Once you decide to take action to get out of debt, you have made a significant step in the right direction. You have accepted that you have a problem, and are no longer living in denial. The debt solutions available to you are not easy, but neither are they that difficult – it just takes patience and commitment. These are the best things that you can do…
You should stop using your credit cards, and you should do so immediately and without exception. Purchasing items like gas and food with your credit card is convenient, but convenience is part of the reason that you are in the situation that you are in. Instead, use cash for as many purchases as possible, as research has shown that people spend less when they can physically seen in notes and coins how much they are spending.
Reduce your interest rates. Many credit card companies have interests that exceed 20%. These excessive rates can often be negotiated down to lower rates – you just need to call your credit card company and ask. Getting rates down to 10% is not unusual if you make it clear that you are intent on paying off your balance. If they refuse then tell them that you will transfer to a credit card company with more attractive rates; doing so will nearly always make them reconsider their position.
Just paying off the minimum balance for your credit card every month is not going to help your situation at all. All this does is makes the card companies wealthier as a large percentage, if not all of this payment is going on the interest accumulated by your debt. Pay off as much as you possibly can every month to ensure that the debt is actually reducing.
Use a debt consolidation service to consolidate all your negative balances. Paying one balance per month, rather than 5 for example, makes controlling your debt easy, and also it makes it simpler to see how much you owe and how long it will take to remove yourself from that debt. First, research debt consolidation companies to find the lowest interest rates, then transfer all of your debts to this one main account. Make sure you close all other accounts once the transfer is complete as it is easy fall back into the temptation of a credit card.
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