Tips To Kick the Credit Card Habit
By now everybody knows that credit card debt can be crippling, and with a poor economic situation this is especially the time when you do not want to be creating any more debt than you absolutely must to survive. Although most advice on avoiding credit card debt is becoming common sense, it never hurts to hear it again, according to CNN’s Gerri Willis who has some more tips on controlling your credit card, including:
- Take a look at your credit card habits and calculate how much they are costing you. For one thing, only paying the minimum repayment each month will result in huge interest payments and a long time to repay your debt. Try to increase your monthly repayments as much as possible to cut down on debt and interest payments.
- If you have a credit card problem, then try using cash to pay whenever you possibly can. Research apparently suggests people will spend up to 18% less if they have to hand over cold, hard cash rather than a credit card.
- Try to negotiate a lower interest rate on your credit card. Before you do this, make sure you’ve been making payments on time for at least six months, preferably longer. If you don’t ask, you don’t get, and they say that half the people who ask for a lower rate actually get one.
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 14th, 2009 at 4:57 am and is filed under Credit & Debit Cards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
