Credit card debt got you singing the blues? Or maybe it’s keeping you up nights. It’s a sad but true fact that being heavily in credit card debt can have a nasty impact on your entire life. But don’t despair. There are at least four good ways to get your credit card debt under control.
Pay off the card with the highest interest rate first
To do this, you need to first organize your credit card debt by the card with the highest interest rate to the one with the lowest. You then pay as much as you can on the card with the highest interest rate while making just minimum payments on the others. The minute you get the highest interest rate card paid off, you can move onto the second and then the third and so forth.
The “snowball” strategy
A second tactic for getting your credit card debt under control is to use what’s called the “snowball” strategy. These is where you pay off the card with the lowest balance first then move onto the card with the next lowest balance and on and on. I’m not sure why it’s called the “snowball” tactic except maybe as you see your credit card debt begin to disappear, you will feel as if it was rolling downhill.
Pay off the card with the highest balance first
Why pay off the card with the highest balance first? The credit card companies are taking an even tougher approach to credit lines. If you have a card with a large balance, especially one that represents more than 50% of your total credit line, you’re very vulnerable to having your credit limits reduced. If you pay off the card with the highest balance first, you will keep this from happening. In addition, you’ll save on interest because the card with the highest balance will most likely be costing you the most in interest.
Debt settlement or debt relief
A fourth way to get out from under credit card debt is with a program called debt settlement or debt negotiation. This can be a very good solution because if you contract with a reliable and ethical debt settlement company, such as Debt Consolidation USA, you can see your credit card debts actually reduced to a fraction of what you owe. Plus, a legit debt settlement company doesn’t cost you anything unless it can develop a payment plan to get you out of debt that you approve of.
As you can see there are many ways to get a handle on out of control credit card debt but if you are struggling to just keep up with the minimum payments then you may want to consider one of the more aggressive tactics such as settlement.