How to Start to Eliminate Your Credit Card Debt Today!

Approximately 75% of United States Households have at least one credit card and of those almost 60% carry a balance from month to month. However, even though 25% of the households in the United States do not have a credit card, the average amount of debt per household was $8329 at the end of 2008. That's a staggering amount, but for those that don't carry any balance on their credit cards, there are those that carry 20,000 or even 30,000 dollars or more as an ongoing balance on their cards.

Credit Card debt can cause many problems in your life, it can cause or lead to depression, overwork, stress, relationship problems and can be a difficult trap to escape. People become entrapped in credit card debt for a number of reasons. For some it is easier to spend money when they have a credit card and they go shopping. It may not be as easy to exercise self control over purchases when a credit card is an easy way to pay for a product or service that you otherwise wouldn't consider you could afford. After all, "you can always pay it later" is one way people justify this kind of spending. Others find themselves in deep credit card debt after a loss of a job or health insurance, or any time that their income doesn't provide enough to make ends meet and cover all the other expenses that are necessary to life. For these people the credit card becomes the liquidity that they need to make it through difficult times. Unfortunately, many find it more difficult and challenging to then find a way out of their credit card debt problems.

This hub will look some of the possible answers to the question "how can I eliminate my credit card debt?"

You know that your credit card debt is a problem. It is costing you hundreds of dollars in interest every month and you are struggling to keep up with the payments. Maybe you are working extra hours at a second job to try and find a bit of extra money to start paying this debt down. I understand exactly, I am working my way out of debt as well and it motivates me to work much more than perhaps I would otherwise. Congratulate yourself for taking positive action to help improve your situation. What other steps could you take outside of part time work, or working longer hours?

First you should really sit down and make a budget. Take a look at your monthly income and add up all of your necessary expenses. Don't count your outstanding balances yet, but only those essential items that you pay each month like rent or a mortgage payment, groceries, electricity, water bills, insurance payments. After you have done this you will have an idea of where some of your financial problems may lie. It may mean that you will need to consider cutting some of these expenses by getting higher deductible insurance, a less expensive home, or apartment, perhaps a cheaper car. you may have opportunities in these expenses to make some savings so that you can devote more of your income to paying down your debt.

One very good piece of advise is to just cut up your credit cards or at the very least put them away in a safe place at home and stop using them outright. If you do this you will no longer be adding more and more to your credit card balances and you will have stopped at least a part of the financial bleeding. It can be a very good first step, but admittedly there are many things that require a credit card for you to be able to pay. Online many services require a credit card. If you do have to use a credit card for a purchase, you could go ahead and make an online payment to your credit card for the amount of the purchase. At the very least you should set aside that amount of money in your checking or a savings account so that the money will be able to pay on your credit card. You will want to try and add that amount to the amount that you would normally be paying on your credit card balance.

Another thing to consider is to review the interest rates on your credit cards. Many cards may have interest rates up above 20% which will be costing you quite a bit of money each and every month. You might be able to talk to the credit card company and negotiate a lower interest rate. If you are unable to negotiate lower interest rates then you might consider moving your balance to a lower interest rate card. It can be a tricky proposition to transfer your balances though. You should carefully read any and all terms to determine if the lower interest rate for balance transfers is a teaser or short term rate and go ahead and calculate what, if any, balance transfer fees may exist. It may be that you will be fortunate enough to cut your interest rate in half this way though.

If you have multiple credit card balances you may want to consider consolidating your credit card debt onto one card. If you do this, you should investigate each card and typically you will want to choose the one with the lowest interest rate. Now, it's possible that there are balance transfer fees involved that may not make the lowest rate the best option. in this case you should carefully compare each and every option so that you can decide which one is most beneficial to you. If you take this solution be careful that you don't open up more problems for yourself by continuing to make purchases on other credit cards.

Similar to this idea of consolidating multiple credit card accounts onto one balance is the idea of debt consolidation or a debt consolidation loan. There are many companies that can do these kind of loans. Many will offer better interest rates than the credit cards do, but may come with other conditions. Some will negotiate settlement where you wind up paying only a portion of what you owe. Some people may not be comfortable with the idea of negotiating down your level of debt. Many people feel an obligation to pay every cent of what they owe. For those that want a faith centered approach to debt consolidation, they may consider companies that offer Christian Debt Consolidation. Many companies that offer Christian debt consolidation also offer Christian debt counseling services.

Other things you should consider doing to help you pay down your credit card debt is to look at savings in as many ways as possible on your current expenses. Try to eliminate bills and expenses that are not necessary. When grocery shopping, look for bargains and coupons to discount your total. Consider eating out less as another way to save a bit of money. You may find that you can raise a bit of money by having yard sales, or getting rid of old clothing and other unused items through consigment shops and flea markets. You may even find that you can get good deals on items that you need at such second hand markets or stores. Having a small backyard, or balcony garden can also help you save on your food expenses. There are many ideas here that are too many to cover in the limited space we have here, but perhaps are worthy of another hub.

One last warning that I should pass along is to avoid the trap of paying the minimum payment amount due each month on your credit cards. It will take much too long to retire the outstanding balance if you go month to month paying the minimum.

It can be difficult to eliminate or get rid of your credit card debt, but you really must start working towards the goal today and continue each and every day until you have payed of your unsecured balances and are credit card debt free. If you have a setback and your balances again increase, renew your efforts and keep fighting to eliminate your debt. Remind yourself daily of the things you need to be doing to achieve your goals of getting rid of credit card debt and keep working on ways to improve your debt situation. I wish you great success in retiring your credit card debts!