5 Tips to Lower Your Credit Card Bills


In today's economic times, it is not uncommon for people to have a lot of debt; specifically, high-interest credit card debt. The average American has over $8,000.00 in credit card debt and is spending more than they are saving. The point here is that you are not alone, but you do need to break from this trend in order to move forward financially.

Here are a few tips to reduce your credit card payments

  1. Combine your debts to the lowest APR rate possible. 
    Find out what interest rate you pay on each card and transfer your balances to the lower rate cards. This act alone can reduce your payments by hundreds of dollars.

  2. Negotiate better terms with your current creditors. 
    Companies including your credit card, mortgage and insurance companies want to keep your business. Many of them will agree to lower your interest rate if tell them you are thinking about leaving them. So call them up and ask them to lower your rate.

  3. Pay off the credit with the smallest balance first 
    If you have several credit cards, this tip is especially useful. Once you pay off the small balance, cancel the credit card. When the next month rolls around, apply the money you would have paid the cancelled credit card to your next credit card with a low balance. This will help you keep better track of your credit card debt and also reduce your monthly payments pretty quickly.

  4. Pay more than the minimum payment, in order to quickly lower the total amount that you pay. 
    Using the tips we just mentioned will help you "free up some money" which you can use to more quickly pay off your debt. Remember that the longer you owe money, the more you will pay in interest.

  5. Budget your earnings in order to reduce additional impulse spending and additional debt. 
    Too many people think that having a budget stops you from buying fun things. This is absolutely not true! Just start budgeting for the things you really enjoy and you will find that you are not budgeting for things that you really do not need. This will help get out of the vicious cycle of racking up new credit card debt as you try to pay it off.
Contributed by Edward Sunil Joseph, Chennai

Posted via email from Edward Anil's Blog

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