I had $25,400 in credit card debt across four cards in January of last year. My minimum payments totaled $620/month and I was barely making a dent. I just made my final payment yesterday.

Here's what made the difference: I got a balance transfer card with 0% APR for 21 months and moved my two highest-interest balances to it ($14k). That bought me time. Then I cut every discretionary expense that wasn't nonnegotiable — no more restaurant meals, no streaming services, no Amazon impulse buys. I picked up an extra Saturday shift at work.

The snowball method kept me going on the remaining smaller cards. Eliminating them one by one gave me psychological wins to build on. By month 6 I had genuine momentum and stopped feeling like the debt was insurmountable.

The total interest I paid after the balance transfer was about $900 instead of the $5,000+ I would have paid at original rates. If you're carrying high-interest debt, a balance transfer card is worth investigating seriously.