i joining us now is personal finance expert and "new york times" best-selling author lynnette khalfani coxthank you so much for being here, lynnette. great to have you. >> thank you. >> you have this book called "zero debt" where you talk about getting out from under $100,000 debt. >> it's a crazy amount, i know, and it is crazy, it was. this was back in 2001. had $100,000 in credit card bills. fortunately i managed to pay it off in three years. had to do a lot of things to start digging out. >> like what? >> well, first off, avoid what i call the minimum payment trap, le and triple your payments. you can also negotiate with your creditors, try to get those interest rates knocked down, even if you want change the payment due date to make it better aligned with your paycheck schedule and then go on a credit holiday. time to start using cash now. stop digging yourself deeper into debt. >> a lot of people when they are focused on their debt they are also worried about their credit scores. how do you go about improving your credit score. >> credit is huge these days because, of course, it's go