3TV Phoenix: Nonprofit sees spike in people asking for help managing debt
MMI CEO Jim Triggs and MMI client Beth Slaine talk to 3TV consumer reporter Susan Campbell about managing debt and an unusual trend this holiday shopping season.
Transcript:
This holiday season, more people are asking for help to get out of debt.
Yeah, so, on your side, Susan Campbell is here to explain and, more importantly, with advice on not to be in so much debt.
Yeah, this is kind of an unusual trend, which is why we're talking about it. So we know that overall credit card debt is above $1 trillion. Paychecks are not keeping up with inflation, and people are stressed.
Credit counseling services are seeing an unusual seasonal spike in the number of people who say they want to get started tackling their debt.
Swipe after swipe, charge after charge, the mountain of debt just kept growing for Beth Slaine.
“Any car repair, home repair, if I had to take a trip to visit my extended family in another state, everything went on my credit card, and it just got to the point where I already owe so much, what's another 50 bucks here, 50 bucks there?”
When this teacher in Tucson hit more than $330,000 in credit card debt, she knew something had to change. “I got to the point where I was trying to make my monthly payments, and I was, I could not even meet the minimum payments on most of my credit cards, and I literally sat in the parking lot and cried.” Then she came up with a plan.
“Well, we're here to help you…"
She contacted Money Management International, and the nonprofit helped negotiate interest rates with her creditors to make payments more productive.
"I think consumers are really struggling right now," Jim Triggs is the president and CEO of Money Management International. He says typically calls for help drop off in November and December as people focus on the holidays, but not this year.
"Cyber Monday, we saw an 80% increase in, um, business from last year. Um, and just even the week of Thanksgiving alone, we saw a 44% increase, uh, in folks reaching out for help compared to last year, uh, during the entire week of Thanksgiving. People are stressed”, he says.
People are struggling with inflation, the cost of housing, and student loan payments resuming. "If you don't have the cash to pay for holiday gifts, uh, if you're struggling with debt loads, um, uh, you know, don't, don't get into more debt over the holidays. I, I promise you your family and your friends do not want to see you having to pay for gifts perhaps a year or longer, um, or adding to your debt."
It took Beth four years and two months to pay off her credit cards. She had to make changes and sacrifices, but now, "I'm in a position where I can really start saving money and actually planning on how I want to use money in the future for myself and not just paying off interest rates and debts.”
“You can do fun things.”
“I can do fun things. Yeah, and I can do fun things and save money and not use my credit card."
So to get started paying off debt, you have to create a budget, understand exactly how much money is coming in and how much is going out. Then make sure you're paying more than the minimum on credit card bills to cut down on the amount of interest that's going to accrue.
We also wanted to mention right now, uh, we are in a really bad place with credit card debt. There are about 5% of consumers who are seriously delinquent, that means they are 90 days or more past due on their bills. So that just gives you a, a kind of a landscape of how big of a deal this problem is with debt.
