How To Eliminate Your Credit Card Debt
For over a year now, I have been personally trying to eliminate my credit card debt. I have about $7,000 on a few different credit cards. Not enough for a Debt Settlement Program or Debt Consolidation, however enough to make me uncomfortable with having it. The credit card debt isn’t costing me that much money yet I realize that about $1,000 of it is at a 15% interest rate which gets added on every month.
The interest rate of 15% is what keeps me worrying regarding doing away with my Credit Card Debt. Therefore every month 15% of my 1000 balance is $150 being added to the previously existing $1000. That is a lot of money when you look at it over 5 months. The money is even compounded each month so the next month they would tack 15% on to the original balance. By the fifth month, if I wasnt reducing the balance it would grow to $1,749. That $1000 is now costing me way more then I had initially intended.
The essential part of getting rid of your credit card debt is to recognize that the financial depletion that it brings about. Someone with lots of credit card debt has to be mindful of the problems that it is bringing them. This can run just inline with someone who is trying to quit smoking. Why would someone quit if they would not know how bad it was for them? Men and women who smoke generally aren’t around individuals dying from lung cancer. This is a difficult comparison however, the same could possibly be said regarding people who spend lots of money on their credit cards. These people really don’t know just how much damage they could possibly be doing to their financial situation. They might have a better knowing if they were pressured to listen to people who were going into bankruptcy. The bottom line is that you have to understand there is a problem just before you can fix it.
After one knows that they have an issue with their credit card debt, they have to take a look at where the credit card debt came from. Once someone has learned where the debt came from they can take actions to eliminate it. I will use a sick person as an example again. When someone comes into the hospital and is very ill the first thing the doctors do is try to figure out where the most discomfort or more threatening injury is. If the individual has something wrong with their heart or lungs, they will most probably try to fix that first. This is a dramatic example but it hits the point. Take a look at your credit cards and find out which card is the most threatening to you.
Even though your credit card debt will not kill you, you should still look to see which one is affecting you the most. The easiest way to discover where you are hurting the most is to look for a couple of things.
1. Look for the highest balance you have on a card.
2. Try to find what the highest interest rate you have.
This may not be the same card. You may have a card that has a $10,000 balance on it but has a 5% rate. The other card you have might only have a $5,000 balance, however is at a 15% interest rate. This 2nd card is the card that you would want to completely pay down the fastest simply because it costing you the a lot of money due to the high interest rate.
Focus all of your energy on getting this card paid off immediately. Avoid spending money on this card and pay it down in as big of chunks as you quite possibly can. Try not to utilize any of your credit cards while you’re trying to clear away your credit card debt. If you definitely have to make use of a card, utilize the one with the cheapest interest rate. This is the best route to eliminating your credit card debt.
If you find that you are only able to make the minimum requirements on these cards in that case you must take into account speaking to a debt consolidation representative like michigan debt relief, tennesse debt relief, or virginia debt relief regarding their debt settlement program. These programs are for folks who ask themselves these 2 questions. 1. How much am I paying out a month in interest? 2. Where will I be in three years from now if I continue on paying what I am. If you are going to be in the same place you must look at debt settlement for your credit card debt elimination.
