Woman says ChatGPT helped her pay off over $11K in debt
A woman says she turned to artificial intelligence and used ChatGPT for help with paying off thousands of dollars of debt.
Realtor and content creator Jennifer Allan started a 30-day ChatGPT challenge that she shared in a TikTok video series.
"Everyday, I'm asking for one task to make money to pay down my $23,000 in credit card debt," Allan explained in one video post.
Over a month, the wife and mother said she made over $11,000 and paid off $12,078.93 of her $23,000 debt.
Allan credits ChatGPT for helping her get disciplined about reaching her goal, even if the AI tool gave her some quirky suggestions.
"I went from not looking at [my debt] at all to, you know, being in it every day," said Allan.
ChatGPT gave Allan many recommendations, including one unexpected idea that went viral.
"It told me to put my total debt number, to the $23,000, on a watermelon in Sharpie ... and auction it off on eBay as 'debt art,'" Allan said in a TikTok post. That post went viral, reaching over 2 million views.
In a follow-up video post, Allan explained that she had taken a photo of the watermelon with the $23,000 written on it and then later, auctioned off the photo for $51.
But other ChatGPT answers were much more fruitful for Allan, including one idea to search for money she may have forgotten about in apps she had on her phone.
"I went searching through my phone and I found on Venmo I had $100.80 that was sitting there," Allan explained in another video post.
Allan also said the journey helped her re-discover other money sources she hadn't thought about in awhile.
"My husband was actually like, 'Oh, didn't we have a brokerage account?'" Allan recalled.
"There's $10,200 sitting in this account that is available. Like I could literally cry right now," she said in a TikTok video.
Allan said nearly half of her credit card debit has been paid off so far.
Although Allan's method worked for her, some financial experts like Noelle Carter, president and CEO of Parachute Credit Counseling, warn ChatGPT and AI should be treated as a tool and not a solution.
"AI can be a powerful assistant to come up with ideas, but, you know, certainly not a substitute for human expertise or critical thinking," Carter said.
Other experts also encouraged people to only spend within their means so as to avoid debt completely.
"A lot of people are dealing with diminished savings and rising debt, so they may not be in a position to make a big purchase or put together a large stockpile," Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate, told ABC News previously. "Take the long view. It might make more sense to drive your existing car for a bit longer or live with the old kitchen cabinets another year or two."
For more ideas on how to pay off debt, click here to read how one single mom who paid off $34,000 of debt is now empowering other single moms to face their own debts and here for another mom's grocery budgeting hacks that helped her cut down $93,000 in debt.
