Reducing Credit Card Debt the Easy Way

By John Stevenson

One position that many people find themselves in is a growing mountain of credit card debt. This can happen for several reasons. They can ignore the bills when they come in the mail, hurting their credit score and making interest payments shoot up. They can also continue to make purchases, however small, that all add to the problem. The following suggestions will help you reduce credit card debt.

Stop Charging and Start Paying

One of the most important suggestions for reducing credit card debt is to not ignore the bills coming in. You absolutely must sit down and start paying them because the problem is only going to grow much worse if you continue to ignore them. However, the manner in which you go about paying them is also important. For credit card debt reduction, we're going to take a look at the debt on individual credit cards instead of your total debt. Doing so will help you prioritize payments, and once you pay one card off, you'll have that extra money to start paying the other off as well.

Instead of a bunch of credit cards, I recommended you only own one or two low interest ones, especially if you're suffering from credit card debt. Once you have a few cards instead of many, look at the one with the lowest balance and focus on that one. To reduce debt, it's important to take baby steps instead of trying to tackle the entire problem at once. Once you pay one card off, you have extra money towards paying off the other. However, there is another strategy some people opt for to reduce credit card debt, and it involves paying more on the higher interest card. By reducing the interest payments on that card faster, you also get more money towards paying off the other card. Both strategies are more effective than trying to pay off both cards in the same time span.

Most importantly though, you should do all you can to avoid adding to the problem. That means doing what you can to use a debit card or paying in cash, both of which only use what you have as opposed to adding to your debt. Up front, the item costs the same, but over time the purchase can gain up to 200% of its original expense in interest. Reducing charges is another important step to reducing debt, and soon you'll be paying those credit cards off instead of seeing the bills continue to rise.

John Stevenson holds an MBA in Finance from the Simon School of Business. He specializes in helping families reduce their credit card debt and regaining their financial freedom. For information about reducing your credit card debt please visit: Crush Your Debt Today [http://www.CrushYourDebtToday.com]

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How to Reduce Credit Card Debt - An Effortless Plan to Reduce Your Credit Card Debt

By Daniel Ambrose

No matter how long you avoid opening the envelope which contains your credit card bill, you will still get annoyed. It will not help you come out from the financial mess you are in at the moment. The longer you do not pay, the higher the rate of interest will become, which is only going to increase the amount that you will need to pay. You will only loose time and more money, if you are waiting for a miracle to happen which will make your creditors lower the amount of debt you owe to them. The more you spend time in thinking how to eliminate credit card debt, the more your amount of repayment will increase. And as the amount increases, you will surely loose hope and gain an even higher level of stress. However, repaying your increasing bills could have been easier only if you had known better ways.

You must be wondering how to eliminate credit card debts. Do not panic, you will come to know this shortly. The very first thing you need to do is to gather all the bills you have received to date. By doing so, you will know how many months have you been billed for. This should not just consist of your credit card bills, but also all the other spending you have done on car loans, to the smallest things, such as your cup of coffee.

Now, you need to give some concern to the items you have listed so far. What you have accomplished today, is due to all the spending on these. You must prepare two different categories, which are "unimportant" and "imperative". By the time you are done listing the items under these categories, you will have a fair ideal of where did you go wrong? Set your priorities and follow them as this is one way of how to eliminate credit card debt. Also you will save money to pay the bills for the items you need to pay that are more important in each month.

These facts will be all black and white and easier for you to understand the situation better. Take the list you have prepared as a manual to limit your self from spending extra amount on unimportant items. Had you not spent unnecessarily, you would be having a fair amount of money to pay your credit card bills. If you always wondered how to eliminate credit card debt, then you have the answer on the paper in the form of the list you have come up with. If you have more than a single credit card, then you can use them more wisely by using one for the monthly debt and the other for small amounts. You will feel extremely happy once you become successful in making yourself credit card 'free'. Now you can help others by telling them how to eliminate credit card debt.

The outcome of this exercise certainly sounds good, but it can only be achieved if the person has the willpower to stick to the plan.

The Plan:

1) Identify ALL expenditures - Perhaps carry a small notepad for a month to write down incidental expenditures. But make certain you write down ALL expenditures.

