[JesikaFlpk]

What mother would allow her kid to spend $4500 on a present for her? Especially while she's there with you. I could see you spending that money if you're 30-40 and making $100k+ a year but correct me if I'm wrong, you seem to be in HS/college and have a part time job.

I always thought that kids will cost me money and that's why I have none. But damn, if they'll be droping $5k on a present for me few times a year I'll guess I'll make me some.

Honey, prepare to mount tonight!

[DJkillos]

Youre a prick for spending $4500 on earings for your mother as an impulse buy and she is just as bad for letting you do it.

*Checks Profile*

Oh lord, he's only 19...

[Farson]

I could sell some stock and pay everything in full, but I'd rather not, I need another way out.

[adolfadsermens]

Xfer the highest APR card you have to the 0% card - bear in mind there are probably fees associated with the balance transfer.

Some people say pay off your smallest balances first to serve as a visual indicator that you are making progress versus a high balance where it may take months or years before you see the difference and I can see the benefit in that.

My recommendation - pay off the highest APR first then pay the rest down to half of your credit limit then from there go to 30% to be safe then start picking the lowest balances and get them paid off so by the time you're done - you have your highest left and can put even more money to paying it off since the smaller ones are now paid off and you can put that money towards it.

There's nothing wrong with using credit cards - in fact, having payment history is good on your credit report for a card so don't cancel a card, keep it open - just don't go out and charge something you can't pay off in one bill cycle, don't max it out and don't charge anything on it that'll put you more than 30% of your credit limit.

I'm not going to lecture on your spending habits - you asked for a solution and there is mine - take it or leave it or take half or something. Just learn from your mistakes so that you're not in the same position again.

[WaydayTew]

The best way of getting out of debt is to stop spending money you don't have, and use some of the money you DO have to pay off your debts.

exactly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

. omega, I think you're logic is just totally off on this one. If you want to make money on the market, stop running up credit card debt where you are paying someone what 15% (if you're lucky) it's usually more like 20-30% which is insane. Sure, you can juggle your credit cards to find a temporary low balance, but this is a short term fix (if at all) when what you really need to do is change your way of thinking. ie: you saying I need to get my credit rating up so I ran up $6000 in debt w/ things like a Best Buy Credit Cards and diamond earings... anyways, that is a huge red flag. If you want to buy your mom something or yourself something, do it with cash (or in such a way where you aren't getting suckkered into making some fat cat corporation rich on your short term stupidity) I mean this in a nice sense, because everyone learns this the hard way, myself included.

The point being, you are talking about making money on stocks, how about this???. Get your debt payed off where you are invariably giving some corporation a ridiculous amount of interest, and instead of having 70% of your paycheck going towards bad debt (credit card debt is bad debt, shitty car payment at 12% is bad debt, whereas a house payment could be considered "good" debt -if there is such a thing) get it paid off and start putting 70% of your paycheck in investments!! that's how you make money in the market! also, you're not going to get anything significant by hanging on to those individual stocks, I'd almost guarantee they won't outperform your mounting insane CC interest! I hate to unload stocks that I like, but you have to let go. The market is probably going to go way down in the election year, in which case you can buy back low when the time is right!

anyways, it's a no brainer. Pay off all of your credit card debt, and then invest thereafter!! Think about it, instead of dumping 70% of your income every month into paying Capital One, or Sallie Mae, pay yourself in the form of mutual funds, individual stocks and the rest in high interest money market accounts. Once you get rid of that first big credit card debt burden, you will see the light. It's literally shocking to get your paycheck and not have it eaten up by CC payments and Car payments.

the only debt that's worth carrying is low interest house payment and then maybe low interest student loans. The rest should be paid off at all costs, and then you can just go wild every month investing, and then paying for whatever you want (luxury items) out of your money market checking account (i use etrade for mine actually) then carry a CC/Debit card for normal expenses like bills, food, ect..., and then maybe one traditional credit card for things like emergencies, Rental Cars, Hotels, Airplane tickets ....stuff that won't take a debit card.

anyways, that's how I see it. I'm not rich by any means, but at least i'm not putting 70% of my income into giving someone else interest. I'd rather rack up interest on my own investments and actually give my paychecks to myself in the form of house payments (instead of giving somebody else $900 a month) and investments and of course, luxury stuff too!.

about 5 years ago, I was exactly in your situation. I graduated college with about 7,000 in dumbass high interest credit card debt (I think it was $5000 or so in actual purchases, and then $2000 was interest and late fees) Funnily enough, I had a $2000 best buy card which i blew on such appreciating investments as a $300 geforce ddr ultra (first ddr card) [what's that worth now?[rofl] i think i got an extra 10 fps per second in Unreal Tournament though] anyhow, I paid off the Best Buy account 3 or 4 years later with $3400 or so lump sum (on $2000) My girlfriend at the time did a bunch of trips to europe and shopping....and she had like $25,000 in CC debt. She was paying like $1200 per month (probably more) in minimum CC payments! What could you do with $1200 per month investing over 5 years? not, sure, but you could do a hell of a lot better.

[uC4F0NVL]

First off, you're ******* stupid. Second, your credit score is going to be **** because of how much debt you're carrying. You really only want maybe two credit cards and then a gas or department store card and with those you want to keep you balance to 30% or under each limit. So.... ya, you don't really know anything about building good credit. Anyone can get a lot of cards and spend an S-load of money, that's easy.

