[ncgirl_21]

I'm 21 yrs old and fixing to get married I want to repair my credit of some past mistakes from being young and stupid and having some fincial hardships. I've been trying to pay off my debts and I've manged to do that with some but I can't pay off my credit card balances in full and I don't have a large enough balance to use a consumer credit counseling agency I owe around 3000.00 approx prob a little less on both credit cards total but they keep on adding interest so the balance is getting higher how would I go about eliminateing my debits because we are wanting to buy another vehicle and purchase a home in the next few years any advice would be helpful.
Thanks

[phillysteakandcheese]

Use a budget and live within your means.

Budget regular payments for those debts and keep your remaining household expenses within your budget. Over time, your steady payment schedule and debt reduction will be valuable in getting the credit you need for a car loan and mortgage payment.

[wynelle]

First-- cut up the credit cards you have and use cash only. If you can't afford it with cash, you surely can't afford the interest on a credit card.

Next- don't even consider taking on additional debt of a car or a house until you have paid off the credit cards.

How to do that? Take a second job. Put all that you earn on the second job straight to the credit cards. Take the card with the lowet balance and pay the minimum, take all the extra money and apply it to the card with the highest balance. When that card is paid off, apply all the money going to the (now paid off) card and apply it to the other card- it should be paid off relatively quickly. When both cards are paid off, put the money you had been paying into a savings account so you can pay cash for the car, or have a whopping big down payment for the house.

Other ways to make money in a hurry-- have a garage sale, sell everything you absolutely don't need on eBay, get a weekend job, work overtime at your regular job. Eliminate non-necesities from your spending (ie take lunch to work rather than buying, take coffee in a thermos instead of buying $5.00 lattes, take the bus to work instead of driving your car to save on gas money, turn off cable, Internet, cut back on phone packages.)