Effective Ways to Eliminate Credit Card Debt

Last Updated : May 28, 2016, 7:38 a.m.

Are you having credit card debt that you want to pay off as soon as possible? If yes, well you are not the only one. However, if experts are to be believed almost 40-45% of Indians are currently having credit card balance, and according to a latest survey this figure there are chances that this figure might increases in coming years.

More to the point, on one thing many of you will surely agree is the fact that many people in their late 20s and 30s are facing the problem with their credit card debt. Thus, this is the right time for you to take the charge, and know more about this topic. So, read this article further to know the several effective and simple steps that will help you to eliminate your credit card debt in least time frame.

Pay First For the Highest Interest Rate Card

Whatever cash you have in hand, always try to pay off firstly for the highest interest rate card every month. Yes, avoid paying for minimum interest rate cards. Moreover, after paying off for the highest interest rate card, try to apply all the extra cash that you have to the card with the second highest interest rate, and continue this chain by paying for the remaining minimum interest value cards in the last.

Moreover, whenever you pay off for a credit card, you will surely be left with some little extra cash in hand, which you can invest by paying off for the next card, thus can create a positive effect on your profile.  Furthermore, once you pay off for the highest interest card first, it would not be wrong to say that through this effective way you can easily reduce or eliminate your credit card debt, and can also reduce your monthly annual fees.

Once your goal of paying off for the highest interest card has accomplished, move on to the next with the lowest balance first. Doing this will also help you with boosting your credit score because the lower your utilization rate is, the better impact it will create on your credit score.

Stop Using Your Cards

Yes, you read it right. One of the easiest and fastest ways to eliminate your credit card debt is to stop using your credit cards. Try to purchase any product in cash as this thing will automatically help you in spending less.

If experts are to be believed, people using credit cards actually spend twice  when it comes to buying an item that is not the case when you shop with cash. So, avoid using your credit cards for many purchases.

Be Organized

Try to be organized in life by preparing a spreadsheet including the number of credit cards you have. Then, make one column mentioning how much debt you have on each card along with their interest rates. Through this way, you will get to know your total debt amount, and can plan your expenses accordingly. It gives you a clear-cut vision to tackle this problem, if you are getting confused.

Fix Your Budget

Set your monthly budget, including what you need to spend on what. With the help of this, you would be able to eliminate your extra spend by knowing the areas where you are spending more. You can save money by doing and, then this money you can use for paying off your credit cards debts faster. Make some adjustments in your lifestyle by cutting unnecessary expenses, hence save money to pay off for your credit card debt.

Try for Lower Interest Rate

Get in touch with credit card companies, and request them to give you a card with lower interest rate.  With lower rates come the lower monthly payments along with the fees. However, if you have a good credit score or are getting the lower interest rate on a competing card, try to mention this thing to the customer service rep.

Every Month Do Two Minimum Payments

Paying two minimum payments every month is undoubtedly your key to enjoy debt-free life. Whenever you make a payment, your average balance is reduced daily, which ultimately results in lower rate of interest. Doing this will actually help you in paying off the debt with much faster pace, hence boost your credit score as well.

Transfer Your Balance

If you have a credit card whose interest rate is quite high, try to opt for balance transfer facility. Today, it is easy to get balance transfer facility as many banks provide many lucrative offers like  0% promo rate which will allow you to pay off your balance in more time, thus giving you the opportunity to focus on cards with high interest rates.

However, this thing also means that you are spending less in interest fees, hence extra money will be going on the principal. Thus, to avail this facility, you need to be extra careful as many banks usually ask you to pay a fee around 3% on the total amount transferred amount.

Merge Your Debt

Consolidating your debt is surely the best thing to do. You can do this thins usually by borrowing the money from banks, private lenders, or from a peer-to-peer lender. Moreover, you can use this loan to pay off all your credit card debts at once, and then keep yourself focused towards paying for one big loan payment per month.

Continue Paying Your Cards Off

Once you have done with pay off for the highest interest card, this thing will surely be tempting for your pocket as now you don’t need to pay off every month for that card. Thus, the next thing that you should do is try to pay less on your credit cards. Actually, the goal here is to increase your every month payments, instead of taking the money that you would usually spend on that particular card, and will put it towards the another one that usually leads to faster pay off.

Try Not to Close Your Credit Card

However, many people think that after paying off the complete amount, it is better to close your card, but actually it’s not. Yes, because your credit score is partly calculated on your credit card utilization. It is usually calculated on the amount of credit that you are using verses the total credit you have on your name.

After your card is closed, the less credit limit will be there on your name. Thus, this thing directly affects your debt utilization ratio to increase which will ultimately harm you in the long run. Thus, always remember that it is important to have a long credit history as this factor boosts your credit score. So, try to keep your card open!