Struggling to pay your bills? This is one of the most stressful situations a person must deal with in life. Especially without proper guidance–learning how to pay off high debt can be an impossible task.
To keep the figures simple, let’s look at if a person has $50,000 in credit card debt–at a 30% interest rate. When paying only minimum payments on this much debt, your monthly payment would be around $1,350 per month (2.7% of your total debt = minimum payments). There is no set number that all creditors use when determining a person’s minimum payment, but typically it’s around 2.7% of what their total balance is.
Let’s first take a close look at how long you will pay on your credit cards when paying only minimum monthly payments and how much money you will spend on interest before your balances get paid in full.
Here’s the current scenario:
- $50,000 in credit card debt
- Paying $1,350 per month (minimum payments)
- Would take 8 years and 10 months to become debt free at this rate
- You would end up paying a grand total of $142,298 ($92,298 of that would be “interest”)
When current on your credit card payments, here’s a simple change that could save you $33,450 in interest and help raise your credit score.
Here’s the change that you will make to save $33,450 in interest: Instead of paying $1,350 per month–if you were to pay $1,500 per month:
- $50,000 in credit card debt
- Paying $1,500 per month
- Would take 6 years and 1 month to become debt free at this rate
- You would end up paying a grand total of $108,848 ($58,848 of that would be “interest”)
- So by paying $1,500 per month, instead of $1,350 per month towards your $50,000 in credit card debt, you could get out of debt much faster and save $33,450!
If you can’t afford to pay more than your minimum monthly payments, there are credit card debt relief programs available and you can use this debt calculator to help you get out of debt faster and pay less interest.
With consumer credit counseling services, your interest rates could be reduced to around 8%-10% and you would only be responsible for making one monthly payment to the consumer credit counseling company–while they pay your creditors each month but at the reduced interest rate. Your monthly payment would also drop slightly, compared to when paying only minimum payments.
Here’s how much you can save with Consumer Credit counseling services, based on $50,000 in Credit Card Debt:
- Your new monthly payment could be $1,200 per month
- You would be debt free in around 4.9 years
- You would only pay a grand total of $69,230.77, based on $50,000 of total debt
Consumer credit counseling programs have the least negative effect on your credit, but not all creditors will agree to a consumer credit counseling program.
Struggling to stay current on your credit card payments? Your last option to consider is debt settlement. Debt settlement services can save you the most money, but will also have the worst effect on your credit score.
Here’s how much you can save with Debt settlement services, based on $50,000 in Credit Card Debt:
- Your new monthly payment could be $850 per month
- You would be debt free in around 3 years
- You would only pay a grand total of $30,602, based on $50,000 of total debt
Keep in mind, with debt settlement services a person is not paying their credit cards each month, so their credit will be negatively affected and this type of program can result in negative consequences. Only use a reputable debt settlement company that has a proven track-record and high Better Business Bureau rating. Make sure whatever debt settlement company you use, that they charge “no fees” until your debt is settled and paid off.
By Paul Paquin is the CEO at Golden Financial Services and the Author of the Book Called “The Ultimate Guide to Debt Consolidation”. Paul has accumulated more than 15-years of experience helping his fellow Americans with becoming debt free, as CEO at Golden Financial Services.