Robinson, a chemical engineer with a water consultancy, says she took on a credit card with a $7000 limit at university, using it for living expenses and paying off the balance every month - initially, anyway.

"Then I started to buy big things and I wasn't able to pay the balance every month," she says. She missed the odd payment as her budgeting went awry and the debt began to creep up.

When she saw a promotion for a card with zero interest on balances transferred from elsewhere, she thought she had the answer.

"But instead of getting rid of the first card, I built that one back up again," she says. Now both cards were "maxed out". "I was making payments, then the interest would go up and I wouldn't be making any headway."

She went to her credit union, which wrote her a personal loan at about 10 per cent (though at one point it bumped over 11 per cent), compared to about 16 per cent on her bank credit card and nearer 20 per cent on her American Express card.

"As part of the loan I had to cut up the cards and send them to my credit union. They then sent them back to the card companies with a cheque to pay out the balance," she says.

Robinson had been paying $200 a fortnight on her cards. The loan repayment was less but she continued to pay that amount.

As a result, she's about $2000 ahead on her loan repayments.

The credit union gave her a card with $1500 credit for emergencies "but I don't use it", she says. Instead she pays cash or uses a debit card.