Credit Card Victim

I get paid fortnightly and have automatic deductions in place to pay my credit cards and consolidation loan.

In total, each fortnight I am transferring $540 to reduce my debt balance. I also get a little bit of extra income from a few of my websites (less than $100 a month but I’m working on that) which I divert to my credit card balances.

The unfortunate part is that I have about $150 in regular payments for insurance and web hosting being paid from my credit card. It’s basically a convenience thing. but when you add to this the amount of interest I’m paying then I’m going nowhere near reducing the debt by the $1000 a month I’d like to be.

I need to bring in more money!

It’s time to put my cards on the table and tell everyone just how much of the deep stuff I’m in. I’ve just reviewed all online credit card statements and things aren’t pretty.

At this point in time I have three active credit cards as well as a consolidation loan. I also have an inactive credit card that I got two years ago because it offered a 0% balance transfer. Unfortunately they offered me such a low limit that it wasn’t worth initiating the card because by the time the extra annual fee was taken into account I wasn’t actually saving anything.

So without further ado here is my state of financial ruin.

Gold Card One $8,036 (limit $8,000)

Gold Card Two $15,065 (limit $15,000)

Plain Card $2,964 (limit $3,000)

Consolidation Loan $14,000 (approx*)

I’ve been in denial for some time now and while I was aware of the separate balances I haven’t added them all together until now.

The Grand Total is $40,065

* the consolidation loan sends me a statement every six months, from memory the balance was around this amount last time I got a statement.

It’s been quite a while since my last post. And my debt has been growing.

I’m fully aware I’ve been getting myself further into debt, but I’m also happier than I’ve been in a long time. The debt is manageable on a week to week basis, but I need to start putting away some money for the future, so I’m keener than ever to kick this debt in the butt.

Since my last post I have :

• moved house
• gone without a home internet connection for two months
• celebrated Christmas and new year
• Been on a couple of 4 day camping trips
• Bought a Kayak on my credit card
• Gone away to the mainland for a 5 day weekend (ony paid for airfare and food)
• Gone away to the mainland for work three times (fully paid by work)
• Blown out my debt to worse that it was when I started this site.
• Got myself a girlfriend (she is/was living on said mainland, hence 5 day weekend)
• Booked a 7 night overseas holiday for myself and girlfriend (more debt)
• Provisionally sold a couple of domain names I don’t need any more.

There’s probably a few more things that I haven’t mentioned, but it’s been a busy time.

Watch this space.