FARK.com: (566882) What's Fark's collective credit card debt? How much do you owe? Any debt resolution suggestions for this Farker?

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(Some (broke) Guy)		What's Fark's collective credit card debt? How much do you owe? Any debt resolution suggestions for this Farker? (consumercredit.com)		315
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2841 clicks; posted to Main » on 20 Jun 2003 at 5:48 PM | Favorite | share:

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AndrewFish		2003-06-20 06:50:53 PM

I'll remember that when I buy my next house.

lordargent		2003-06-20 06:50:53 PM

Heh

http://www.notjustbeans.com/debtcalc.htm

AZSugar		2003-06-20 06:54:25 PM

Rich Dad Poor Dad, excellent advice, great book!!

allthatjazz		2003-06-20 06:55:12 PM

$0.00
It's not that hard to enjoy life, go to school and live within your means.... speaking from single status with four years of school under my belt, paid for... NOT by Daddy, but my the jobs I hold during the summer and during the semester. I worked at home for my parents all through high school, earning roughly a dollar an hour once one figured out how much they gave me per month and how many hours I invested in the family business, and then they cut me off financially at 18. I have a credit card, but rarely use it, and when I do, I pay it off before the bill comes. It's not that tough to pay for school, stay out of debt, and be happy. The thing that pisses me off the most, is when the roommates who whine about money, when their parents are paying for most or all of their schooling... and that they are too "busy" to ever get a job.

Kthulhu		2003-06-20 06:56:02 PM

Let's see...

No credit card debt (don't have one, not especially interested)
No loans
About $500 in state taxes and some miscellaneous debt

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

SamHandwich		2003-06-20 06:57:09 PM

Owe $3100 to VISA.

Cyberluddite		2003-06-20 07:02:21 PM

06-20-03 06:49:21 PM Macaw
. . . . The bankruptsy laws are ultra-liberal right now. If you're really in the shiatter just go bankrupt. These laws are debated in congress every session though so this may not last.

Wrong. They've already been changed. Under the Bankrupcy Reform Act of 2001 pushed through by credit card companies and signed by Dubya, there is now a "means test" for discharging credit card debt in a personal bankruptcy. Anyone with an income that exceeds their basic necessary living expenses by $100 per month or $6000 over 5 years is now disqualified from a Chapter 7 (full discharge) bankruptcy and instead has to go with a Chapter 13 (personal reorganization) bankruptcy. Under a Chapter 13, the debtor has to come up with a repayment plan to pay back the credit card debt, and the plan has to be approved by the creditors.

Of course, the Enrons of the world can still freely declare bankrupcty and avoid their debts. It's only the little people who have to pay back their debts. It's the Bush way.

Jillifer		2003-06-20 07:04:37 PM

$5000 for student loans and $85 on my Visa for the decals I bought for my car last night.

Cyberluddite		2003-06-20 07:06:34 PM

One qualification to my most recent post: I don't know if the numbers listed in there are the final numbers, and I didn't bother to check. That's what the numbers were when the Bankruptcy Reform Act was about to be passed, but it's possible that they were changed. Don't have time to research it right now, though.

AgentPothead		2003-06-20 07:08:42 PM

Debt of $0 but thats almost my net worth.

Cookie69		2003-06-20 07:09:48 PM

I finally crawled my happy arse out of debt a coupla months ago with my tax return, money saved, and money borrowed from family. I got 2 CCs when I turned 18, basically bought a bunch of CRAP with them, maxed them out, and tried to keep my head above water with the huge interest payments for a year or two (had $8K in debt with very little income). I finally got $5K together, offered both companies to do a settlement (accounts were 4 months past due each), and wiped my debt clean.

Of course, now my credit is farked, and my new wife was kind enough to let me join in her debt parade.

I figure, it never ends, I'm not going to stress out about it too much. But I will NEVER spend $$$ with credit cards the way I did again. I can't remember one damn thing I purchased with that thing. They're EVIL! But oh-so-necessary....

