The phone was ringing off the hook with collections departments hassling me to pay my debts. It was definitely time to get my stuff in order and pay off my credit card debts for good. I had a decent job, so I figured I could turn it around fairly quickly, so I went to the internet to look for articles and advice on how to fix my situation.

I got a hold of all of my statements to take a look at my interest rates. I realized that I hadn’t been paying attention and my rates were sky-high, practically 30% in most cases. This was totally out of control. I realized a new dining room furniture set I’d just bought at a bargain was going to cost a whole lot more than the price I paid in the store. I had about six credit cards going, with combined debt of nearly $15,000.

So the articles I read recommended I next destroy my credit cards, so I did. I just took a pair of scissors and cut them up into tiny little pieces. I had fun with it and really shredded them, and they ended up all over the carpet. I pulled out my dyson upright vacuum cleaner and sucked up all the little bits of plastic and felt totally liberated.

Next I organized my debts in order of which ones had the highest and lowest balances. If you pay off the lowest balances first, you can snowball the effect of paying off your debts a lot quicker. So I did that, and in my very first month killed one debt. As time went by more and more credit cards were successfully paid off. By the end of year 3, I had only two cards left!

I still had a few thousand left to pay, so I called my creditors and asked them to lower my rates. It took a while but I finally got them to agree. All I had to do was ask, and my rates had dropped from almost 30% to only about 9%! Now it was going to be even easier to knock my debt out by reducing those finance fees.

Now I’ve learned to spend much more wisely. If I have to pay credit, I tell myself I don’t need it. I still keep a couple of cards open for emergency use, but it’s not like before when I’d just use a card to buy lunch.

The feeling you get in managing your debt is amazing. Knowing I’ll never get calls again from debt collectors and collection agencies means I can sleep soundly every single night on my full size loft bed.