me throw money down the toilet. And while I still love gadgets (like my iPad), I save up for them now instead of relying on credit. And it feels awesome to get something new and know that it’s paid for.
So now I have to figure out what to do with the $130 a month I’m no longer sending to Merrick, Orchard, Dell, or Target (or some combination thereof). For now, I’m going to save the money as backup for starting my new job. After that, though, I’m thinking I need to put it toward my car payment. I’d be making a $500 car payment instead of the minimum $300 (I pay $360 now), so my car would be paid off in September 2013, 18 months ahead of schedule. That money could then be rolled onto my student loans, paying them off before I hit my 40s, which is definitely the goal.
For right now, though, I’m just going to take some time to be excited!
Congratulations! I bet that is a great feeling, I can't wait until next month we'll be doing the same thing!
Congratulations Andrea! Do you cancel your credit cards after you pay them off? I have a few cards open that I will never use and I really need to close them out.
I'm leaving them open. While I will NEVER again carry credit card debt, I need the boost on my credit scores/reports. The more available credit I'm not using, the better my scores will be. I do use one of the cards to pay some of my bills each month, then I pay it off.
CONGRATS! That's awesome.
Congrats!
AWESOME!!! I bet you feel so relieved! Congrats!!
Yay! Congrats!! Isn't it crazy how the things we buy on credit often don't last as long as the bill does??
Good job!
I can't to know that credit card debt feeling myself.
Wohoo! Congratulations! That has got to be such a great feeling
Way to go!! That's awesome. I'm a little jealous.
Doing a celebratory happy dance for you over here
CONGRATS!
That's so exciting! Congratulations Andrea!
Way to go! Paying off debt is such a great feeling!
Huge congratulations! You must feel such relief to have that paid off and be debt free! Fantastic!
And OUCH on having paid $6200 for $3500 worth of stuff!!
I know, right? It makes me sick. But at least I can look at that now and say never again!
Congratulations!!!!! This is amazing news!!!
Thanks to all for being as excited as I am! I hope those of you who are working to pay off CC debt get there quickly. It's an amazing feeling!
Congratulations! It's so fun to kill the debts. I still have my student loan which will be gone within 6 months and then it's only the mortgage.
Congratulations! It's such a good feeling to kill off a debt.
I have one remaining non-mortgage bill will be done within six months.
congratulations! what an awesome feeling
U-RAH!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations. I am sure the feeling is wonderful. I have 2 more car payments to go so will be using the money for other debt.