Getting Out of The Debt Trap

LAST time we talked about the financial travails of one Stacy Fentress, whose credit card experiences cost her time with her boyfriend and a US $75,000 debt to settle. Thankfully through help from the Consumer Credit Counseling Service, she can pay that debt in five year’s time.

Still, five years time is a long time though not quite exactly a lifetime for some like Fentress who had been given a new financial lease on life. But then she is not alone.

A "Debt Today" article published online by CNN cited a Federal Reserve Board report that said more than half of US households are in some form of credit card debt.

This doesn’t take into account the debts incurred from other loans like cash advances. And when in debt, certain credit card borrowers like Fentress would display certain coping behavior in order to ease the burden.

These behavior traits include not totaling the debt balance on their credit cards, a form of denial cited by financial expert David Bach. A trait that can also be found In people engaged in some form of addiction or another.

Bach, who offers advice in the "Debt Diet" series on the Oprah Winfrey show and authored the book "Start Late, Finish Rich" said a lot of people don’t open their bills since they don’t want to think about it. Or if they do open their bills, they only pay the minimum.

Thus the principle of "if you don’t know it, you don’t owe it." Bach admonishes being truthful about your situation and stop supporting the lifestyle you want to lead with bad credit card debts.

Being truthful means having to tell family and friends about your actual financial situation. Chances are, Bach said, they would offer their support and encouragement.

Credit card debts are usually incurred through shopping trips, an addiction cited in the book "Overcoming Overspending: A Winning Plan for Spenders and Their Partners" written by psychotherapist Olivia Mellan.

Mellan said this addiction merely compels people to buy what they want at the time they want it regardless of what benefits they can derive from it or whether they have the money to pay for it in the first place.

In the case of Fentress she had 15 credit cards and to cope up, she evenly distributed her debts among her cards. Instead of settling them, she chose to delay the inevitable.

But as previously stated about half of the Americans owe a credit card balance averaging roughly US $5,100 in 2004 with slightly more than 46 percent of families carrying that balance in that year.

And like one stated earlier, Fentress managed to take control of her life by seeking consultation with the CCCS and turn things around hopefully for good. The first step is to stop the debt growth in order to place a cap on the interest rates.

By insisting on paying the minimum it would take more than 30 years to finally settle the credit card debts. Bach said it typically is harder to get out of debt than to get into it.

You do this by separating necessary expenses from non-essential expenses or luxuries which you can do without. This means, among other things, eating out less and making your meals. It also means not having to use the credit cards and spend for something with cash.

And that also means securing quick online loans only in necessary situations. Fiscal responsibility starts with discipline, avoiding frivolity but recognizing every once in a while that small rewards are necessary to give due recognition to your efforts at saving more and spending less.