Understanding Debt Roll Down...

Here's What You Need To Know

Debt Roll Down is by far the gentlest debt strategy approach.

It involves paying over and above the regular minimum monthly payments to your creditors and fixing those payments until the first debt is paid off.

Here is how it works in practice. Let's say you have five credit card accounts. The five accounts total $30,000 and have a total minimum monthly payment of $750.00.

You work out your budget and determine that you can muster $850.00 per month toward the debt. You then rank your debts from highest balance to lowest (it can also be done from lowest to highest or by interest rate).

You assign the regular minimum payment to each account and add the additional $100.00 to the highest ranked account.

These payment amounts are then fixed until the first debt is paid off. When the first debt is paid off (generally the debt you assigned the additional $100), the entire payment of that debt is then added to the second ranked debt. This process is continued until each debt is eliminated.

The Debt Roll Down is a great strategy. There is nothing wrong with it. It makes perfect sense.

The only parameter, which is a deal breaker in most cases, is that your debt must be current or at least close to current, and your budget must be able to withstand the payment structure.

Following this approach for a short time only to find out you can't stick with it does no good at all.

Keep in mind, even by using this technique it will still take years to become debt free. So if your thought process is to take on a second job to make this work, be realistic and ask yourself whether this is a long-term solution.

Also, if your accounts are already delinquent, you will probably need to work with your creditors to re-age your accounts first. This strategy won't work if late fees and over-limit fees are being tacked on.

The Debt Roll Down used to be a viable solution for many people but recent developments have made it unrealistic for most people. In recent years, major credit card companies have started increasing minimum monthly payments at the direction of the Office of the Controller of Currency. This added pressure on consumers has made this strategy more difficult to implement.