40-year-old paid off $20,000 in credit card debt, then stopped using them completely: ‘I was more than happy to cut them up'But she didn't always feel that way.
However, she eventually began using it for more expensive purchases, such as flights to see friends who lived in different states. She also began opening retail credit cards, which tend to come with lower spending limits and higher interest rates than bank credit cards.While Leslie recognized she would eventually need to clear her credit card debt, she didn't prioritize paying off her full balance each month, which caused her debt to skyrocket due to costly interest charges.
"To a credit bureau, it looked like one month I had an available line of credit for $5,000 and then the next month I had an available line of credit of $1,000," Leslie says."It would read as if I was exceeding my limits."Eventually, Leslie realized she wasn't going to be able to manage her credit card debt on her own. That's when her mom suggested using GreenPath, a financial wellness and debt counseling service.
After getting rid of her credit cards, she focused on consistently making those payments for six years. By 2018, she had cleared her credit card debt.