These 6 Americans ended 2023 with credit card debt. Here’s how they fared in 2024.

The Dunns cut back on family vacations and put off home improvement projects to keep up with aggressive monthly debt payments. By December 2023, they owed only a few hundred dollars on their credit cards. They expected to be debt-free by January.

Then, the new year dawned, and new debts arrived like unwanted houseguests.

In January, the Dunns got slammed with medical bills. Their health-insurance deductible had reset at $8,000. They put the payments on a credit card.

More bills arrived: therapy classes and tutoring for the children, who receive special education services.

“Well, none of that is covered by insurance,” Walker Dunn said. “That just killed us.”

The Dunns hired lawyers to help them advocate for their children in the public school system, a familiar scenario in special education. Their fees went on credit cards.

Their daughter needed braces. “That was $4,000, and we put it on a card,” Walker said.

By September, the Dunns had $25,000 in new credit card debt. And this time, the interest rates topped 30%.

They went back to the debt-management nonprofit. Counselors worked out a payment plan for most of the debt, again negotiating lower interest rates.

But everything seemed to cost more. Walker Dunn had to replace his dying pickup truck. The family’s mortgage payment swelled by $500 a month. And, come January, that insurance deductible will reset all over again.

Last Christmas, the Dunns toasted the end of their credit card debt.

This Christmas, they see no end in sight.

“Honestly,” Walker Dunn said, “I think it’s pretty bleak.”

– Daniel de Visé

Evan Charon is feeling better about his finances.

Charon, 25, said a substantial raise at work has allowed him to pare down the money he owes on student loans, credit card loans and medical debt from about $22,500 to $20,700 over the past year. He’s increased his monthly credit card payments, he’s built up enough savings to handle surprise expenses like car maintenance and vet bills for his cat, and he has enough income now to feel at-ease when going out to eat or purchasing a $5 Tuesday movie ticket.

“I’m able to make all my payments and still have money left over to do things I enjoy,” said Charon, an accountant based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The raise “has definitely made all the difference. Otherwise, I’d probably be a lot closer to where I was last year.”

Adjusting his debt strategy has also helped. Charon shifted some of the money going toward monthly student loan payments to paying off the higher-interest credit cards. So far, he’s paid off one of the six cards.

But there are still sacrifices Charon makes to pay down his debt. He continues to avoid unnecessary expenses, like monthly streaming services, and he’s missing out on seeing family on the East Coast this holiday season to save money.

Heading into 2025, Charon said he’s worried changes under President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration could affect his progress. Some economists have warned that Trump’s plans for tariffs would reignite inflation.

“A lot of other Americans that are at the income level I’m at — with those student loans and in the same debt situation I’m in — it would be a struggle to navigate the rising costs of those necessities like groceries and household goods,” he said. “Hopefully the tariffs won’t have as much of an effect to the economy as a few sources are saying, but if it does, I think we’ll figure it out. We always do.”

– Bailey Schulz

• Age: 41

• Hometown: Chicago, Illinois

• Debt in 2023: About $6,000

• Debt in 2024: About $12,000

This was supposed to be the year single mom Kim Mahoney would finally be debt free. But again, for the third year in a row, unexpected expenses popped up and derailed that plan.

Here’s a glimpse of how her financial life unfolded in 2024:

• $5,000 for a new air conditioner when her old one broke down during a heat spell in Chicago last summer. “Luckily, that’s 0% interest for two years,” she said.

• $3,000 on a credit card for necessary teeth extraction for her elderly dog.

• $2,000 for a special assessment by her condo association for roof repairs. She made her final monthly payment this month.

• $2,000 on a credit card for car repairs, including new brakes.

“I was on track, and now I’m way off track,” Mahoney said. “I don’t know how I’m going to get out, honestly. I feel like I can’t get my head above water.”

In past years, Mahoney often relied on her April tax refund to help erase most of her debt. This year, she thinks it’ll help with only about a quarter to a third of it. As an alternate plan, she’s been transferring as much as she can to 0% interest credit cards.

