How to Kill Off That Credit Card Debt Once and for All
*By Carlo Versano*
Your debt doesn't need to follow you around forever ー especially not credit card debt, that insidious baggage that so many of us carry with us daily.
According to Jennifer Streaks, nationally recognized personal finance expert and author of [Thrive! ... Affordably](https://jenniferstreaks.com/), the first step is to avoid getting overwhelmed. "Understand that there are steps you can take," she told Cheddar Wednesday.
Among the most underutilized ways to achieve debt relief is an old-fashioned phone call, Streaks said. Banks are amenable to lowering interest rates or waiving late fees or service charges, particularly for long-standing customers who pay on time, all the time. "They want to cater to you," she said ー so come right out and ask for a break.
There's also debt consolidation. Don't be so quick to throw away those snail mail offers for credit cards with zero percent interest. So long as you are able to pay off the debt load within the time frame of the zero percent interest rate ー usually around six months ー it could be worth it to transfer debts from cards you already have, according to Streaks. Consolidation can make sense if your debt doesn't exceed 50 percent of your income and your cash flow is enough to consistently cover debt payments. Credit unions also often offer low-interest loans that provide a way to pay off all credit card debt in one fell swoop, she said.
Whether you may qualify for one of those loans or a no-interest credit card will depend largely on your credit score, that big round three-digit number by FICO that seems to be generated by some form of black magic or witchcraft. As it turns out, Streaks said, FICO scores are fairly easy to predict when you look at what they consider: 35 percent is payment history, 30 percent is the amount owed, 15 percent is the length of credit history, and 20 percent is a combination of your new credit and credit mix. But what matters most is regular, on-time payments.
"Debt comes from the habits we form," Streaks said. And once you change those habits and tackle that debt, "it's really freeing."
AT&T announced earlier today it is spinning off its media properties in WarnerMedia in a merger with Discovery in a $43 billion deal.Scott Rostan, founder and CEO at Training The Street, joined Cheddar to talk about what the unwinding of the telecom giant's Time Warner media properties means for investors. "I think the investor sentiment is they're digesting the new information, and they're looking into the dividend, especially the reduction of the dividend," said Rostan, noting the transaction allows AT&T to focus on its core telecommunications business.
A 2021 report from UK Research and Innovation found that the shipping industry makes up at least 2.5 percent of the world's total CO2 emissions. It's a problem that energy solutions company, Leclanché, is trying to solve. Founded in 1909, the company has been developing and producing batteries for more than 100 years. Today, Leclanché's lithium-ion battery is used to electrify not just ships, but also railroad locomotives, trucks, and specialty vehicles. Cheddar News spoke with Pierre Blanc, chief technology and industrial officer of Leclanché, to discuss.
Amazon is betting that ammonia could be the fuel of the future, participating in a Series A round for the Brooklyn-based company Amogy in December. Amogy aims to de-carbonize transportation with a clean energy system that uses ammonia as a renewable fuel. Amogy is partnering with Amazon on its first commercial product - an ammonia-powered cargo-shipping vessel. Amogy CEO Seonghoon Woo joins Cheddar Climate to discuss.
One of the world's largest transport companies is kicking off Black History Month with a new initiative aimed at the next generation of business leaders. Today, FedEx announced the launch of its Student Ambassador Program. Participants selected from eight historically black colleges and universities will receive career guidance from FedEx executives. The program is part of FedEx's ongoing commitment to HBCUs and will also help the company expand its pipeline for diverse talent. Cheddar News welcomes senior vice president at FedEx, Jenny Robertson, and Jerryl Briggs, President of Mississippi Valley State University, to discuss.
"Sing 2" has overthrown "Spider-Man: No Way Home" as the number one film at the UK box office. The animated sequel brought in $8.1 million, in just its two first weekends. However, "No Way Home" is still on track to beat "Avatar" as the number one grossing movie of all time.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has been a driving force for youth mentorship since 1904. The nonprofit organization is launching its annual Big Draft campaign this month in partnership with the NFL, and Artis Stevens, the first Black CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, joined Cheddar to discuss the push for adding more "Bigs" as mentors on his one-year anniversary leading the non-profit organization. "While the NFL is recruiting and drafting more players, they're also helping us to draft more mentors and, particularly, men all the way from across February to all the way to April of this year," Stevens explained.
The Supreme Court will reconsider race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The court will examine admissions policies at Harvard University and The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, which count the race of applicants as a factor in admissions. The court has upheld affirmative action policies in the past, saying it helps to create more diverse student bodies. However, the conservative Supreme Court could be skeptical and even possibly hostile to such policies. Nick Anderson, Higher Education Writer, Washington Post joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
The value of most cryptocurrencies have plummeted in recent months since reaching all-time highs in November, wiping out more than $1 trillion in value globally. The steep crash has some talking about the possibility of a crypto winter, a term referring to a prolonged bearish period where asset prices persistently fall over many months. This all comes as the Fed is expected to raise interest rates, and the Biden administration is working on an executive order to regulate Bitcoin and other assets. Josh Goodbody, COO of Qredo, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the crypto crash, and how the industry might recover from it.
Recent data reveals that streaming giants are struggling to retain subscribers in the months following a major release.
According to data from Antenna, subscriber trends show that users will subscribe to a given streaming service just to watch a particular show, and then cancel those subscriptions shortly after. This comes as the streaming space continues to heat up as new entrants crowd the space. Jon Christian, Founding Partner + Digital Supply Chain Leader at OnPrem joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