2) Categorize all expenditures - Place two columns on a sheet of paper and name column one: Necessities (Rent, Mortgage, Lights, Gas, etc.,), then name column two: Non-Necessities (Soda Pops, candy bars, movies, etc.,).

3) Identify all credit cards and their interest rates - Place highest "Interest Rates" first, not highest card owed.

4) If possible transfer high interest rate cards to low interest rate cards. Important: Make sure there is no charges associated with a transfer that would make it a costly move.

5) Reduce The Debt - Reduce The Stress - Take all the money saved from the unnecessary spending in column two of your "Categorize all expenditures" list and apply it to the card with the highest interest rate until it is paid off. Then do the same to the next card on your list, and so on...

Important Note: Do Not Charge Any New Debt During This Process!

Final Note: If you call your creditors and explain your situation (perhaps there was a layoff or sudden loss of employment or etc.), and let them know you are creating a refined budget to get things caught up. Then ask them if they can help by suspending the interest rate on your card and removing some penalty charges. You might be very surprised to find they are VERY helpful. Perhaps not all will be helpful, but nothing lost by trying.

My very best to you dealing with your creditors. I know it can be stressful. If you would like to read more about dealing with creditors please visit Pay Credit Card Debt Off dot org.

To eliminate credit card debt, one needs to prepare a plan and stick to it to overcome the debt. For more information, regarding how to reduce debt, visit us at http://paycreditcarddebtoff.org and improve your financial condition, and leave the stress of the debt behind. I am the Author: Daniel Ambrose, and I have been there and I understand. Feel free to leave questions on my website and sign up for my free newsletter.

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How to Reduce Credit Card Debt

By Manpreet A. Kaur

The most important step to reduce and pay off your credit card debt is to first identify which cards to pay off first, which cards have to be closed, which ones have to be left open, and every truth about the balance transfers.

All these hints can really play a magical role in reducing your credit card debt.

Few Instructions:

One should develop a habit of not missing any payments and not going over credit card limits. Dare you fail on this step, you will be charged with heavy penalty fees. Also your finance charges will increase and your mistakes will come on your credit reports. If you are short of cash to pay your minimum, then try to redirect payments from other places.
If you are paying your minimum fee on a card continuously and never go over your credit limit, then you must call up your credit card company and request them to reduce your finance fees. Remember, calling is always a better option than mailing as here you can make a personal request to someone who might understand your situation. We suggest you to pay 12 consecutive minimum payments on your card before making any kind of request regarding decrease in interest rates. Even if they deny you, keep asking them as it never hurts to ask. Interest rates are affected by your credit. So, if you improve your credit history you have better chances to improve your finance charges.

Always put extra cash in your credit cards first. Even though there's lot of pressure to put money in savings and investments, you should always opt to pay your debts first.

Another option or way is not to open more than 3 credit cards at any point of time. It actually improves your credit card history. It also reduces the risk of identity theft. If you have a large number of credit cards, close the one's with highest interest rates.

If you are paying off to numerous cards simultaneously, mainly you would like to put extra payments towards the card with higher rate of interest. Here you should try to pay the minimum on the other cards until that card is paid off completely. Now if you have the multiple cards with the same rate of interest, first pay the one with the smallest balance. If you are using your credit to pay off your debts, use the card with lowest rate of interest and has available funds.

Always take caution before transferring any balances. Usually what happens is that cards with 0% finance charge balance transfer cards offer have fine print rules, but they can work to your advantage. Always use your 0% programs only if you are sure that you can pay off the transferred amount within the time limit. Another thing to always take care of is to know that there is often a fee with balance transfers. Mainly the fee is a one time charge of 5% of the amount you are transferring. Always calculate, as it may not always be a good idea.

When you plan to get new cards (after you are over with your debts), avoid cards that charge annual fees. These days many cards offer airline miles and points, but the better deal is the one where you are offered cash back for all your points. So always wait before going for any new cards, because first you should improve your credit and maintain it properly.

Few Tips and Warnings: Few people always prefer to list their debts by the order of the interest rates and pay the one with the highest rate of interest. This can actually save a couple of months off of your debt repayment and save some money in interest. However, some people feel a rush when they pay off a credit card which is easier when your smallest credit card is receiving all of the financial attention.

