I know all too well about being stupid with credit cards at 18!! As far as your emergency fund, I wouldn’t use all of it to pay the debt. I would suggest keeping about $500 in there, just in case…..that amount would be enough to take care of some emergencies like car trouble, doctor bills, etc. So, you could pay $500 on the cc plus your regular monthly payments and if you get any cash along the way, whether it be Christmas money, birthday money, whatever, throw it towards your credit card debt. Getting debt free sucks, but when it’s all said and done, it is SO worth it!! Good luck!

Use your money to invest in MRNA it is trading at .21 and is on the rise. This is awesome stock that will be worth several dollars in the coming weeks. Medical company. Great dividends can’t lose.

Do not blow your emergency money on your credit card debt unless you have credit on a card you can still use–if you consolidated, you probably don’t. Most of those agencies I’ve heard of demand that you get rid of revolving credit, cut your interest rates, and have you keep the same payment until you have paid off all your cards. So good advice (pay it down as fast as you can to avoid interest) for someone with $5000 debt on one card, another card with no balance and $2000 credit limit, and more income may not be good advice for you. If that guy’s car dies, he can put it on plastic. If your car dies, you need to buy a bike or take the bus.

That said, I think $1000 is enough reserve for emergencies, so use any extra money you have from your check to pay down your debt. If your interest rates are low enough, you can start another savings to hit your debt with a large lump sum, or you can just try to send an extra $50 a month.

That’s 50 months.
4 years and 2 months.
Go to the gov site, below.
At the bottom, open the amortization table. This is on Excel and can be used there or downloaded if you have Excel.

Enter your balance, interest rate and term, 50 months as it appears to be, or years. (4 years and 2 months is, 4.17 years).
Look at the amount of total interest you will pay.
There is a place to enter additional payments per month. Play around with this. Enter $10 additional, or more. Whatever you think you can pay. I’ll bet I could find at least $10 a month in your spending.

Now look at the interest and the difference. And how much sooner it will be paid.
You may make a decision like that instead of putting all your savings on the card. 1K is not much reserve for emergencies, over 5 years.
Try to save that, and add extra to your payments, even tho interest on savings is low.
I would bet that you are paying a high interest rate.

You can’t get what I have at 5%, and will go down soon, since prime is now 1%.

Good luck.

You are doing a great job, congratulations on working on getting rid of your debt. The average american has nearly 25,000 in credit card debt so give yourself a break.

As a debt elimination specialist I’d recommend two strategies.

1. Keep your cash and send in $200 (or more) a month to cancel interest, while still saving some for a rainy day.

2. If you really want to cancel interest, try the MMA Strategy, but only if you are spending less than you make:

a. create a list of your monthly expenses such as utilities, gas, entertainment etc.
b. When you get paid deposit the majority of your paycheck onto your credit card. Pay ALL your expenses from your credit card. When you get paid again, transfer the paycheck to the credit card again and continue to pay your bills, buy groceries ETC on the credit card.

This strategy cancels interest and beats the bank at it’s own game.

It was brought to this country to help people pay off their mortgage more quickly, but it works with all open ended types of loans such as credit cards.

Hope this helps.

you said you consolidated the bill. If it is a fixed rated loan then ride it out. If not get one that is fixed to get rid of this. This is not an emergency but something else may be so $1000 doesn’t pay it in full so just work on it as fast as you can

if you have savings & credit card debt,then you actually have no savings. pay it down,pay it off.