There is no answer to quickly and easily get out from under your credit card debt unless you have a way to pay it all off at once. Otherwise, you are paying tons of interest on your balance and it seems that those balances never want to go down. If you find that like many Americans you are not making as much as you use to, you may be struggling to pay many of your bills. While you are not going to get immediate relief, there are a few things you can do to pay credit cards down even when money is tight.
So many people who have to pay credit cards each month look at the minimum balance due, write a check out for that amount, and then go on charging like they always have. They then open their bill the next month to find that it has almost doubled. They then pay the minimum again and refrain from charging, and then notice after a few months the balance remains the same. That minimum amount due is that problem for most people with credit cards. This small amount is never going to be enough.
You can not pay credit cards down by paying just the minimum amount due. This amount is nothing more than interest. It does not touch the actual debt you have accumulated on your card. You can pay this minimum for years and your balance will not go down. Don't let that get you down though, because now that you know that, you can make a change. Always pay more than the minimum. Even if it is ten or twenty dollars more, at least you are doing something about the principle balance. It'll take a while this way, but at least you are not treading water.
That doesn't seem like much, and honestly, it isn't. However, you are doing something to pay credit cards down. There is another part of it that can be hard for some people. You can not add more to your debt. This means cutting those cards up and keeping just one for emergencies. When you think about emergencies, make sure they are true emergencies. A sale on a pair of shoes you have wanted forever, or a coveted golf club that goes on sale for half off is not an emergency. It can sting, but cut them up to avoid doing any more damage.
You also have the option of putting all of your debt onto one lower interest rate card. This takes some time, as you have to find a card that will give you a low rate to transfer your balance or balances. There are some good deals out there for just that. You also have to refrain from using that account to pile up even more debt. Once you have a lower interest rate, and you keep paying a bit more than your minimum payment, you have taken some great steps towards your goal to pay credit cards and your mountain of debt down for good.
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