/check cards kick ass

Nightsweat		2003-06-20 07:09:59 PM

About $4K in debt for me and $120K for the fiancee who just got out of medical school. Much more than my debt in the bank, but that's for the wedding.

TwistedIvory		2003-06-20 07:10:21 PM

I owe about $3k in credit bills and have a few thou in student loan debts. Not bad until you realize that the job market here is absolutely terrible and I have no way to pay any of my credit debts (now they're all trying to sue me).
I've thought about the big 'B' -- I've also heartily considered on moving to a different country.
(Solution: after I graduate in May, I have plans to move to S. Korea.)

crazy_gaijin		2003-06-20 07:10:26 PM

Currently, I have roughly $4000 in creditcard debt and about $10,000 in student loans. Originally, the cc debt accumulated from 4 cards totalling $6000. I have since gotten a low interest card with a high limit and consolidated it. I pay about $500 per month.

improvius		2003-06-20 07:10:41 PM

Pay off the smallest debts first. Work your way up to the big ones.

-Imp

jonr		2003-06-20 07:10:59 PM

About $1200. And I have been unemployed for almost 7 months. Pretty good when I think about it. Don't even bother to pay off the dept in small amounts because of stupid fixed monthly 'late fee', which is 10x higher than already sky high interests. So I just let it roll until I get a full time job. Pretty stupid system, right?

abdul		2003-06-20 07:11:38 PM

No credit cards, no debt. If I need to buy something expensive, I simply arm myself while I'm carrying any large amount of cash. I suppose the same tactic would work if I did have any CC debts, though.

Pope_Rodger		2003-06-20 07:13:35 PM

$27,000 in college loans.

pomposity		2003-06-20 07:14:27 PM

$200 on a CC.

Nightsweat		2003-06-20 07:14:58 PM

Actually the best strategy is to make more money. It sounds like facetious advice, but it's not. If you can make more money doing a job you'll dislike, but which will get you where you want to be - take the job and suffer for a short time. Just don't let it be a career.

Then, of course, delay gratification. Eat lentils and make your own lunch. Don't drink much. Then, when you have some money saved up you can go nuts.

Cookie69		2003-06-20 07:17:49 PM

man...after checking out these student loan figures, I'm starting to be happy I didn't go to college.

/picks nose

some2		2003-06-20 07:24:27 PM

You don't have to threaten to cancel even. I contacted FirstUSA, my main card (Marriott Rewards), and said.. I have other cards at 7.9% (which I honestly do) and that I want a lower rate. I did not threaten to leave or anything. They gave me 5.9%. Not a teaser.. that's my long term fixed rate. FICO Credit Score is 746.. you can get that rating from one of the three bureaus.. www.experian.com, www.equifax.com, or www.transunion.com. I use creditexpert.com, which is linked to experian. Was $80, and I can track my credit score over time to get a feeling for how changes in my credit affect my score.

For those who pay off every month, this doesn't necessarily build, but it doesn't hurt too much either. Those who carry an occasional balance are on the right track. Those who get a few new cards in a short period.. beware. If your average length of credit is less than 3 years, you'll lose a significant chunk of FICO score (primary automated scoring method). I am only 22, so my credit history is only 4 years long anyway. A new card now would drop my credit rating a bit.

Also, inquiries (attempts to acquire credit) will drop your credit, if you have too many or too few. Too many is generally > 10 in a 2 year period. Too few is < 2 in a 2 year period. Credit inquiries happen a few times in your day-to-day life. 1) credit check for an apartment / mortgage, 2) apply for a credit card or other unsecured credit, 3) apply for any type of secured financing (typically cars, jewelry, or furniture (which are now credit cards in some cases)).

My girlfriend's sister had a card at 12.9% w/ $5k on it. She called and said she just graduated college (which she did) and that she was trying to pay down debt. They cut her rate to 2.9% for the life of the balance.

Good luck all.

PS, mine is currently $20k for car, $6k on credit card. $13k in 401k, $5k in business savings, and $1k in personal savings... so I'm not doing too bad.

Torchsong		2003-06-20 07:27:45 PM

$45 I owe next month...damn good thing, too since I joined the American workforce (8 million unemployed and growing).

