I need some guidance… badly. I have accumulated approximately $38,000 in credit card debt and I’m not sure what to do. My wife and I bring in on average $8000-8500 a month, depending on what extra overtime I can generate at my job. The following are our expenses & credit cards
Mortgage $2300
Daycare $3080
Cars (leases) 1200
Auto Insurance $230
Cellphones $230
Internet $140
Electricity $130
Heat – As needed to approximately $500 a fill up every 5 weeks in winter months (propane)
Credit Cards
Chase Amazon Visa $10,978 / $348
Citi Bank $10,264 / $355
Chase Freedom $5982 / $187
Chase Freedom $5697 / $223
Slate Edge $3845 / $40
As you can see, the credit cards are crippling us with the interest rates. I applied for a loan on SoFi for $40k for 5 years at about 15% interest for a $906 to consolidate the credit cards. I haven’t signed to accept the loan yet and wanted to hear what you guys recommend. I do have quite a bit of equity in my mortgage but was told that a HELOC is unwise as it’s a secured loan on my home. Any advice?
Drowning in credit card debt
byu/creatineabuse inpersonalfinance
Posted by creatineabuse
2 Comments
yeah your basic expenses are way too much, basically at 8000 per month before counting food
I can’t say much about whether you’re able to decrease car insurance or whether you can sell a car
I would decrease your phone and Internet bill. You can get very cheap phone plans from Mint
It appears that you are overextended on expenses in relationship to your income. You need to either make more money – second job(s) or cut expenses. You have listed over 7500/mo in expenses not including your credit card debt or food or gas for your cars, gar maintenance, etc, etc. Making $8000 -8500/mo you must not cover all your bills each month. Even with a consolidation loan you are underwater. You need to work on your budget and find a way to fix it, as I said earn more and spend less.