You should sell your stock Monday morning and pay off every bit of debt you have on every card. Then you should cancel as many cards as you have to in order to get down to one or two cards. Then use those for day to day purchases (gas, food, etc) and pay them in full each month. If you have to carry a balance to afford Christmas presents for the family or something that's ok, but try to pay as much as possible as fast as possible and try to keep the outstanding balance to around 30% or less of your credit limit. Continue that kind of plan for a few years and maybe you'll have recovered your credit history.

If you try to get another card you'll have to find one that will extend like $10,000 to be able to wrap all your debt into 0% and THEN you may look at having to pay 3% of the transfer amount in fees in order to do something like that. Plus this will look worse then anything else you've done so far for your credit history. Stop being stupid.

[WaydayTew]

also, if he is concerned about credit rating, paying off 3 or 4 cards in full would go some way to raising that score. Regardless, credit rating after a certain point is backwards thinking. So long as you can get approved for a decent interest rate on a house, that's what's most important. A lot of people are obsessed with Credit rating because the consumer society tells them they can save money if they just had a better credit rating they can get approved for a $20,000 Tiffany's credit line at 18% instead of 25%[rolleyes] If you don't spend your life relying on CC's, then you don't need to worry whether Capital ONE gives you a 9% rate as opposed to 20% because you'd have cash to buy what you want anyways, and have $10,000 in emergency fund and then something like an Amex or Visa card with a credit line of whatever you need.

the other thing people get raped on is car payments. I'd rather have a $12,000 car that I paid cash for (that's exactly what i did), then a $29,000 car that I'm paying 10% on. I have friends that make $40,000 a year and they've bought a car for $30,000! Nice car and all dude, but you're getting raped by that car payment at 15%[thumbup] Also, the car dropped about $5,000 in value the second you drove off the lot with it. (at least buy a year old used model where someone else took the depreciation hit)

[Aaron757]

4500 for earings... for your mom? Good lord I love my mom but no man... just nooo.

[Kimmitmelvirm]

deleted beating of dead horse

[prehighaltitudesjj]

I don't recall seeing what your REAL disposable income is, but you really should either pull finger and use it, and your other assets, to pay off what you currently owe or STFU!
As you would seem to be lacking self control, I would also advise you reduce the credit available on the card(s) as the debt is reduced - can't spend what you don't have.

For years I got by with a $1500 card, paying it off monthly for the most part and when I needed to use it for a payment medium for larger purchases, I just prepaid the required money on it. Since then, I've raised it to $3500 as I make some purchases for work on it - something that works for me as I get repaid within a few days but don't need to pay it (in full) for a month or more. Just got to remember it has to be paid.

Credit cards are a very useful tool but YOU have to be in control.

[Cajlwdvx]

Just pay your **** off!! It is only 6 months! Then you have $1k to do whatever you want with.

If you do the 12months no interest on one card or whatever, that will only make you forget about it, so I bet that you would pill up more debt. Or maybe you don't but 12 months from now you are able to pay $1k off each month.


Just do it now and never worry about it again!!!

[Deengealf]

Just pay your **** off!! It is only 6 months! Then you have $1k to do whatever you want with.

Whatever you want isn't the best idea. That money should be invested/saved somehow. Also I love my mom and all, but 4.5k... is a bit steep for a gift. Hell I can't ever see myself paying more than a few hundred for a ring for a future wife.

[RarensussyRen]

...And you've been wondering why AMEX won't give you a card? [yawn]

[DoterrFor]

Damn I can't afford to spend $4500 on my girlfriend, let alone my mother.

[SaraKonradtt]

..so I went crazy and got my mom a set of 1 carat leo diamond earrings for $4500. .

Oh yeh because your mom will love you 10x as much now that you've bought her $4500 earrings instead of $450 earrings

[ElisasAUG]

Credit cards are not money. Use them if you're responsible enough to pay them off the same day to collect rewards points. If not, use your debit card.

[RarensussyRen]

Damn I can't afford to spend $4500 on my girlfriend, let alone my mother.

I couldn't afford to spend that on myself. [thumbdown]

[JesikaFlpk]

Credit cards are not money. Use them if you're responsible enough to pay them off the same day to collect rewards points. If not, use your debit card.

That's exactly what I live by. I use credit cards so I don't have to carry cash around and to get points which I turn into cash every few months. I have a $400 check comming my way this month as my reward. That's free money. Just because I have a $35K limit on my Visa doesn't mean that I would spend it.

[LianneForbess]

Credit cards are not money. Use them if you're responsible enough to pay them off the same day to collect rewards points. If not, use your debit card.

Thats how I do it I'm only 20, but I pay off any debt on my CC in full every month.

And holy ****! 4.5k on earrings for your mother!? Are you crazy? I spent like 5 bucks on a nice card!

[Fiesialenp]

I seriously don't get how people don't have self control over credit cards. It's simple...

I have $xxxx in bank, that's how many $xxxx I can put on my credit card. Simple really.

Only time I payed interest on the credit is once when I forgot to pay the bill on time.

The only reason I use a credit is because I've transferred all my savings into an investment fund and waiting for my pay to debit into my account, or online shopping and the ease of traveling the world with credit.