With a zero-APR credit card, you pay no interest for a promotional period, typically 15 to 21 months.

“I just did a balance transfer again that had a small fee, but at least some of that won’t have interest for the next 18 months,” Mahoney said. “I might look into another balance transfer for 0%, but I know there’s usually a 3-5% fee. I figure that fee is less than the monthly interest.”

She said she considered getting a home equity line of credit, because interest rates are lower for those than for credit cards, but she said she doesn’t have enough equity in her home yet to qualify.

“I could not contribute to my 401(k) for a year to help pay it [debt] off, but that feels like giving away free money when I get a match from work,” she said. “But if I’m paying interest, maybe it is worth it to do that,” or just contribute the minimum to get the match.

Financial advisers would say Mahoney’s taking all the right steps to manage her debt, but she regrets having debt in the first place.

“I feel embarrassed about it,” she said, “but I don’t know what else to do. I only make so much money.”

A higher-paying job doesn’t seem realistic, either.  As a dietitian, “I will never make more anywhere else,” she said. “I already make way more than most dietitians. I would need to change careers to make more money.”

At age 41, starting over feels like a tall order. Besides, she said, she likes what she does.

But she admits, “it’s difficult being a single-income household. I was doing so much better 5 years ago,” she said, but everything has gotten so expensive. Tickets for a movie over Christmas break with her 8-year-old son cost her $50, she said.

She tries not to let costs deter her from celebrating Christmas and living life with her son, but she’s capping her expenses at $200.

“At least I don’t have student loans and paying that ridiculous interest,” she said. And, “I have my health. Can’t put a price tag on that.”

– Medora Lee

At the close of 2023, as she struggled to pay off $19,000 in credit card debt, Angela Davis faced an austere New Year.

This December, as she repays the last of that debt, Davis has something to celebrate.

Davis, 32, enrolled at the University of Michigan in 2018, pursuing a master’s degree in public health. She financed her education with student loans and her job, working 12-hour shifts as a sanitation supervisor at a produce plant near her Detroit home. She thought she could both work and study full time.

The routine lasted about two months. Exhausted, Davis quit her job. Student loans could not support her expenses, so she began taking on credit card debt.

Though Davis worked hard at making payments, her card balances crept up, with interest rates ranging as high as 24%. She contacted the card companies to negotiate lower rates. She closed some of the accounts.

In 2022, she took her remaining debt to Money Management International, the nonprofit credit counselor.

The plan called for Davis to pay off the last of the card debt in early 2026. But she made extra payments on her own. This month, she repaid the last $900 in debt.

“For 2025, I wanted to be free and clear,” she said. “My focus has shifted so much to living debt-free, even though people think it’s impossible.”

Davis was resourceful in attacking her debt. She used a popular debt-reduction strategy called the “snowball”: You make aggressive payments on the debt with the smallest balance, aiming to retire it quickly, scoring a financial and psychological win.

Davis dines at home more often now. When she and her husband go out to eat, she drinks water. She did not binge on Christmas gifts in 2023. This year, she said, “I’m still not planning to go crazy.” Digging out of credit card debt has taught her something.

“I do think it’s significantly changed my mindset,” she said.

– Daniel de Visé

• Age: 53

• Hometown: Perris, California; soon to be Dallas, Texas.

• Debt in 2023: About $1,000 in credit card debt, plus $300,000 in student loans

• Debt in 2024: $300 in credit card debt — and the student loans

Last year, Cynthia Davis’s biggest debt was a hefty $300,000 in college and graduate-school loans. She had just begun making the $450 monthly payments. She hoped that, as a social worker, she might qualify for one of the loan forgiveness programs from President Joe Biden.

Davis, who has two social work jobs and a side hustle bakery business, took advantage of payment plan options in 2023 when holiday shopping for her then-high-school-age son. The single mother was trying to balance bills and her son’s expensive computer equipment needs.

