Managing your personal finances properly can take time and quite a bit of effort. Fortunately, there is a lot of great invaluable information online that can assist you and others with making well informed decisions. This is especially the case when you are managing your personal credit card debt. Having said that, for those of you who want to follow some beneficial tips on how to manage your personal finances with wise decisions, here are some tips that can help you with devising an effective plan.
1. Don’t Pay Just the Minimum
Once you have charged your first purchase on your credit card, you are now in the midst of creating debt. Regardless of the amount that you charged, the debt that you have just started accruing will need to be paid off at one point in time. Though there are many different ways to pay your monthly credit charge, you can only benefit financially if you know when and what to pay. For instance, if you want to make sure that the debt that you have just made is paid off early, you will need to pay on the card each month to get it down. The amount, however, that should be paid will be determined based on the amount charged and how much you are actually willing to pay to see the debt completely gone. Typically, one rule of thumb that can help to quickly get you out of debt is to pay more than the minimum amount on the card. Just enough to get by will keep you in debt and the credit card providers and companies love these groups of people since it means more money in interest in their pockets.
2. More than one Credit Card — Pay off the Card with the Highest Rate of Interest First
When you are trying to take complete control over your personal finances, you may want to start by getting rid of all of the credit card debt that you have already accumulated. Since credit card companies are always seeking out customers that they can hand their credit cards too, it is not uncommon for people to carry more than one credit card along with them. Unfortunately, when this is the case, it is easy for people to rack up on their balances, and they can easily get in over their heads unless they take control of what is happening. Preferably, people should start as early as possible when they discover there is a personal finance problem. In some cases, this is what people do and they can devise a plan to achieve their goals.Having said that, to get rid of credit card debt from more than one credit card, the first thing that you should do is determine how to do it with as little as extra debt as possible. For instance, if you want to minimize the amount that you have to pay, you should pay off the credit card that has the highest interest rate first and then works your way to the next credit card that you possess. By using this personal finance strategy, you can reduce the pay off schedule dramatically along with the amount that needs to be paid back in interest.
3. Re-evaluate Your Income — Compared to Credit Card Purchases
If you want to pay off your personal debt, you will also need to evaluate your income. The amount that comes in compared to what is going out must be reassessed in order to get things back into a manageable position. For instance, if you are spending more money on expendable items than you should, you should make sure that you are watching what you are buying prior to making purchases. Also, if you are not watching how you are using your credit cards as compared to how much you can afford to pay off by the end of the month, you need to cut down immediately on what you are using your credit card for. In either case, you need to know if your credit card purchases are higher than the amount that you bring in within a certain period of time.
4. Existing Balances — Do Not Close Credit Cards Out
You may be tempted to close out a credit card account for good when the balance is high and you do not want to use it again. While this tactic for taking control over your finances may appear to sound good, it does have some drawbacks that you need to be aware of. One of the most important is that it can wreak havoc on your credit score in the short and long run. This is because it will look like you are closing out the credit card without paying back the debt that is owed to the credit company. If you really want to close out the account so that it cannot be used again, it is very important that you pay it off quickly before making the move to close it.