In my younger and dumber days, I wasn’t very diligent in paying off the balance I carried on my credit card.
I picked up a Mastercard in college and I didn’t use it much until I graduated. At first, it was only a few hundred bucks.
That college degree did nothing for my understanding of how those few hundred dollars can balloon into thousands of dollars when you factor in the usually high interest rates credit cards come with. Luckily for me, my brother did understand all of that and said he’d pay off my balance and I could pay him back, but with no interest. Not everyone is as fortunate to have someone like that in their lives and that’s evident when you look at the amount of credit card debt many people in Louisiana are dealing with.
According to a report published by creditcards.com, Louisiana is #3 in the U.S. when it comes to the average amount of credit card debt relative to household income. The website pulled together figures from Transunion, one of the three major consumer credit agencies. Those numbers show that the average amount of credit card debt people in the state are carrying is around $5,400. To emerge from that amount of debt, the credit gurus estimate would take a person 21 months. All of that sounds optimistic to Melika Honoré.
She’s the head of Honoré Credit Consultants in New Orleans. For more than a decade, she and her business have been helping people get a handle on their credit card debt. Honoré understands what many of her clients are facing. She told me she had faced hardship as a younger woman. There were payday loans and worries about money as a single mother. Honoré says credit cards can be financially dangerous without discretion and discipline.
“I often say this, credit is a game, and it’s not meant for us to win,” said Honoré.
Honoré definitely has a set of credit card guidelines for her clients and another set for herself. Her personal use and approach to credit is unique to say the least. So, what’s the one thing Honoré says a person must do to start hacking away at their credit debt? Listen to the podcast here.
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