Credit cards are nice, but only if you use them responsibly. Don't buy anything you can't pay off. Don't spend money you don't have. Don't eat out every day. Use your public library. Budget. Pay cash upfront or don't buy it.

Basically everything your parents told you was true...

blazemik		2003-06-20 07:27:50 PM

I thought most of the people on this farking site were under 12 years old...

/poops his diaper

CreepyNeighborGuy		2003-06-20 07:31:18 PM

I paid off my piddling 4k debt 6 or 7 years ago.

I did it by making a rule that I will not buy anything on credit that I can't pay off that month unless it's a real emergency like getting the car fixed. (no new debts) (not including a house or car with fixed payments, of course.)

Second, I paid the minimum payment on the cards with the lowest interest rate, and paid as much as I could on the cards with the highest interest. Didn't take long before most of my debt was on the low-interest cards.

After a couple of years, I was debt free.

The net effect of this is that I am pretty dang frugal. I don't buy stuff I don't really need, except very rarely. I have to justify it pretty well first.

The nice thing about it is I can buy stuff I really want without having to pay for it twice. Once for the item, and once for the interest.

SofaKing		2003-06-20 07:33:56 PM

Blazemik: Physically or Mentally?

muck1969		2003-06-20 07:35:55 PM

Currently $15

Hardly use my credit card, requested that my limit stays at $500, pay the full balance whenever I can.

I learned my lesson on my first credit card. Debit Cards are a better option. I hope my wisdom will help someone out there.

entrekken		2003-06-20 07:37:08 PM

$0!
I signed onto experian's and equifax's credit watch programs to monitor my credit rating. Once I signed onto those two, I learned that some of the information they had on me was way wrong!
back in the day before online billpay, it was really hard for me pay my bills on time working two jobs and going to school full time. Now with online billpay available to most of us we have no excuse not to pay bills on time, monitor our cash flow or check our credit rating periodically. If you can fark then you can pay your bills online and on time (and even early to avoid interest charges)
I agree with cookie69 check cards are a nice alternative!

pxlboy		2003-06-20 07:40:02 PM

roughly $4500

cryinoutloud		2003-06-20 07:41:14 PM

About $500 in debt, except for the student loan...the most I've ever been. And I'm about to start graduate school, as an out-of-state student. $11,000 tuition the first year. Yahoo! I'm about to become an average American...in debt up to my ass.

rmz		2003-06-20 07:44:11 PM

$500. Going to have that paid off in about a month, though...full-time summer jobs rock.

meow!		2003-06-20 07:46:43 PM

Roughly $5000...I'm in debt consolidation at the moment (mine is CCCS, website of the same name, I believe), it works pretty well as long as you stay on their asses, otherwise weird annoying things will occur...

my student loan is 20K & rising due to interest...think i'll end up being one of those 30-year people...

Cookie69		2003-06-20 07:48:22 PM

to all the people with degrees and thousands of dollars owed in student loans: was it worth it? or would you have rather braved the workworld with no degree and had considerably less debt? I just don't understand why tuition is so friggin' outrageously priced.

/slightly off topic

lawnmowerdeth		2003-06-20 07:50:33 PM

Think anyone is scanning these to find farkers with good credit to h4x0r? :)

just some girl		2003-06-20 07:53:10 PM

Listen to dave ramsey. Public radio. Or just go to daveramsey.com

lawnmowerdeth		2003-06-20 07:55:34 PM

Cookie69: HELL YES IT WAS WORTH IT!
Before I went to college I was working in a factory for $8 an hour on 3rd shift. Even without the debt, I would never have been able to afford the BMW Z3, which I just traded in for a Nissan 350Z, that sits in my own garage. I'd still have my '82 Honda Civic wagon parked in my parents' driveway.

Frag		2003-06-20 08:02:16 PM

$1,500 on the credit card, $20K on the car. All American.

