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Credit card debt is a factor in the lives of many people. Credit cards aren’t necessarily bad things to have in your wallet, but for some people, too much credit card debt becomes a problem, and then they’re buried in interest.
The good news is, you don’t have to stay weighed down by all that debt. There are some things you can do to make the weight of those credit card balances start to feel a little lighter. You have to do some financial managing to put yourself in a better position with your credit accounts. Choosing the right card among special cards for financing will also greatly facilitate your management of your financial problems.
Know What You’re Working With
The first thing you need to do to get a handle on your credit card debt is to make sure you’re familiar with all the accounts that you have and what their respective interest rates are. You need to know how much you owe across the board, where the balances are and what percentage of interest you’re having to pay on each one.
Get yourself a list going. If you only have a couple of cards, then this shouldn’t be a problem. But, for those who have multiple cards with all kinds of different balances and interest charges, it might be a little more difficult to just know off the top of your head exactly what you’re working with. The more organized you get with your credit cards and the details of the accounts, the better off you’ll be.
Once you have all of your accounts down on paper, you can see which ones have the highest interest rates. Those are the ones you want to focus on paying off the quickest. Here’s something important though. Don’t skip any payments on other credit card accounts just so you can pay off the high-interest account faster. You need to keep making the minimum payment every month so that you don’t hurt your credit.
Do Balance Transfers Wherever Possible
If you can’t get your balance paid down any time soon, but you’re tired of seeing the interest build up on your existing debt, you can look for a credit card that’s offering a 0% APR on balance transfers for an extended period of time. These offers are great for helping with paying down your debt quicker because you don’t have to keep racking up more interest on top of what you already owe.
You’ll still want to make sure you’re getting a good credit card to put in your purse or wallet though. Make sure you look at the fees associated with the card and with the transfer itself. Many of these cards will give you the opportunity to make your balance transfer with no fee, so don’t get pulled into an account that has a fee right away. Shop around before you pick a card for your transfer. You can look at a number of different cards for financing before you settle on the one that will provide you the options to help you reduce your debt.
Consolidate Your Balances Where You Can
When you have various different cards that have different balances, different features, different reasons you use them and different interest rates, it can sometimes get to be too much for you, having all the different payments you have to make. And you’ll find that you’re making payments but the balances don’t seem to be going down much. You can fix both of these problems by consolidating the debt into one lump sum and then making one payment to one financial institution to start chipping away at the amount you owe.
You can get a personal loan from a bank that will give you the funds to pay off each of your credit card balances. Then, instead of paying all those separate payments to all those separate companies, you can make one payment to the bank that gave you the loan, which also means you’re only paying one interest rate. This is a really great option for people who have several different credit cards that they’re carrying balances on. It cuts down on the amount of money you have going out in payments, as well as on the amount of interest you are ultimately paying.
You Can Get Your Credit Card Debt Paid Off Faster
The thing to remember is that you don’t have to just curl up and hide under the weight of your credit card debt. It’s not something that you need to be embarrassed by or feel defeated over. You just need a plan for paying it off that won’t have you still paying on it decades from now. Do all the things you can to bring your interest rates down and make your payments more reasonable to deal with. Then you’ll see that credit card debt start to shrink and you’ll be glad you made the moves to get you to a better place with your finances.
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This content is sponsored by Erica Johnson.
Photo: iStockPhoto