Credit Card debt : how to clear it quickly and painlessly for free (no gimmicks)

[Talkinpeace]

Back in around 2010 I wrote a spreadsheet to explain to a friend what would happen if they only paid the minimum on their credit card.
In 2014 I turned it into its own thread.
The original spreadsheet broke so I've recreated it.

If you pay the minimum on a credit or store card, it will take up to 30 years to pay off.
With a couple of really simple steps, you can clear those debts in a fraction of the time.
Input your numbers here
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KPHwTPSc4gPWfkpe40d9eB4sQxiFHQWBWWKyDJE2Bb8/edit?fbclid=IwAR0v9lej8-vhssaMFwL1Y9vKw85HKY_Vq3fpCaOn0g3OkSsBXKKx5JOkZbI#gid=612092852

The spreadsheet is a general resource - feel free to download to your own computer and make use of it.
Please do not damage the master copy - I do check it periodically.

Since I wrote my spreadsheet, the FSCS have endorsed my approach, as has Martin Lewis of MoneysavingExpert - it is a variant of snowballing.

Its the absolute opposite of consolidation loans that make things worse.

PS my friend decided NOT to put the expensive purchase on his card and is now debt free !

This looks great - I wish I’d had this when I got into debt!

I think I'm doing something wrong - it's telling me that the bank's profit on £16,000 at with a payment of £500 per month at 5.9% will be £901,936,646,595,453,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.00 and it will take me 31.17 years to pay off. Can you let me know what it is I am doing wrong as this seems like a great resource - thanks a million!

Not you, me !
I've recently converted it to the current version of google sheets
BUT
have put your numbers right

minimum payment will take you 23 years and make the bank > £5000
fixed at this months payment will take less than 5 years and halve their profit.

Thank you so much :)

Placemaking to review tomorrow - Thankyou

Great to see you back @Talkinpeace. Your spreadsheets played a big part in me becoming debt free a few years ago and I will be forever grateful.

Hi there @TheFlis
Yup, they let me come back with my favourite old name after all these years.
I have to be on best behaviour.

I am so glad the spreadsheets worked
and I was rather chuffed when the FSCS agreed that my method was the simplest !

@Talkinpeace
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I seen you had replied to me on another thread, I love this idea.
I think I may be doing something wrong though, when I input numbers - the figures are not making sense. Am I doing something wrong? I'm trying to use this for a friend after discussing this very topic.

2300 in credit
26.16% interest rate
Minimum repayment is 5%
Payments will start in Feb 2024.

@AnotherDayAnotherDoller
the interest rate has to go in as a percentage - I'm struggling to get the format fixed !

Your numbers are in there now.
As you can see, the standing order method saves you £934 in interest on that borrowing !

Am cross with myself that the cell formulae do not work.
I'll get it sorted tomorrow.

Would anybody like the mortgage and budget spreadsheets back - I still hold the originals

Yes please!

Place marking to have a look tomorrow.

This is really helpful, thank you!

Place marking to read when I'm not tipsy, thanks for posting

This looks amazing! Place marking :)

Place marking too !

What do the mortgage ones do?

Does this only work in google docs?

Would love the budget one! This repayment one is fantastic - thank you so much.

Following

@Backinthedress the mortgage one compares the long term costs of repayment and interest only mortgages.
I'll update it and reload.

@NerdyBird the master file is written in libre office so if you download the file - which you are welcome to do - you can play with it in private.

@Levithecat The budget one was the most fragile. I'll do a basic rebuild and upload for people to play with.

Thanks so much @Talkinpeace

Oh! Hi! I think I was on one of your threads.
Thank you for all your great advice x

@Talkinpeace this is great but I can't get it to work sadly. I have two balances totalling just over 5k I'd love to work out what's the best way to pay off

Hi @FranktheElf there are two cells that need to be formatted as percentages
I cannot work out how to make google docks to lock the formatting
but have annotated each

it should behave now