BY NIO CALONGE
A lot of people are now suffering from growing and overdue debt because of their credit cards. I want to share that this problem can actually be overcome.
My wife and I have been battling with credit card debt for almost 8 years.
We accumulated our debt while we were still single. It continued to pile up when we got married. Since we were so excited with having money (electronic), aba, swipe dito at swipe doon!
It was only later on that I realized that we were so deep in debt!
Our combined debt was almost P90,000, excluding interests and other charges. For a starting family like us, this is big!
We eventually tried to minimize the use of cards. For “emergency use” na lang talaga siya. But we just paid the monthly minimum. Sometimes, I would even forget to pay. With the high interest rate, almost wala din nababawas sa total amount.
I needed help. I needed support. I really wanted to get out of debt!
Fortunately, I just joined a coaching program. Together with my coach and my team, one of the goals I set was to eradicate debt from my life.
I was determined that I was going to solve an 8 year problem in less than 3 months!
I looked at our budget, saved some money here and there, raised some more with a little creativity (legal and moral, of course).
Then I called the hotline of the credit card company, looking at closing my wife’s credit card first.
“Gusto ko na bayaran lahat ng utang ko sa credit card ng asawa ko pero kaya ba na babaan yung total? Kaya bang tanggalin o waive yung interest charges at penalties?” I asked the agent.
After several minutes of clarification and waiting, the credit card company agreed to lower the total!
With some reasonable conditions:
1. It had to be a one-time (full) payment.
2. If I pay immediately (the next day), I get an additional 10% off my debt.
I agreed to everything.
Because of that, they gladly made some changes and lowered my total from P51,000 to…P35,400!
Not bad for a simple phone negotiation with someone I didn’t know.
It was a victory indeed!
With 6 weeks to go in my coaching program, I knew, marami pang pwedeng gawin!
So my wife and I continued to work on saving more money and getting more clients to help increase our income.
As my coaching program was about to end, I was so happy and proud to announce that we got to pay for my own credit card debt as well!
By that time, my credit card debt amounted to around P51,000 including interest and penalties. Of course, coming from my earlier experience with the credit card company, I called them again to explain the situation and negotiated for a lower amount.
And would you believe it?
The credit card company agreed to lower the amount!
Under the same conditions as my wife’s, we only had to pay…P42,400!
In two months, I closed not one but two credit cards!
After 8 years, we are proud to say that “we are credit card debt free!”
If you are asking me if it is possible, I say yes, it is possible!
Let us all be credit card debt free!
Wooohooo! 
I am interested on how you were able to get out of cc debt that fast. Can I get to know more options on this topic please. I think I also need help on this matter very much.
Create another source of income don’t depend on your work alone, and try no negotiate always in every transaction you had… Think win-win always
I’m interested to kno how is this possible? How did you negotiate well with the credit card company.
It’s easy to negotiate, lay all your cards on how to pay your debt, always do bargaining, do the win-win stuff approach:-)
I recently got out of credit card debt too and now pay in full every month. Sayang, I didn’t negotiate like you did.
Credit card is good, but always pay ahead of time… Use their freebies, and other stuff but always pay with full amount.. Live simple life, live within your means
Parang may kulang sa article na to, serves as an inspiration but not really telling the whole step HOW? Not even mentioning the specific coaching program they’ve joined. In my own experience negotiating with the credit card companies is really the first step, they will lower your interest as long as you are willing to pay. . I agree that credit card has its advantages and leverage too, you just need to discipline yourself..
Increasing your income or cash flow is one. Budgeting also plays an important role. You need to list down all your income and expense to see where your money is going. From there you can see what expense is unnecessary (prepaid load for two or more mobile, gadgets, regular dining out, more than 1 broadband subscription etc) that needs to be cut down. Use the money to add up to your monthly credit card payment. It is not easy at first and requires a lot of patience. But in the end, you’ll be glad you did. I recommend the book of Dave Ramsey “The Total Money Makeover” if you wanted to start your own journey to Personal Financial Freedom
I have been freed from my credit card debt for more than 2 yrs already. The key is discipline and know how to spend cash instead of credit card. Now I am thinking to fully cur my cc since I am not using it and just paying the annual fees. I also dont use cc in the country where I am working. I use either cash or debit card which is also good as cash. I also use money wise app for android to track my expenses. There are still some good usage of cc but better use cash. It made my savings better because I used to place more money on my cc for payment instead of my savings account. Right now it’s the vice versa.
I’ll tell you my cousins experience with the card co. He told the bank if he could pay 500 a month. At first they did not agree but wheb he said that it is the amount he can only pay because he doesnt have a regular and good paying job. They eventually agreed to his proposal. After 2 years they called him that they are willing to lower his debt if he will pay it in ful. Of course, my cousin declined. Now, he is debt free.
pwede pu ba akong sumama sa program nyu para po ma surround sa mga taong maayos mag hawak ng money
advance salamat ………………….
I dislike credit cards, BDO issued to me not one but two pre-approved credit cards – one is mastercard another one american express. I have 0 debt, and has no plan to accumulate any CC debt. The next day after receiving the cards, I asked the BDO to cancel them. And I gave them a very stern warning not to issue pre-approved credit cards to me, if they will repeat this I’ll move my savings to another bank and sell my bdo stocks. That I think hopefully will make BDO think twice sending me pre-approved credit cards in the future.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, don’t accumulate debt in the first place. If you need cashless payment, use your savings atm as a debit card – this controls expenses.