Few things in life can cause as much long-term stress and strain as worries about money. Especially if you have kids or a family to take care of, you know that not taking care of your money is not an option. So, there are some things you might want to do to make this job a little bit easier and give yourself less to stress or worry about. Most of the time, one of these pieces of advice will be to pay off your credit cards.
Credit cards are very useful and convenient ways to get money, but as we all know, they can have very high interest rates. This makes them very expensive to use, especially if you don't pay off your full balance every month. So, if at all possible, you should try to pay off your credit cards and keep them with a zero balance. But this is easier to say than to do. Most people don't have trouble making enough money to pay off their credit card debt. Instead, the problem is that they keep using the card and spending the money, even though they know they can't keep up with the balance.
If you do want to pay off your credit cards, one of the first things you should do is set up a direct debit or standing order to pay off a certain amount each month. This way, you'll always be able to pay your bill on time and won't have to worry about administrative fees or fines for being late. The amount you decide to pay back should be a lot more than the minimum amount you have to pay back. This is because the credit card balance won't be paid off very quickly if you only pay the minimum. In fact, it may just be a "servicing level" that pays the interest but doesn't move the balance at all.
Once you've set a monthly payment amount and made sure it's enough to pay off your credit card balance in a reasonable amount of time, you should stay strong and control your spending. This means you can't use the card and might have to wait until you have cash next month to buy something you need or want. This discipline will determine whether the debt is paid off or carried into the future. If you find it too hard, you could leave the card at home in a safe place or cut it up.
Remember that making only the minimum payment is a sure way to get deeper into debt. If you pay an extra GBP10 every month, your total credit card interest will go down by a lot. Too many credit card companies set their minimum payments at just 2 percent, which is too low, and too many people think that minimum payments are enough.
If you listen to our advice, you'll soon be out of credit card debt.
