Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Coco Warner ReportingRegardless of what you make or if you're satisfied with it, it's tempting to spend more money than you earn, especially considering all the free credit card offers that come through the mail.
It's much easier to get INTO debt than to get OUT.
We're hoping to improve the quality of our lives this month and today we're helping us with our finances.
It's normally a good thing to be at the top of the list, except when you're talking about bankrupcy. So, in response to Utah's high bankrupcy rate, Zions Bank launched a program called Financial Peace University. It's a 13 week course that wants to help you gain better control of your finances.
Remember learning to cut in kindergarten? This class is applying that long-ago lesson to credit cards!
"I think we have about a dozen that we've cut up in this class!"
These students are taking the 13 week course offered by Zions Bank, aimed at helping people get out of debt and improve their finances. And yes, a bank wants you to get out of debt!
Dave Fuhriman/Zions Bank: "We don't want people to get into trouble finanially. We want them to be prudent as they borrow money. We want to help them pay off once they borrow it."
The course focuses on teaching people how to set up a thousand dollar emergency fund, pay off any credit card debt, and then work on building up savings.
Dave Fuhriman: "If your debt service has $2500 and you paid off the credit card balance $200 a month on, you take that $200 and apply it to the next loan, say your car."
Jim Droubay: "We've cut up as many credit cards as we can and it's actually worked out very well for us. We were able to pay off a $2500 credit limit quickly."
Coco Warner/Eyewitness News: "And a lot of these class members have been surprised at how much fun they've had getting better control of their finances."
Melanie Newbold: "We've paid off $2500 in debt and it's a good feeling. It's fun!"
The class also teaches you how to budget, be a smarter consumer, and communicate about your finances.
Bryan and Maryanne Fuhriman: "This class has really elped us kind of get on the same page so that when there's a short month, he doesn't come home and go, 'What happened to our money? Where'd it all go?' and I'm not going, 'I don't know.'"
You can find out more information about the Financial Peace University through the link to Zions Bank.
And Zions Bank and KSL 5 want to help you get started and pay off your month's debt. Add up your monthly payments... credit cards, mortgage, car loans, personal loans. And send us the total along with your information... name, address, phone number, and your date of birth... to contests@ksl.com.
You can still submit your entry today, then we'll randomly select a winner. We'll tell you if you won tomorrow, May 19th.
