<p>I have a financial question to ask, because I am lost and I really do not want to go to my parents for advice, because of my irresponsibility. I have racked up a decent amount of credit card debt, and have an outstanding balance of roughly $1,000. I am employed and will make roughly $375/month. My education, dorm, and meal plan are helped covered through FA. Would should I do, I just feel very lost and am overwhelmed.</p>
<p>Maybe you should put this on the financial aid forum board. They know more about this stuff.</p>
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<p>Um - you pretty much spelled out your answer. Your daily expenses are covered, so use your income to pay off your credit card. $1000 is nothing.</p>
<p>Are you able to make the minimum payment on time each month?</p>
<p>If you can, then make sure you do that; if you can pay more than the minimum, do it – it’s worth getting a second part-time job or picking up extra hours if you can do that without hurting your academic performance – but keep in mind that if you pay more than the minimum in (for example) August, you will still be responsible for the minimum in September, so don’t pay so much in one month that you will be unable to afford the next month’s minimum payment. Also remember that if you make two payments in (for example) August, before the August due date, the second payment will not be counted toward what you owe in September. Start keeping track of the due date with a calendar, because it is possible that the post office will lose a bill, and you’ll still be responsible for making the payment on time.</p>
<p>If you can’t afford to make the minimum payment each month, talk to your parents immediately. Talk to them as soon as you realize you can’t pay. If you aren’t paying the minimum they will find out eventually, but if you delay telling them you will have gotten yourself into a much worse situation before they find out; as much as you don’t want them to find out you were irresponsible and got into debt, it will be worse if they find out you were irresponsible and got into debt and then compounded that irresponsibility by not taking immediate action when you realized you couldn’t pay it.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about your relationship with your parents, but if they are reasonable people, they will understand you making a mistake and they will respect you for taking responsibility for fixing the problem. Plenty of college students do stupid things with credit cards. That’s one reason that banks are so eager to give credit cards to college students in the first place. If they aren’t reasonable people, then I hope you will at least realize that what you are doing now is respectworthy even if they don’t have the sense to tell you that themselves.</p>
<p>you should be able to afford at least $200/mo towards debt.
or rather, i dont understand why you wouldn’t be able to unless you’re paying your own car insurance and gas.</p>
<p>dont spend any money on anything else and pay off the debt asap. or else that 1000 is gonna grow ginormous</p>
<p>Don’t pay off the debt. Don’t worry about it. Eventually it will go away.</p>
<p>Good luck :).</p>
<p>and that’s the american way of solving this problem haha</p>
<p>^ Exactly.</p>
<p>what do you spend your paychecks on?</p>
<p>anything that you do not absolutely need, do not buy it. Put all your money toward paying off the credit card. Do not just pay the minimum and spend the rest of your paycheck on eating dinner out or going to concerts or anything.</p>
<p>Your minimum payment is probably something like 4% a month. And the interest rate on it is probably 20% or more. Do the math…</p>
<p>[Credit</a> card debt - ramifications of making minimum payments](<a href=“Examiner is back - Examiner.com”>Examiner is back - Examiner.com)</p>
<p>On the brightside, if 2012 works out, you won’t have to worry about it.</p>
<p>If you have at least $1,000 in your savings account, then use it and pay off your debt now.</p>
<p>Otherwise, just go without discretionary expenditures and use your entire paycheck to pay off the debt month by month until it’s gone.</p>