Her credit card debt last year was fairly small: about $1,000 on two cards. But Davis was still carrying a balance and paying high interest rates, since she was prioritizing bill-paying and her budget.

Last year, Davis moved into a house that her parents bought, helping pay the bills. She also had a new car and insurance payments, since her son had recently begun driving and they outgrew their smaller vehicle.

A lot has happened for Davis, now 53, in the last year, especially in the last eight or nine months.

In a whirlwind romance, Davis met her now fiancé, Michael Reid Johnson. The couple plan on getting married in a private ceremony next month and hosting a budget-conscious wedding reception for friends in the spring. They’re having tacos; she’s baking the desserts.

Davis also will be moving to Dallas to be with Johnson as soon as she locks down a new job. She’s in the final stages of job hunting with a company that wants to make her an offer, though they may be in a temporary hiring freeze.

Davis will be taking a big pay cut if she takes this job. She currently estimates that she makes $120,000 between her full and part-time social work jobs in California and will make about $52,000 in Dallas for one social work job, where she would be leading a team.

But cost of living is also much lower in Dallas, Davis said. Her fiancé owns his own house and has been paying for her trips to visit him and other trips the couple have been taking. He’s also suggested she take just one job that can take care of her expenses, like her car payments.

Her credit card debt is down to about $300 and her credit score has gone up, she said.

Davis’ son is a freshman in college in California, studying engineering. He is living with Davis’ parents, but he has a job to pay for his expenses and a car he bought. For Christmas and throughout the year, Davis said, she helped him pay for some “adult” life expenses like insurance and car repairs.

Davis also took out a student loan in her name for her son, costing about $7,000 a year.

She knows it wasn’t good to add more debt to her student loans, but “he has to have an education.” Once her son is more financially stable, she might ask him to help her pay back his loan.

Davis estimates her year’s worth of student loan payments haven’t put much of a dent in her total debt.

She still hopes she will benefit from Biden’s last student loan forgiveness program action of his administration, which was recently announced. She qualifies and hopes she will be included, since she “highly doubts” there will be similar student debt loan relief with the Trump administration.

If she doesn’t get loan forgiveness, Davis said she will try to renegotiate her loans, since she’ll have a lower salary and her husband-to-be has his own student loans.

“The impact would be great for me if my loans were forgiven,” she said. “I have applied before and am still waiting.”

Davis said she received a letter before saying the program was on pause, “but a few of my friends did get theirs forgiven, but I didn’t, and that’s just frustrating.”

– Betty Lin-Fisher

• Age: 31

• Hometown: Bozeman, Montana

• Debt in 2023: About $9,000

• Debt in 2024: About $7,000

Alyssa Barnhart, 31, said her financial stress has eased since consolidating her debt in late 2023.

After paying off her car earlier this year, she pays about $200 toward credit card debt and another $60 toward student loans each month. Payments now feel “so easy”: At one point, she was paying $500 a month toward credit card debt.

“I definitely feel a lot better about my finances this year, compared to last year,” she said.

There are still financial hurdles. Rent in Bozeman, Montana, keeps going up, and Barnhart has been dropping money to keep her 13-year-old red nose Pitbull, Kiefer, comfortable in his old age with joint pills.

But she said this is one of her best winters in recent memory, with enough money to spend “as much as I want” on gifts for friends and family.

“I finished shopping maybe a week or two ago because I was able to afford it and just get it out of the way,” she said. “I haven’t felt the struggle of, its Christmas, oh my goodness, how am I going to come up with this money?”

Barnhart works a seasonal job at a landscaping company, plus a job at a senior home during the winter. For her improved finances, she credits a pay raise, plus a better understanding of how to handle her money after receiving advice from friends and family.

“I’ve learned a lot, personally, about learning how to be in a better mindset about it. You have to be an adult, you have to pay bills, you can’t willy-nilly go on trips. You have to say no,” she said. “You have to have your priorities more straight to accomplish the financial goals you have.”

– Bailey Schulz

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: These 6 Americans ended 2023 with credit card debt. Then came 2024.