I politely told her that I was not interested in raising my interest rate or borrowing more money, "but thanks anyway."

I then wondered how many other people would jump at opportunity to pocket a quick $10,000 at "low" rate of 15.9%.

I was also amused that she encouraged me to pay off my high interest debt with this money. Well, to my standards 15.9% is high interest debt. Granted it's not 24-25% charged by department stores but still it was more than I was currently being charged on any of my other cards.

Shouldn't an offer that would appeal to me be one that offered me money at a lower rate? Her offer seemed backwards. She was trying to entice me with vision of "extra cash" in my hand to do whatever I would like.

I took a moment to do some financial math (the most important kind) on this offer and found that if I had a current balance on that credit card of $4000 at my current interest rate of 12.9%, I would be paying about $43 a month in interest charges.

If I had accepted her offer for an additional $9000 at 15.9% (and I suspect that my regular rate of 12.9% would have risen to 15.9% rate also), I would be paying about $172 a month, exactly 4 times what I am currently paying. If I made a payment of $200 a month to pay off this debt, I would be paying for over 12 and a half years.

What I learned from this experience is that I should get into credit card business. Maybe I'll check on some bank and financial institution stocks today. With offers like this they must be making money.

Once again, those who understand interest earn it, those who don't, pay it.

Every little bit helps. Some months you may only be able to add $10 to your payment; some months you may be able to add $200. And this applies to interest on credit card payments or any other kind of debt repayment. Paying down as much of principal (or amount you owe) each month will help reduce interest you are charged and length of time it takes to pay off debt.

So why don't credit card companies charge you more of principal each month?

How would you like to be making 18% on an investment? Wouldn't you want this investment to last as long as possible? Of course! So do credit card companies. They are happy for you to pay off your balance, but even more excited for you to keep paying them that 18% interest.

There are some other interest tips and tricks.

- One trick your mortgage company may have played on you is to include a prepayment penalty in your mortgage. If you try to pay off your mortgage early they may actually charge you for doing so. Or they may only apply part of your payment to principal and take rest as a "service charge."

- Make sure when you make an additional payment that you send a check separate from your monthly mortgage payment with instructions that amount is to be applied toward principal of your loan. Otherwise they may just apply it towards next month's payment and still charge you interest.

- Generally you will not have this problem with credit card companies. But watch out for late payments or going over your credit limit. They may then use these "rule infractions" as cause to raise your rate to over 25%!

- If you are looking to refinance your mortgage, look for a mortgage that lets you pay on a bi-weekly basis. Since many people receive a bi-weekly paycheck this also makes it easier to budget your money. If you are paying every two weeks you will make an additional monthly payment each year (26 bi-weekly payments vs. 12 monthly payments). Also, because you are paying principal down every two weeks rather than every month your interest charges will be reduced.

You CAN take control of your interest charges. Make those extra monthly payments. The feeling of being debt-free will far outweigh temporary pleasure of that burger, movie or new DVD-player.