5 Simple Steps to Paying Off up to $100,000 in Credit Card Debt
Many of us carry credit card debt.
It’s an unfortunate fact, and it’s becoming more and more commonplace in today’s society.
But getting rid of your debt doesn’t have to be this huge life event. It doesn’t have to take days and days of strategizing, years and years of strict budgeting or even decades and decades of payments.
Trust us: You can — and you will — make it out.
You just have to know where to start.
5 Simple Steps to Get Rid of Up to $100,000 in Credit Card Debt
The key to paying off your debt is to not become overwhelmed. It’s easy to build it up in your head until it’s this huge, mountainous task that’s impossible to scale.
Nope! Don’t let that happen. Instead, take away the stress and follow these simple tips to embark on your debt-payoff journey.
1. Ask This Website to Help Pay Your Credit Card Bill This Month
No, like… the whole bill. All of it.
While you’re stressing out over your debt, your credit card company is getting rich off those insane interest rates. But a website called Fiona could help you pay off that bill as soon as tomorrow.
Here’s how it works: Fiona can match you with a low-interest loan you can use to pay off every credit card balance you have. The benefit? You’re left with just one bill to pay every month, and because the interest rate is so much lower, you can get out of debt so much faster. Plus, no credit card payment this month.
If your credit score is at least 620, Fiona can help you borrow up to $250,000 (no collateral needed) with fixed rates starting at 2.49% and terms from 24 to 84 months.
Fiona won’t make you stand in line or call a bank. And if you’re worried you won’t qualify, it’s free to check online. It takes just two minutes, and it could save you thousands of dollars. Totally worth it.
All that credit card debt — and the anxiety that comes with it — could be gone by tomorrow.
2. Knock Up To $715/Year Off Your Car Insurance in Minutes
When was the last time you compared car insurance rates? Chances are you’re seriously overpaying with your current policy.
If it’s been more than six months since your last car insurance quote, you should look again.
And if you look through a digital marketplace called SmartFinancial, you could be getting rates as low as $22 a month — and saving yourself more than $700 a year.
It takes one minute to get quotes from multiple insurers, so you can see all the best rates side-by-side. Yep — in just one minute you could save yourself $715 this year. That’s some major cash back in your pocket.
So if you haven’t checked car insurance rates in a while, see how much you can save with a new policy.
3. Clean Up Your Credit Cards and Find Some Hidden Cash
Have you ever asked yourself: “Where the heck does all my money go? How is my credit card bill that high again this month?”
It’s time to take a few minutes to clean up your tab. You can negotiate your bills, cut unnecessary subscriptions and wipe out bank fees with a service called TrueBill.
Yup. Download TrueBill, and it’ll negotiate your bills, cancel unwanted subscriptions and refund your bank fees for you. On average, TrueBill says it helps customers save more than $700 a year.
You can also try digging up some extra cash with Capital One Shopping Price Protection — a tool that gets you money back for your online purchases. It’s free to sign up, and once you do, it will scan your email for any receipts. If it discovers you’ve purchased something from one of its monitored retailers, it will track the item’s price and help you get a refund when there’s a price drop.
Another way to save money? Shop through Ebates, a cash-back site that rewards you nearly every time you buy something online. For example, Ebates gives you 10% cash back on online purchases at Walmart. Plus, you’ll get a free $10 gift card to Walmart for giving the site a try.
Disclosure: Capital One Shopping Price Protection compensates us when you sign up using the links we provide.
4. Earn Rewards When You Pay Off Your Debt on Time
When you were a kid, your mom probably gave you an allowance for washing the dishes and sweeping the floor. Now all you get for doing that is a kitchen that’s clean for, like, 15 minutes.
Now that you’re a grown-up, you no longer get rewarded for just doing the things that are expected of you — like, for instance, making payments toward your debt on time.
Not until now, anyway. MoneyLion, a free app for managing your personal finances, will reward you for things like paying your bills and monitoring your credit — even just setting up an account in the app.
Much like that childhood allowance, it’s basically bribing you to be good.
You’ll earn points in the app’s rewards program, and you can redeem them for gift cards to more than 15,000 retailers, including places like Walmart, Applebee’s and Amazon.
If you want to take it a step further and work on paying down debts, for example, MoneyLion can help with a loan to consolidate your debt and potentially reduce your interest rates. And it’ll reward you for that, too!
5. Start Saving Without Even Trying
Although you’re taking strides to pay off a chunk of debt, you can’t forget about your emergency savings. If something were to happen, you could land in another pile of debt — and the cycle would sadly continue.
But here’s a simple way to save money while paying off debt: Use Digit, an innovative app that automates saving for you. Simply link it to your checking account, and its algorithms will determine small (and safe!) amounts of money to withdraw into a separate, FDIC-insured savings account.
Bonus: Penny Hoarders will get an extra $5 just for signing up. Additionally, savers will receive a 1% bonus every three months.
Using this set-it-and-forget-it strategy, one Penny Hoarder saved $4,300 without noticing — read his Digit review.
If you need that money sooner than expected, you’ll always have access to it within one business day.
Digit is free to use for the first 30 days, then it’s $2.99 per month afterward.
Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s a very anxious person, so she totally understands how big financial to-do tasks can quickly become overwhelming.
