You're going DOWN, credit card debt!!!

Minimum payments to credit cards are not cutting it. It's very easy to get discouraged. We researched the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of NY....a non-profit who will negotiate lower interest rates with some (but not all) creditors. It sounded good, but we had to decide if it was worth it to further trash our already trashed credit (for the record, we're only trashed because of our debt to income ratios, BTW. I'm NEVER late with payments). We decided it was not. So a little further research got me educated on methods of paying off credit cards. Here is what I learned.

If you are determined to pay off your credit cards (check), you must first commit to NOT USING THEM ANYMORE (check-all confiscated from Hubba Bubba's wallet and destroyed). Do not close the accounts, however. This is important. If you close the account, you lose available credit, which is an important component of your overall credit score. The Big 3 reporting companies don't need to know that the cards are cut into slivers.

The avalanche method- Now that you've done your budget, you know that you have $X to spend on debt. This amount HAS to be higher than the sum of your minimum payments, and the higher the better. You organize the cards by interest rate (highest first). Make minimum payments on all the cards except the highest one. On this one you make the minimum plus the extra you have in your budget. As soon as this card is paid off, you apply that money to the next card, and so on. Google "credit card paydown calculator" for many examples of this. Any one of these calculators will tell you exactly how long it will take to be out from under. You may be surprised.

The snowball method- This is when you organize your cards, not by interest rate, but by balance and pay off the highest balance first. Popular opinion is that this is not the preferred method if you have long-term goals. Again, don't take my word, Google it.

The snowflake method- so cute, those little snowflakes. This is for the truly regimented. This is where you determine what you could have spent, and didn't, and apply it to either method. Kind of exciting. I'm trying it, but the jury is still out. More on that later.

You know how they say that creative visualization is helpful in cancer patients? You imagine the cancer is an intergalactic battlefield and you are Luke Skywalker? Well, my credit card debt is Grendel and I am Beuwolf.