SOS. Wracked up a ton of credit card charges last month. Have three credit cards. One is fully paid off. One I can make the min payment. The last is Amex gold and I can’t pay it all down. What to do?

likefunny
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I assume you realize it is much more important to realize the underlying causes of this to make sure it never happens again rather than the immediate situation.

That being said, you're curious about implications:

1. If you're not careful, doing this once can make it easy to become a habit. Stop now, stop early.

2. If you struggle to pay your credit cards off, your credit score (if you're not familiar, think of it as your adult GPA) will begin to decrease. This will make it harder to qualify for loans/ mortgages in the future if you want to buy a home, car, or go back to school.

3. By not paying your bills on time, you will have to pay LARGE sums of interest on your overdue bills. If you think of the opportunity costs, if you can avoid paying that interest (by paying bills on time), you could invest that interest instead and see exponential growth in your wealth.

Not trying to scare you, but a dose of reality is the best medicine right out of college.

likehelpful

Here's how I would use Ramsey for this situation: read all about him until your confident you have debt under control. Once you know how to stay out of debt.... Start learning about how you can use debt to you're advantage! Using other people's money to make money for yourself is a great way to increase your net worth, but ONLY if you have a very strong understanding of what you're getting into, and how you can get out of it.

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C’mon you gotta tell us how much you spent so that we boring old people who are paying off mortgages and contributing to HSAs can live vicariously through you.

likefunnyuplifting
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How'd this happened? Maybe just return stuff if you bought physical items? Either that or you might have to sell some investments.

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Lmao I know this feels bad but it will be resolved in the long term, don’t sweat. It is pretty funny though hahahaha you’ll have to tell your case team after the adequate amount of time passes they’ll get a kick out of it

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Apply for a 0 APR credit card and transfer the balance from your AMEX to this new card. Now you’ll have ~12 months to pay the amount of before interest kicks in.

likehelpful

This right here. Do not get a late payment on your record. It will wreck your credit.

TIL you can get a job at Bain and not understand how money and credit work.

likefunny

Mitt Romney has entered the chat

funny

Are you willing to put up certain organs as collateral?

likefunny

This is scary

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It would almost be understandable if it was like “I graduated, got a job and bought a ton of stuff I didn’t need” but....bottle service? Horrifying.

I think the mistake is realized and won’t happen again, but yeah.

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This thread is so dramatic to me, if you make the minimum payments I think you’ll be fine. Your credit score won’t drop that much and when it does, it will increase once you pay the credit card off. Use any large chunks of money like bonuses, tax return, whatever to pay it down. I personally would not bother my parents for a loan.

likehelpful

Oh okay, I read it again and see that now. I still think a loan is a bit dramatic. Credit can be repaired

helpful

Any additional context? Spending spree or emergency? Do you have any investments you can sell or purchases you can return? Do you have income to pay it back relatively quickly once you get past this initial setback?

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Can you return some of these purchases you can’t afford right now?

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Amex offers pay over time now don’t they?

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For Amex you only need to pay the statement balance. Hopefully that helps you in the short term.

smart

Bain and its history of leveraged buyouts

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We teach you that there is good debt and bad debt.

(Just to be clear...consumption is bad debt)

funnylike

Eh sounds like a normal American to me

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I would take the pride hit and ask for money to pay it off. Not paying the minimum will impact your credit score, your relationship/payment history with AmEx, and interest is significant. If you didn't realize the implications of this prior to your spending spree, I'm guessing you also don't know how quickly debt snowballs. You say you can budget and pay it off but unless you can guarantee that you have enough income to pay it all off next month, plus interest, then I don't see you getting out of this that easily. I'd rather owe my parents than owe credit card debt, personally.

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401k loan. People will say never touch it, but I think this situation/negative impact somewhat justifies it.

I would caveat with take the loan and pay Amex in full, but save every penny you can to do an early payoff on the loan.

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Three options I see
1. Ask family and friends for loan
2. Call Amex and ask for repayment plan. 3. Apply for a credit card with 0 APR and transfer your amount to that card and make minimum payments there.

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POL that EY showed is good. Also maybe find a card that has a no fee balance transfer and 0 months APR

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Swallow your pride and figure out a side gig until you get this under control. Bartend on weekends, deliver pizzas, drive for Uber, tutor online… I mean, work at McDonald’s.

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Lots of Dave Ramsey hate, not sure why. He’s helped a lot of people with finances.

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It's not a big deal to just pay the minimal payments. Yes you will get charged interest but you'll make enough to cover them in a few months (given you don't have more reckless spendings)

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How much is the total amount/ card?

helpful

Spill the beans, OP otherwise you’re just going to get tons of DMs haha

helpful

what timeline would it take to get your total credit utilization down to about 6%?

I am way less debt-averse than everyone here. If it’s a couple months of aggressive payments and austerity elsewhere, learn your lesson and move on. It’s not gonna ruin your life or credit

funny

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