Credit Card Debt - Make It Disappear
August 6, 2008
Credit card debt is one of the worse debts we can have as consumers. The interest rates on credit cards is one of the highest of all the debts we carry. Credit card debt is a very big problem many people have, especially in the west. Americans alone have credit card debt in the trillions of dollars. Most of this debt is due to consumers not having patience and buying goods they can not afford when they purchase them.
Once you have accumulated credit card debt, it’s not impossible to eliminate, but it could be difficult. Two of your choices are to hire a debt paying service or do-it-yourself. There are pros and cons to both. Debt charges usually charge a fee. Doing it yourself requires patience, discipline and planning.
It is similar to losing weight. If you want to lose weight and keep it off once it is lost, you cannot go back to the same eating habits you had before losing the weight. You cannot go back to the same credit card habits you had before, if you want to keep your credit card debt down. It sounds like common sense but unfortunately with us humans habits can be hard to break.
You have followed the plan you made or hired a debt-repayment-service, and after some time all your credit card debt is gone. Whatever you did to eliminate the debt continue with the same habits to keep it that debt monkey off your back. Whatever you do, do not fall back into the same habits you had before debt repayment.
Do whatever it takes to keep the debt off! Be persistent, and relentless. An accountability partner could help you keep that debt off. Manage yourself internally and externally to keep the lid on accumulating that debt again. Whatever you do, don’t fool yourself into thinking that it is okay to build that debt back up again.
It has been shown that habits take at least 30 day to change. It should take more than 30 days of different spending and payoff habits to eliminate your credit card debt. The key is to keep these habits up once your debt has been eliminated. Below are simple rules you can utilize to keep your credit card debt down. There are many more but these few can be implemented without too much stress:
1) Do not overspend. Yielding to the sale offers for something that you don’t really need, is a big mistake that leads to overspending.
2) Only charge as much on your credit card that you can pay off comfortably by the grace period.
3) Make credit card bill payments in time and in full.
4) Only hold as many cards as is absolutely necessary. You should not need any more than three. Hold credit cards which give you a usable benefit, such as points for travel or other necessities.
These are just very basic rules for eliminating credit card debt; you can add more based on your own experience and knowledge.
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