Full Disclosure: Credit Card Debt

Here we go:

I'm going to list each credit card, the balance a year ago, the balance today, and the interest paid and the rate.

Credit Card..... 120/30/07 .... 11/30/08....... Interest......... Rate
Wells......... $7,152.87....... $ 5,887.66....... $1,072.54 ....13.9%
Chase ........ $14,962.23 .....$11,066.55 ......$1,991.12 .....14.51%
BOA .......... $13,528.08 ..... $10,437.62 ....$2,364.24 .... 24.99%
1st Horizon.. $1,8890.93 ......$1,482.59 ......$199.17....... 11.99%
Lawyer .......... $1,438.54......... $ 0.00 ........ $183.40
DH Sears........ $1,867.85 .........$ 0.00......... $237.60
My Sears......... $915.11.......... $ 0.00 ......... $94.02
Home Depot ... $714.73.......... $ 0.00 ........$ 0.00........... 0%
Medical bills ...$2,000 appx.....$ 0.00 ..........unsure....... unsure

There it all is.
The 2 sears cards had the highest interest rate, so we paid those off first.
Home Depot was a no payment, no interest deal, so we paid that off right before the deal was over.
We could easily pay off the 1st Horizon in a few months, but it is our lowest interest rate, so we are paying $25 above the minimum due every month.
Wells is the second lowest interest rate, we pay $150 per month, about $30 above the min. due.
Chase and BOA used to be close in interest rate and in balance...........we were splitting the payments on them, much higher than is due.
Then BOA jacked our interest rate up, for no specific reason. So, we are paying about $50 above minimum for Chase, and aggressively trying to get the BOA paid off.

We want to pay less in interest over this whole deal, which is why we choose to pay the higher cards first. Most people decide to pay the smaller balance cards off first. But they end up paying more in interest.

My lawyer was on a payment plan of $50 per paycheck. I chose not to pay extra on that because it did not show up on my credit report. So, it wasn't affecting my credit score.

Our total balance owed last year: $44,470.34
Our total balance right now: $28,874.42
Interest paid: $ 6,142.08

Total Paid this year: $ 15,595.92

Wow! It just amazes me 1) how dumb we were and 2) how great we've done this month 3) what we could be doing with that money if we didn't have the debt!!! I mean seriously! We paid over $15,000! I could have a very nice savings account, furniture downstairs, a new washer and dryer, and both kids in private school (instead of just one). And we could have had a family vacation this year.

Our goal is to have the rest paid off by this time next year, but I don't know if that is going to happen. We will definitely have it all paid off within 1 1/2 years.