You should
always pay back your debts as quickly as possible to avoid unpleasant consequences.
Not exact matches
Your credit score reflects your history of
debts and how well you've been able to
pay them
back: if you
always pay off your credit cards each month, if you're on time with your rent and you
pay your bills as soon as you receive them, your credit score should be good.
Paying down your
debt is
always an excellent first step to take in getting your financial life
back on track.
No matter how low your credit score is, you can
always get
back on track as long as you
pay your payments on time, do not have outstanding
debt, and
always pay more than what you owe.
Your only viable asset would be the 401k, but after penalties and taxes for early withdrawal you would not have much left, and I would never recommend liquidating retirement assets to
pay debt anyway (though if you did get really desperate you could
always take a loan from the 401k to
pay off the highest rated
debt — you'd have to
pay the money
back though, plus interest).
You should
always try to work your
debt, whether by negotiating it down, changing your payment terms, or earning more money to
pay it
back.
There are
always very clear and real responsibilities when dealing with
debt, especially when you don't
pay back 100 % of what you owe.
Of course, your goal should
always be to
pay back any
debt as quickly as possible, so don't use your lower payments and a license to go wild with your spending!
Generally, though not
always, your creditors will freeze the interest and penalties on your
debts so that your reducing your monthly payment doesn't have significant adverse effects in the long run on the amount you need to
pay back.
I love cc's its easy and global in nature, but I have
ALWAYS paid all my cc
debt unfailingly on time and 100 % balance and never
paid interest... i have also gained quite some $ $
back from them... which has been a big bonus for me and fmly... i wish more americans would show some restraint in spending beyond means...