Great as credit cards can be, one of
easiest "things" that can happen in life is building up of a large credit card debt. For whatever reason, making purchases with credit cards always seems much easier than spending cash to obtain a product or service.
Maintaining high levels of credit card debt is not prudent. The interest rates associated with most credit cards is high. In fact, many people have managed to rack their card balances up so high that only minimum payment is made each month. As a result, these people are taking years if not decades to pay down their credit card balances, all while wasting an incredible sum of money in interest payments alone.
In this article, a number of strategies to reduce credit card debt are presented. These tips are general in nature but will provide a person with credit card debt a solid plan for reining in credit card balances.
Target highest rates of interest. If you can, transfer balance to another credit card, where you will achieve a zero or low interest rate for a set period. While this balance is not costing interest you can target other debts that are. Make sure you are prepared for when offer period runs out and have another balance transfer offer ready to take over. You should look to have your credit card application a few weeks before your current offer period runs out. If you cannot transfer balance then pay off as much as you can afford, so balance reduces as quickly as possible.
Credit card companies are very competitive and as such there are some very good 0% balance transfers and purchase offers available. Look to take advantage of these, but make sure you have a plan in place on how to deal with balance when offer finishes. Remember that debt has not gone away.
As mentioned previously in this article, credit card accounts usually have high interest rates. The combination of high interest rates and free spending patterns can result in rapid escalation of credit card debt.
