Credit card debt

[Deleted User]

Paying more interest for temporary highs is just so ludicrously opposite of everything MSE stands for. Furthermore, paying off a small, inconsequential debt giving a high might well lead to people rewarding themselves with something they can't afford. No, the sensible, and indeed, only, approach should be to kill off the highest interest rate debts first, freeing up more money to spend on debts that are gaining less interest and thus clearing off the debt sooner and cheaper. Anything else is pseduo-psychological bunk

BabyStepper

Deleted_User said:

Paying more interest for temporary highs is just so ludicrously opposite of everything MSE stands for. Furthermore, paying off a small, inconsequential debt giving a high might well lead to people rewarding themselves with something they can't afford. No, the sensible, and indeed, only, approach should be to kill off the highest interest rate debts first, freeing up more money to spend on debts that are gaining less interest and thus clearing off the debt sooner and cheaper. Anything else is pseduo-psychological bunk

There's nothing ludicrous about it. For some people (not everyone, obviously) debt is an emotional problem and nothing to do with maths. Small wins become very important in the face of hopelessness, panic or just feeling useless at managing money. A small win can keep you on track when you might have buried your head in the sand again for another 5 years and ignored the debt or increased it. We're not comparing the avalanche with the snowball, we're comparing both with doing nothing, staying in denial and staying in debt. Which makes it entirely MSE. Gaining skills and confidence is not a 'high'. If you don't know anything about this, maybe you should get better informed before you comment - your post was very unhelpful and may deter others for trying this method when it can be very useful. 

alfred64

No harm in using a combination of the two methods where there are multiple debts of varying amounts. Snowball at beginning clearing low balance debts before switching to the avalanche system for the remainder.

[Deleted User]

BabyStepper said:

Deleted_User said:

Paying more interest for temporary highs is just so ludicrously opposite of everything MSE stands for. Furthermore, paying off a small, inconsequential debt giving a high might well lead to people rewarding themselves with something they can't afford. No, the sensible, and indeed, only, approach should be to kill off the highest interest rate debts first, freeing up more money to spend on debts that are gaining less interest and thus clearing off the debt sooner and cheaper. Anything else is pseduo-psychological bunk

There's nothing ludicrous about it. For some people (not everyone, obviously) debt is an emotional problem and nothing to do with maths. Small wins become very important in the face of hopelessness, panic or just feeling useless at managing money. A small win can keep you on track when you might have buried your head in the sand again for another 5 years and ignored the debt or increased it. We're not comparing the avalanche with the snowball, we're comparing both with doing nothing, staying in denial and staying in debt. Which makes it entirely MSE. Gaining skills and confidence is not a 'high'. If you don't know anything about this, maybe you should get better informed before you comment - your post was very unhelpful and may deter others for trying this method when it can be very useful. 

My post discourages people from running up debt unnecessarily.

Your post was very unhelpful as it means people pay more interest and take longer to clear the debts.

You're now wandering off into discussions that are nothing to do with what I said. Who is comparing doing nothing with paying off debts? You apparently, not me. Using your own argument, clearing a debt that pays lot of interest is just as much, if not more, of a "win" as paying off some small debt that is costing them peanuts while the high interest debt accumulates above them making it harder to pay off the debts resulting in paying more for longer. What has paying more interest got to do with skills and confidence vs learning to deal with debts in a priority order? All your "solution" does is give people temporary highs while their serious debt loads ever heavier on their mind.

Maybe you should get better informed about how debts and interest work instead of giving people a rose tinted view of the world where their problems will magically become better because they pay off a £100 debt while their more serious debt adds £200 in interest in the same month, dragging them ever closer to insolvency or bankruptcy as the debt piles up around them, giving them a sense of hopelessness as their debts overwhelm them.

Whereas, by focusing on clearing the debts that are adding more and more to their burden, they clear their debt faster and can see the light at the end of the tunnel, rather than watching it recede.

Sorry if the world is not all sunshine and rainbows but people need to get a grip on finances and hit them hard, meaning clearing the debt that is adding the most to their debt burden, not focusing on having minor debts ticked off while bankruptcy ticks ever closer as their priorities were wrong.

Good day

BabyStepper

@alfred64 Yes, totally agree, using different methods can help at different times in the process. Great point. 

@Deleted_UserYou seem to be struggling to take in new information today. Not to worry. Wishing you sunshine and a few rainbows, you sound like you could use them.