Eliminate Credit Debt: A Plan With Teeth
The irony with people who have credit debt is that they can take the attitude of being angry at the credit card companies but not at themselves. They put the blame on high interest rates, accumulated charges and compounded fines and not on their excessive and unreasonable spending habits, their irresponsible handling of credit cards and other poor financial choices. To truly eliminate credit debt, one must face the fact that there is no one to blame for the financial quagmire that you are in, but yourself. Simply put, you have an obligation to pay what you owe. Do not think for a moment to take that indignant attitude any further by seeking dubious credit cleaning services to eliminate credit debt. They do not work and have the potential of putting you in future financial harm. Eliminate credit debt the right way and it is not difficult as you think. To eliminate credit debt, you should follow an organized and systematic way of assessing your financial situation and applying the appropriate strategies as needed. First make a detailed listing of everything that you owe on your cards including interest rates and minimum payment amounts. Arrange the cards from the card with the lowest interest rate to the card with the highest one and then add the total minimum payments for each. Based on your financial resources, gauge how much money you can put aside to pay not only the minimum amount needed, but to add some more in order to really make a dent on your debts. It is important that you have to fully pay the balances on what you owe on the card with the highest interest rate because they accumulate interest costs more quickly. After completing that, go on to the next card and then the next.
You will never truly eliminate credit debt if you keep on paying just the minimum; technically at some point, you can, but the trick to a successful payment plan is to get it done as quickly as possible in the least amount of time. At this point, to eliminate credit debt, you have to eliminate certain personal habits or items on your budget to make ends meet. You really have to choose between your thrice-daily $4 branded coffee drink (charged on your card!) and possible bankruptcy. Eliminate credit debt by overhauling your card expenditures; rule of thumb is never using your credit card on items that you get to consume easily like food or your twice weekly grocery bills. Small items trick you into thinking that they are not a big deal until you begin to realize that they hit you hardest cumulatively; some people are horrified to see that they have accumulated $300 worth of fast-food charges or $250 on coffee alone. Reserve credit card purchases only for bigger items some of which are have offered rebates through credit purchase. But what do you do when you have a clean slate with everything paid for? Some have simply retained one or two cards with the lowest interest rate charges while some just retained a single card, the card with the highest interest rate and dumped the rest. But if you really want to eliminate credit debt forever, take the ultimate option- do not use credit cards ever again! |