A Reporter’s Stimulus Checks Zeroed Her Cards in 2020. The Zero Didn’t Last.

Kamaron McNair, a money reporter at CNBC Make It, wrote in a first-person essay published Oct. 25, 2026, that she paid off more than $11,000 in credit card debt in about 18 months. Her balance peaked at $11,310 in March 2025. She says she kept traveling, shopping and living her life along the way.¹³

The figures are her own account of her finances. By her telling, the payoff came from a few habits rather than drastic measures.¹

How a balance grows while you pay it

For years, McNair paid more than the minimum on her cards every month. She thought of card debt as normal and made no real push to get rid of it.¹

She did reach zero once. In 2020 she put her Covid-19 stimulus checks toward the cards and wiped them clean. The zero didn’t last, and she started carrying a balance again.¹

The culprit was interest. Her card charged a rate of at least 21%. That was high enough that her balance kept rising even in months when she paid the card company more than she spent.¹

Related: Paying Off Debt Comes Down to Whether You Run on Math or Momentum

She only saw the pattern after she went back through her monthly statements. They showed that in many months, she had added to her balance even though she was making payments.¹

What she changed

McNair didn’t stop traveling. She started saving for trips before she took them. When the trip charges hit her card, she paid them off right away instead of spreading them over several months.¹

She also made extra payments. In weeks when she didn’t get paid, she often sent the card company more money if she had cash left after essentials.¹

From October 2025 through September 2026, she put nearly $600 a month, on average, toward the debt.¹ The essay doesn’t spell out her income or how she funded the payments, so her pace may not match what every reader can manage.

Lessons for anyone carrying a balance

• Paying more than the minimum may not be enough. At a rate of 21% or more, interest kept McNair’s balance growing even in months when she paid more than she charged.¹
• Read your old statements. Going back through her monthly statements showed McNair she had added to her balance in many months despite making payments.¹
• Pay for big purchases before they turn into debt. Saving ahead for trips let her pay off those charges right away.¹
• Extra payments count. She often made one in weeks she wasn’t paid, when she had cash left after essentials.¹

Interest adds up quickly. In a separate CNBC Make It story, Bankrate’s calculator, as cited by CNBC, showed that paying off a $5,000 balance at 21% interest over two years, at $256 a month, means repaying $6,166 in total.⁴

Her description of the payoff as taking no drastic measures is her own, and her situation won’t fit everyone’s. McNair says she is now free of credit card debt, and her essay mentions a $6,000 vet bill that she didn’t have to add to her card balance.¹