For more information on how to reduce credit card debt, opt for http://www.ehow.com/how_2330584_reduce-credit-card-debt.html

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How To Slay Credit Card Debt For Good

By Joseph Wood

The numbers tell the story, and the story is that most Americans are carrying some kind of balances on their credit cards, meaning that they do not pay the balance in full every month. The amount of debt varies, but as of a few years ago (2002) the average debt for an American family with at least one credit card was almost $9,000.00, and that number seems to rise every year. The purpose of this article is to help folks to slay that beast for good.

There are some pre-requisites. Please do not skip these. The techniques that follow will not work as well or at all if a few pre-conditions are not met. Here they are:

1. All adult members of the household must be in agreement on the plan. This may require some compromise and tweaking of the plan. Do it if you need to. A tweaked unified plan will be more successful than a perfect un-unified one.

2. Immediately stop using the cards that have balances on them. You may continue to use a card if you pay off the balance on that card every month. Do not transfer what you used to spend on the other cards to the one that you pay off.

3. Most important, you must arrange your finances so that your total expenses are LESS than your income, counting all quarterly, semi annual and annual expenses into the monthly total. You simply cannot reduce debt if you are continuing to increase it! Not sure how to live on less than you earn? SIMPLIFY! You can solve this by increasing your earnings or reducing your expenses or both. Your choice.

4. Identify how much money is extra (after you have completed step three), and divide that monthly amount in half. Take the first half and arrange an automatic deposit to a high yield CD or online account, so that the money builds and grows there.

OK please do not proceed until you have completed the pre-requisites. Read ahead if you wish, but you MUST complete all four pre-requisites before you can be successful. That said, here is the plan:

1. Find a way to NOT focus on debts. If you are able to, spend as much time as possible feeling like you are completely debt free. I know it seems like a lie at first, but it is your future, and so it is not a lie. The number one step in freeing yourself from debts is seeing yourself free of debts, and experiencing it. Play a movie in your mind that stars you as the debt free person.

In connection, arrange your debt payments so that they consume as little of your time and mental energy as possible. For some this may mean to hire a third party to administer the debt payment program for you. This is really ideal, as you no longer even get the bills in the first place, making it MUCH easier to not focus on debt. One other thing if you have trouble still. Trying going mostly all cash for a couple of months. Really gives you a feel for how much you are spending, and is really good at showing you how much you have left.

It is impossible to increase your debt when you are using cash. Use debit cards for things where they make more sense, like the gas pump.

2. Now we get into the technical aspects of how this is done. If a third party is handling your debt payoff, just give them these instructions.

First thing is to list all of your debts in increasing balance order. Ignore the interest rates for now. The smallest balance debt will be listed first and the largest balance debt will be last.

3. Make exact minimum payments of all debts except the very top one. If you are doing the payments yourself, send the payment the very moment that you receive the statement. This is the best way to keep it out of your mind (because you will not see it again for a month), and it will make your creditor happy as well. You may also call all of the creditors and see if you can arrange the closing dates so that you get all of the bills within a short time frame. Just something to think about.

4. On the top debt, make the minimum payment plus the other half of the extra money from that month (you put the first half into a high yield account). This will accelerate the payment on that top one, and depending on the size of that balance, hopefully that one can be completely paid off in just a few months.

5. Once that top balance is paid in full, take yourself out to dinner to celebrate. Pay cash for the dinner! It feels really good to do so.

6. Apply the extra half, plus the former amount of the first payment, plus the minimum second payment to the second debt. The second debt will pay much faster now because of this, and yet there is no additional money coming out of your pocket.

7. The program continues in order. As one debt is paid, you simply pay all of the money that was going to it to the current top one, plus the minimum payment.

8. As you get closer to the bottom you find these debts reducing more and more rapidly.

9. The program ends when all the credit cards are paid off. If you have enjoyed this experience, then continue the program by adding any other debt payments, car payments, and finally your house payment(s) to the acceleration. Picture being entirely debt free! This program can do that for you.

10. Good Luck! Get started ASAP!

Joseph Wood is the webmaster and chief researcher for JOW Research. Come see us and learn The Secrets of The Secret [http://www.jowresearch.com/The Secret.html].

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