They need to do a large consolidation loan and cut up the cards. paying 6 or 7 different cards at the mins kills people. I did this myself and my score went up

They need to do a large consolidation loan and cut up the cards. paying 6 or 7 different cards at the mins kills people. I did this myself and my score went up 70 points. However, it's hard to convince a lender you're worthy of it. I think a lot of people need to change their ways after getting consolidated. So now instead of 2100 a month paying mostly minimums and looking at 8 years I'm doing 1450 and looking at 3 years. The extra 600 I'm "saving" per month may sometimes go towards the consolidated loan, but often I need to use it - which is what the credit cards were piling up for. Debt can be a trap because people are simply not paid enough but their expenses outweigh their income. If this happens you need to change jobs, ask your boss for more or change your budget. In my case I asked for $30k more per year and got $20k more per year. Other tricks: Go to ting or a cheap MNVO, Stop justifying yet another $10 / month netflix/prime/hulu - they all add up quickly. Get off the $160/mo cable plan. Buy your own cable modem and don't rent it from the cable company. They cost $40 and your cable provider is renting it to you for $10 per month. Food: Set up a "chipotle" at your house, cook in large batches and think of ways to make Tacos or Burritos quickly. This is the most complicated area - people get tired of food quickly. Food can be the most expensive if you just keep eating out. And of course, as mentioned many times - budget budget budget. There's no way to get out of debt if you don't simply have a balance sheet showing income and expenditures per month. If you don't know then there's no way to stay below the line. I'm sure there are some banks out there now that help with this. I'm sure it's been said elsewhere but you don't owe society anything - you're just here like everyone else. Stop gifting people, stop xmas shopping, stop going to weddings, stop having kids. I've done all these things and I'm quite happy. My parents stopped sending me stuff and there's no expectations either way now, it's fabulous for everyone.