SALT LAKE CITY — If you feel like you're drowning in debt, like you will never get your head above water, a new website can offer you some help. Power Pay is a free tool from Utah State University, no tricks, no paywalls, just a proven plan to chip away.
The first thing that Power Pay helps you do is identify all of your debt. Then the program will help you decide between paying off the debt with the lowest balance or the one with the highest interest rate.
The idea is that while you make the minimum payments on all your debts, you "power pay" the first debt you want to eliminate. Once that debt is eliminated, you simply redirect that same money to another payment, combining the minimum you are already paying.
Dave Nellis with America First Credit Union says using a tool like this can help people see their debt as more manageable. "This is a concerted, dedicated effort to reduce your overall debt," Nellis explained. "So use that money to pay off that debt, once that high interest debt is paid off the you pay the next one, and then the next one, and then the next one and that gives the consumer a lot of relief seeing that, hey, I am making some progress, I see a light at the end of the tunnel."
Experts say repeating the process until the debt is gone will shock you as to how much quicker each debt erases as you combine payments.
