To put it, the economy has been struggling for a while. Even individuals who were successful at managing their debt, or at least keeping up with it, have discovered that unpaid credit card debt continues to mount. Even if it’s terrible, it usually results from events outside of their control. If this applies to you, you should be aware that you are not to blame and that you have options for making things better.
There is an adage that says you should stop digging if you find yourself in a hole. Credit card debt is a classic example of this. Stop using your credit cards, no matter how bad the situation is. There are no justifications. Period. Because credit card debt has a nasty habit of following you around for years, this is crucial.
Finding a single card with a lower rate to transfer your balances to will help if you have several cards with higher interest rates. Because you are consolidating many payments into one, this procedure is referred to as “consolidation.” It is intended that the lower interest rate will now be applied to your entire debt (once it has been shifted), lowering your total payment. Making and managing a single payment as opposed to many is also more practical.
Consolidation should be done with caution. Before sending any money to a certain car, make sure you understand the criteria and restrictions because they can be complicated. Additionally, it might be tempting to charge more on your credit cards given that you will be saving more money each month by combining. At all costs, resist that urge. As mentioned earlier: stop digging!
If debt consolidation is not a possibility for you or if you would rather try another method of debt repayment, the following plan will be quite beneficial. It is known as the “snowball approach” because the effects increase in importance as you go along.
Write down every loan you have, together with the amount you owe on each one, as the first step. Sort them from the smallest to the largest sum owed. So far, it seems rather simple. You keep paying the small amount due on all your debts except the one at the top (the one with the lowest balance owed). Then you put all your remaining funds toward the smallest debt, paying as much as you can.
You start with the debt at the top of your list and work your way down. But, you now increase your payment to the new loan by the small you were making plus the amount you were paying toward the old loan. When you reach the third debt, you add your payments for the first two and apply them to the third loan. This enables you to pay off delinquent credit card debt more, and by the time you reach the bottom of the list, you will be making pretty much payments.