   How To Reduce Credit Card Debt SytematicallyHaving credit card debt piled up as high as a mountain is a nightmare and this can happen to anyone. It’s like a tornado. You can barely remember a thing, you just see the results. Say you go to mall to buy a winter jacket and end up with a jacket, two pairs of jeans, several new shirts and a new tie for the new suit bought three days ago… And you realize you won’t get your paycheck until the end of the month and not not today, nor will you get that raise you were hoping for because of the „economical crisis” and other obscure reasons. But you just don’t stop: you’re swimming in plastic. Till some day, when you realize that you’re overwhelmed by debts. Good. You realized it. First step to recovery. Take a two days vacation and don’t panic. Stay at home, keep your mind busy: evaluate your current situation, your income/debts balance and try to find solutions. Make a list of all your credit cards and rank them by debts interest. Top-priority: the highest interest cards. Consider a fixed percentage of your monthly income to go in the direction of paying off the high interest credit cards. Then multiply it by 1.5. The .5 part will be used to pay the low-interest cards (do those even exist?…). It wont be easy, bad habits die hard and this situation was generated by you neglecting what people call „common sense”. So – it’s time for an attitude change. Yes, you’ll be a fighter – and you’ll fight your debts and it have fun with it (I’m trying to make you feel better). Now you’ll wear the clothes you bought the past few months, because you won’t let yourself repeat the –oh-i-love-this-shirt-I’m-going-to-buy-it-now experience too soon! Your balance can vary from moderate debts to severe ones. Check the real percentage of your debts and find ways to supplement your income, if needed: a second – or even third – part time job for several weeks of months might help. How To Reduce Credit Card Debt TipsOnce you get yourself into Credit Card Debt there’s no telling what might happen. You did this to yourself and you’ll just have to figure out what to do. No one can help you unless you have rich and generous relatives or friends that really, really like you. Tip number 1 : Pay more than the minimum. When it comes to CC debt the less time you stay in debt the less interest you have to pay. That’s money in your pocket. Money that you can use to pay off other maxed-out credit cards like the one you got at the mall to pay for the brand new fishing boat that’s rusting in the garage. Tip number 2: Keep track off your financial records or if it’s too much for you get some software to do it (Quicken, by Intuit/ Microsoft’s Managing Your Money). It’s important that you pay all your bills on time, otherwise the interest will just grow and grow. That basically means that you’re be stuck in Credit Card Debt despite your best intentions. Tip number 3: Negotiate. Call the credit card company, set up a meeting and tell them you have difficulties managing your debt. They’ll be willing to negotiate because they know that if you declare bankruptcy they might not get anything at all. But remember you’re just bluffing, actually declaring bankruptcy is not the best solution, it will affect your credit rating for longer than you can stand. Just as a last pointer, most people who get into Credit Card Debt are impulse shoppers. That’s the problem you’ll have to fix first. Do whatever it takes, cut your credit cards into little pieces, go to therapy, avoid walking into any malls or even the sight of them. If this doesn’t help, get another job so you’ll be way to burned out to even consider shopping fun. |
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