AL AIN: At my lowest, I was paying up to Dh20,000 on my 12 credit cards. My salary was Dh13,000.
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It took 10 long, painful years to get out of the debt trap. I am finally debt free!
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The journey was not easy.
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My financial misfortune began when I got a huge pay cut. I lost my overtime pay that could go up to Dh3,000 a month. This was after I had sponsored my two sons to the UAE.
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My youngest was only four years old then, the eldest was 16. I am a widow and a single parent. I wanted them to grow up with their mother so I sponsored them here while I worked in a public hospital in the western region.
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Then I lost a kidney. Our doctors discovered it by chance when I volunteered to be the patient on whom they were demonstrating the capabilities of the hospital’s latest machine. They scanned me and found a tumour in one of my kidneys. It had to be removed.
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The surgery meant I could no longer work as many hours as I used to. I was also transferred to a clinic. In total, my income dropped by Dh5,000 a month.
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School fees. Food. Daily expenses. So I started borrowing money. I started with three credit cards and used two. If I couldn’t pay off the first card, I’d borrow from the second card.
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For extra earnings, I ventured into the rental business. It was good initially but it went bust. I was forced to borrow from my credit cards to pay rent.
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12 credit cards
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I ended up having 12 credit cards, borrowing from loan sharks, selling all my jewellery and using all of my salary to pay off my debt.
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To be clear, we did not splurge nor have an excessive lifestyle.
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By 2012, my debt repayments became so overwhelming that I decided to find ways to earn extra survive.
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With help from my friend, I sold homemade Filipino rice cakes and desserts. Sometimes, I’d sell ready-made meals.
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Worked non-stop
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My side business grew and I was getting so many orders I could barely keep up. I had to get up as early as 3.30am to cook everything before going to work at 7am. I worked on public holidays, including Christmas and New Year. I worked on weekends. I worked during my annual leave.
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I worked non-stop, never taking a day off, selling one rice cake at a time to pay off one credit card at a time.
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I sent my two boys home and decided to talk to banks to settle my credit cards. I used the debt snowball method where I tackled the smallest debt first. With laser focus, I dealt with the next and the next and the next.
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Clearing one card was so empowering and it kept me on fire to go on.
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For ten years, I did not go home to see my family in the Philippines.
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I made my last payment this June.
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I can now go home to see my ageing parents and celebrate my father’s 80th birthday. If I had saved all the money wasted on my debt, interest, late payments, and other finance charges, I would have become a millionaire by now.
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— Rhian G (not her real name), 50, Filipina, is a mother of two.
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Here are some of the other actionable ways I used to tackle debt:
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– I spoke to banks — non-stop. I was like a broken record. If customer service agents wouldn’t budge, I’d go to the bank myself.
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– I read up a lot and researched the best ways to tackle debt. I asked Atty Barney Almazar, a lawyer who helps Filipinos in debt. I used information as my tool, my power.
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– I used the debt snowball method which is the most effective way to clear debt.
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– I called banks to remove all hidden charges in my cards.
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– I requested for banks to convert my credit card balance into a loan with fixed interest rates.
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– I monitored all my payments in a notebook. I keep it updated.
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– I keep all my credit cards in a folder. Every time I feel I couldn’t go on anymore, I look at the ones I’ve cleared to motivate me. Now these cards represent all my battle scars. They will always remind me that despite all that happened, I can be victorious.
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Janice Ponce de Leon is a former reporter for Gulf News.
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