Advice on paying off credit cards

Looking at ways to pay off the debt? Deal with it now with a systematic repayment plan and write in for a reduction in charges. Find out how to be debt free here.

A systematic repayment plan

The logical thing to do is pay off your debts fast before you commit to any new ones. Maybe you have arrived at the stage where the latter is impossible. In this case, you are probably being chased by creditors for debt repayment. If so, what you need is a systematic plan to get out of debt now.

What is the actual amount owed?

If you are receiving calls from creditors, you have probably accumulated some interests, fees and late charges. These are not part of the principle amount that you owe, of course. As such, you should try to reduce these. Here is what you (privately) do for each creditor: 1. Find out the principle amount you owe. 2. Total up the interests, fees and charges. 3. Add both (of the above) figures and see if they tally with the total amount owed as per the latest statement bill. Use the latest bill of statement to do this. You can use previous bills for checking.

Appealing for a reduction

With that, you should be clear on where you stand in regard with each creditor. Here are your next steps: 1. Start off with the creditor that has the largest total of interest, fees and charges. 2. Write a letter to appeal for the reduction of the total amount owed and to stop the charges from accumulating from this point onwards. Support your appeal with solid reasons and back up your words with evidence. 3. Repeat this process for other creditors, in the same order (of which has the largest total of interest, fees and charges). Final word Regardless, do not delay this step or the charges will continue to accumulate. The next thing that you can do is to pay the credit card bills through another provider. You can choose to clear your debts without doing a balance transfer but there is no harm in shopping for an option that can help you get out of debt. See if you can qualify for a zero interest balance transfer but make sure that you can comply to the conditions before signing up.