Discovering Effective Payment Schedules

Summary: Tackling a way to eliminate credit card and other debt can be challenging enough, but dealing with high interest rates and late fees in addition makes it even more challenging to manage. One of the best ways to eliminate your credit card debt is to establish a weekly payment schedule. It's much easier to make weekly payments than monthly payments. Also, making weekly payments will cut the amount of overall interest, as credit cards charge interest by the hour. Anoth...

Tackling a way to eliminate credit card and other debt can be challenging enough, but dealing with high interest rates and late fees in addition makes it even more challenging to manage. One of the best ways to eliminate your credit card debt is to establish a weekly payment schedule. It's much easier to make weekly payments than monthly payments. Also, making weekly payments will cut the amount of overall interest, as credit cards charge interest by the hour. Another good way to try and eliminate your debt is by seeking advice from the Consumer Counseling Center of America, a nonprofit organization that helps people in serious debt by referring them to credit counselors. Credit counselors will assess your debt and work with you to prepare a debt management plan. Next, the counselors will contact your creditors and try to negotiate lower interest rates and monthly payments. They will help you bring all past due bills current, stop creditor phone calls, and settle seriously overdue bills. In order for any of things to work, you must exercise financial discipline. This means tightening up on overall spending and living expenses to free up extra money for paying off bills, and even reducing or stopping your credit card purchases. This is the only way your credit counseling can work: taking action. So you may want to cancel all of your credit cards except for one, which should only be used for emergencies. This card should have a low credit limit and interest rate. Another good idea is to transfer all of your credit card balances to the company with the lowest interest rate. One not of caution: Be careful of credit counseling agencies that offer to eliminate debt for a small fee. Hundreds of people have been duped by such illegitimate companies. So to be on the safe side, do a background check before you sign on with an agency.