LWM

Where did all the money go?

Are you still using a credit card? Remember we talked about this, we need to pay those things off and cut them up, cancel them and do not get new ones.

For many of us a balance of a thousand dollars on a credit card may not seem like much and will not cause much stress when doing your budget, but…

As we discussed that is money that can be used for other “Budgeted” items, so you need to pay off those credit cards as fast as you can. I am proud to say I entered 2011 with NO credit card debt and plan to NEVER have credit card debt again.

There are online calculators that can help you determine how long it will take to pay off your credit card if you just make the minimum payment, one of those can be found at the following link: http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/...alculator.aspx The shock of what you find might be just the motivation to pay the debt off as quickly as you can.

The interest rates of 14 to 28 percent it themselves should be enough to motivate most people to pay off and eliminate credit card debt.

With the economy the way it is right now you may or may not be receiving credit card apps in the mail, if you are then look at them and see if there is any advantage to a debt transfer in order to combine or reduce interest rates, this will help a little but you MUST cancel the other cards and then close these new accounts as soon as they are paid off.

Check out www.creditcards.com and see if the change to a new credit card can be a TEMPORARY solution to your finance situation.

Just remember that NEW debt IS NOT something you what to consider, if change cannot reduce what you owe by reducing the balance or reducing the interest rate then stay away from additional credit cards.


Feel free to send me a PM if you have questions or you can add them to the comments section if you feel others can benefit from the discussion.