The menace of credit card debt

Even students are not immune as people are getting credit cards at an earlier age and falling into debt. With the increased use of credit cards, more and more people are falling into debt. With hassling creditors, a ruined credit report and a threat of looming bankruptcy, it becomes extremely urgent to find a way out.

While credit card debt is fairly easy to get into, getting out is a hard and long process. No agency or system will get you debt free in one day. It will take time to bring your debt under control and to start rebuilding your credit.

One of the best defenses against credit card debt is to get properly educated in financial matters of credit, and money management. Often it is good to prevent getting into debt by creating budgets and saving plans. Sticking to your plan can help you avoid overspending.

Get rid of any excess cards you have lying around, especially high interest department store cards. You can also try credit card debt consolidation where you take out one low interest loan to pay off all your other loans. For example you can use a low interest home equity loan to pay off your credit card debt. This way you will only have one low monthly payment to make.

Remember to pay more than the minimum of your monthly credit card payments. If you continue to make only the minimum payments you might end up paying only the interest, which would lead to lifelong credit card debt. Each month you should be paying a part of the principal payment with the interest payments so that your debt slowly starts to shrink and your monthly payments get reduced each month.

There are many non-profit debt management agencies and consolidation services to help you in your fight against credit card debt. You can seek them out for counseling and financial advice. They can also help you get a consolidation loan and find other ways to get you credit card debt free.