Siren313		2003-06-20 08:02:50 PM

A good amount of my debt came from shaking up with a biatch who had no credit or money and managed to nickle and dime me to death. Then, well I bought a bunch of studio crap. My debt is about 7K in credit cards, but I've paid them down many times before, so I am not too worried. Plus 3K of that is at 0%. I do think the "payment protection" bullshiat they offer is a scam. It makes you MORE in debt by only making minimum payments, plus shows up on your report anyway!

Frag		2003-06-20 08:03:14 PM

Re-read the question, I'm an idiot. Car NOT on credit card.

pearly8067		2003-06-20 08:05:11 PM

$1500 on credit card, $25,000 in ever amounting student loans! yay capitalism.

Gryffindor71		2003-06-20 08:06:49 PM

I currently owe about $30 on a credit card. If we're looking at overall debt, I owe $14,000 on two cars I'm currently making payments on. That's it.

MorningBreath		2003-06-20 08:08:24 PM

No credit card debt that isn't paid off monthly, or in three months at most. When I can I make large purchases in cash. Most people are willing to give a good discount(I got my wife her engagement ring that way.) I also prepay for vacations. It saves a lot of money, and allows me to bring more when I'm there. My trip this summer was paid for in february, and my vacation last fall was paid 9 months in advance. I also buy my Christmas presents in the summer, so I don't have to worry or shop come the holidays.I've got the system figured out. No I just have to make sure I don't get fired, and I'm all set.

No voting because I am sure this has all been said already.

Beemer		2003-06-20 08:14:35 PM

ZERO! Had problems about 5 years ago, and am happily out of them.

Of course, I have student loans and just bought a 3-year-old minivan.

I consistently put 10% of my pay in my retirement account, and buy company stock with another 10% to save for a house, so it gets a bit tight to get everything paid, but we're managing.

mw451		2003-06-20 08:14:41 PM

$15,000

And damn, I thought that was bad. But seeing some with $40,000+ debt, I feel better.... NOT.

Oh, didn't include mortgage of $98,000, just re-fied...

Cyberluddite		2003-06-20 08:14:45 PM

Impossible to say, Cookie69. It depends on what kind of degree you're going to get, and what you plan to do with it, as well as what other non-degree options you might have open to you.

I racked up about $40K in loans myself, which I paid off a few years ago. Zero loans in undergrad, because I went to my state university while working and spent as little money as possible, and the $40K was racked up in a private college while getting my post-graduate professional degree. It would have been more like $100K over those three years of post-grad work, but I was at the top of my class after the first year and the school offered me scholarships and tuition waivers for all of the next two years' worth of tuition, to keep me from transferring to a more top-tier school. But even if I had been forced to borrow the full $100K like most of my classmates, I make more than that amount in a year now, and would make 2 or 3 times that if I wanted to work harder and never see my wife and kid. So it was worth it.

So yeah, for me it worked out fine. It's unlikely I'd make anything like what I'm making without my degree, and I would definitely have to be in another line of work because a professional degree is legally required for my profession. But I have classmates that are still struggling to pay off their loans and aren't making much money at all or have been unemployed for long periods of time, and undoubtedly it would have worked out better for them financially if they would have just forgotten about going to college and just started working instead.

There are lots of unemployed people out there today, but fewer college grads are unemployed. It's probably worth it, but YMMV.

ascicles		2003-06-20 08:16:41 PM

I owe $0.

volney		2003-06-20 08:16:46 PM

100 Million Dollar!
/a vote for me, is a vote for student loans!
/whatever

volney		2003-06-20 08:18:23 PM

100 Million Dollars!
/a vote for me, is a vote for student loans!
/whatever

...now with 100% more voting.

DaCricket		2003-06-20 08:22:29 PM

Well, I WAS $20,000.00 in the hole on credit cards.

Two years later, I now have about $300. And that's only because I got on Amazon last night. My secret??

US Gov job, overseas location. Yes, Japan is expensive, but I still had enough money to pay off all my cards. And I just paid cash for a business class ticket to the states.

Meepzoid		2003-06-20 08:24:27 PM

I owe zero, count 'em ZERO bucks.

Of course, I ain't got a credit card---never had, never will---but still!

The student loan's down to 3500 or so---does that count?

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