You need to change your mind set from spending to saving. Your thread title should’ve been “How to SAVE…” not “How to SPEND…”

Sir/Ma’am pay that credit credit that money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put it all towards your highest interest rate credit card.

She will never pay it off this way.

Pay off the smallest balances first, then when those get paid off dump that money into the next smallest balance.

Rinse, repeat.

The Dave Ramsey method is the one that works.

Making payments on the highest interest card first almost guarantees she will never make it out of debt.

Mathematically, paying off the highest interest rates first means she/he will pay the least amount on the loans. The Dave Ramsey method works best if the psychological boost of "yay! I paid off one CC" is needed to keep the debtor motivated. That is fine. I know first had that paying off the highest interest rate works too, and saves money. It was the approach I took to my student loans. To each his/her own.

Most people in $40K credit card debt need to "motivation" of paying things off. If they were able to understand the numbers of "paying off higher interest first is better" they likely would not be $40K in debt (IMO).

Is this refund coming from the fed govt? If so, I wouldn’t count my chickens before they hatch. Unfortunately, they are trying to do everything they can to renege on past promises.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put it all towards your highest interest rate credit card.

She will never pay it off this way.

Pay off the smallest balances first, then when those get paid off dump that money into the next smallest balance.

Rinse, repeat.

The Dave Ramsey method is the one that works.

Making payments on the highest interest card first almost guarantees she will never make it out of debt.

Mathematically, paying off the highest interest rates first means she/he will pay the least amount on the loans. The Dave Ramsey method works best if the psychological boost of "yay! I paid off one CC" is needed to keep the debtor motivated. That is fine. I know first had that paying off the highest interest rate works too, and saves money. It was the approach I took to my student loans. To each his/her own.

Many people with cc debt need the motivation. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have debt on multiple cards.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put it all towards your highest interest rate credit card.

She will never pay it off this way.

Pay off the smallest balances first, then when those get paid off dump that money into the next smallest balance.

Rinse, repeat.

The Dave Ramsey method is the one that works.

Making payments on the highest interest card first almost guarantees she will never make it out of debt.

Mathematically, paying off the highest interest rates first means she/he will pay the least amount on the loans. The Dave Ramsey method works best if the psychological boost of "yay! I paid off one CC" is needed to keep the debtor motivated. That is fine. I know first had that paying off the highest interest rate works too, and saves money. It was the approach I took to my student loans. To each his/her own.

The Ramsey method works for people who lack discipline and need to see the immediate win (small balance paid off). If you’re disciplined enough to work to pay off the higher first it does save you money. But people in that much credit card debt obviously lack self control so that method works for the vast majority of them.

Trade it in for DOG MONEY

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put it all towards your highest interest rate credit card.

She will never pay it off this way.

Pay off the smallest balances first, then when those get paid off dump that money into the next smallest balance.

Rinse, repeat.

The Dave Ramsey method is the one that works.

Making payments on the highest interest card first almost guarantees she will never make it out of debt.

Mathematically, paying off the highest interest rates first means she/he will pay the least amount on the loans. The Dave Ramsey method works best if the psychological boost of "yay! I paid off one CC" is needed to keep the debtor motivated. That is fine. I know first had that paying off the highest interest rate works too, and saves money. It was the approach I took to my student loans. To each his/her own.

If you list your credit card balances and interest rates, we can help you prioritize. I think it often makes sense to balance the lowest balance and highest rate approaches. For example, if you have a bunch of cards with small balances that you can knock out, that makes sense even if the rates are not that high, because it will give you a sense of accomplishment and less to track. But if that 40k is $15k at 9% and 25K at 22%, I’d put it towards the high interest because either way you have two balances left and the interest difference is substantial.

But the bigger question is what caused the debt and is that resolved? Hopefully with loan payments complete, you can now put that money towards cards. But all the advice about which cards to pay off first only matters if you won’t turn around and run up balances again.

Why?

Anonymous wrote:Put it all towards your highest interest rate credit card.

She will never pay it off this way.

Pay off the smallest balances first, then when those get paid off dump that money into the next smallest balance.

Rinse, repeat.

The Dave Ramsey method is the one that works.

Making payments on the highest interest card first almost guarantees she will never make it out of debt.