How Americans Get Out of Credit Card Debt

What happened to "stop buying things you don't need"? I had a friend tell me he was considering a consumer loan because repaying his other loans didn't leave him with enough money.<p>I swear, it's as if people have never seen money before.

i rang up about 5k in credit card debt. six months ago, i decided to put my nose to the grindstone and get it done.<p>i paid my last $600 off this morning.<p>i stopped buying unnecessary shit, stopped eating out all the time, and most importantly, made payments -every- time i possibly could. if i opened my bank account online and had $400 left in checking, i'd put $250 into the card. if i had $200 left, i'd put $100. there are a whole boatload of $50 payments and many even smaller.<p>just start paying and don't stop until it's gone. pay your bills, stay fed, and whenever you have money left over, move it to your credit card. try to make a small payment every couple days. just focus on that damn number and make it smaller every single opportunity you have until it reads "0".<p>i also made enough during this period to pay for a trip to jamaica in cash. i only make $39,500 yearly so it's not like i'm hauling in bags of dough, but focusing on my credit card debt also had some interesting side effects - like learning money management and learning how to save WHILE paying down old debts.<p>it got to the point that i found more joy in moving $50 to my credit card than going out and dropping $50 on drinks over the weekend. it's funny, but all that stuff that i just 'had' to buy before ...... it turns out i didn't. imagine that.

OT: A blog peeve of mine is when you read a blog and want to visit the home page but can't find the link. Out of years of systematic reflex, I clicked the logo in the upper left, only to get the blog home. After a little link hovering I discovered the "try it out" button goes to the home page, but to me that means sign up, not read more about it. If you're going to use your blog for marketing, make it really easy for visitors to visit the home page. Don't make me think!

They have a chart showing how people get out of debt, and the chart seriously does not include the option "pay your damn bills?"<p>I'm reminded of statistics saying that the average wedding costs $28k or whatever. The reality turns out to be something like "among weddings arranged by a professional wedding planner, the average cost is 28k".<p>I hope they aren't putting together a funding pitch equating the "1/3 of American's have credit card debt" with "1/3 of Americans have enough debt that they need outside help managing it" as this chart implies.

So my question is what about people that aren't in debt, but need help improving their credit score? I had a lot of debt from about 5-10 years ago and it killed my credit score. The debt has all been paid off for a few years, I haven't had credit cards in years, and I still have a few notices from closed accounts that won't fall off for a few years.<p>So I'm currently doing what I can to remove the closed notices and have had some minor success. But a lot of people don't know the <i>right</i> things to do to improve their scores.<p>Having a service that tracks the 3 credit bureaus and provides guidance on steps to take to bring your score up would be mighty useful.

In the context of getting out of debt: Is anyone a Dave Ramsey listener here? I've been an avid listener for a few years now. I recommend his podcast to everyone -- not only for the financial advice, but also for the cultural education about what America really is.

"How Americans get out of credit card debt."<p>Don't most of them just pay it off? Sure takes a long time, but eventually don't most people pay what they owe?<p>BTW, there are only about 1.5Million bankruptcies in the US every year ... that's &#60;1% of borrowers. So I wouldn't use it as the first kind of "traditional option".

The infographic reads that 1/3 of Americans have credit card debt and further below that over 100 MM Americans carry a balance from month to month.<p>1. Isn't carrying a balance from month to month the definition of "credit card debt"?<p>2. As of July 2009, the US population is about 307 million people.<p>That would mean that virtually everybody with a credit card carries a balance from month to month. That's simply not true.

Is their business model subscription based or recommendation (like Mint) based? I don't know if I would trust anything from a company like this if I was already in debt. Usually people already feel screwed over. They should really work on PR and branding so people feel like they can trust then.

I got my RFZ invite code the other day and took the 10 minutes it required to get my credit cards in the system and play with its tools.<p>I found it to be SO much simpler than Mint, which I've just ignored for more than a year now.<p>With RFZ, I can quickly see that if I stopped using my cards and paid X per month for 3 years, I'm out of debt and am only paying about 15% more over what I owe. Thats not so bad when you consider the alternatives.<p>Now, I think I underestimated what I can afford to pay, so hopefully I look at my bank account one day and see there's a few extra thousand that I don't need to save and can immediately put that on a card. Feels like I'll be better off much sooner than 3 years.<p>Mint can do this, I know, but again — the simplicity of the experience of RFZ is top notch.

Hi,<p>I don't have much CC debt right now, at all. What I do have is Student Debt, and bags of it.<p>I've rummaged through the relevant federal repayment and waiver options, and I don't see any efficient ways for a software engineer to deal with the debt except "push as much money at it as fast as possible". Loan management options seem to extend debt payments out to about 30-40 years, which generates some eye-hurtingly huge interest payments over time. (think 1.5x the original loan amount).<p>One of the nasty little twists in federal student loans is that bankruptcy won't affect them. They do have various deferment plans, but those can keep the interest ticking along, which can be harsh if loans are large.<p>So: my question is: does readyforzero.com have any plans to work on student loan debt in the future?

Wondering how many people use the consolidators who promise to manage down your debt by acting as midddlemen between you and collectors? What advantages (if any) does Ready for Zero offer over this method?<p>It took me 11 years to pay off 2 credit cards, and I'm still petrified to go into CC debt again. Will Ready for Zero also eventually offer planning tools for saving up for a big ticket item like a new MacBook Air so that I don't have to pull out a CC to purchase it?

I love this idea, but I've been getting "We're sorry, our server is under heavy load. Please try again." during the verify phase for the last few days.

I wonder how many people that declare bankruptcy own a big flat screen TV with a DirectTV subscription with at least one premium package (Showtime, HBO, etc)?

as long as there is money in society there always will be dept. if consumers pay off all their dept on credit cards. if homeowners pay off all their mortgage dept for property. if all small businesses pay off their dept. if all institutions pay off their dept. if all banks pay off their dept to investors, foundations, etc. if all states pay off their dept to banks, IMF and other organizations.<p>in other words, if every single individual or organization pays of their dept there wont be a single dollar bill in circulation which means an end to our current system, which is something most people do not want to happen (no matter how broken and inefficient it is)