How to Reduce Credit Card Balance
Many people are drowning in credit card debt, with no visible way out. They have multiple credit cards, some of which are maxed out with high interest rates. While this can be a daunting situation, it is possible to get out from the mountain of credit card debt under which you may find yourself.
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Instructions
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Cut up your credit cards. The best way to get out of debt is to stop using the credit cards altogether.
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Put all of your bills in a spreadsheet program with a listing of due dates each month. List the interest rates next to each card. This will help keep you organized.
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Try to pay more than the minimum on each card every month. If you only pay the minimum, it will take you many years to pay the balance down because you will accrue interest on your balance. Paying more than the minimum will put more money towards the principal. which will reduce your interest charges, helping you get the card paid off faster
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Talk to your creditors. It is in their best interest for you to keep paying, so they may work with you to help reduce your debt and lower your interest rates.
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Interest rates are one of the things which keeps balances high. Many times credit card companies will offer promotions with a low interest rate for a balance transfer to a new card. Try to take advantage of these. If you can't, look at your balances and try to move some of the debt with a high interest rate to an existing card which has a lower interest rate.
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Snowball your payments. Pay slightly more than the minimum due on all the cards except one, and funnel the majority of your funds into paying off that one card. Once that card is paid off, take the money you were putting towards that card and add it to the money put towards another card. Continue this for all of your cards until they are all paid off.
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References
- Photo Credit flickr.com/andresrueda CC BY-ND 2.0
