Saving Money on your Credit Cards
July 3rd, 2009
If you have credit cards, you probably have more than one. Credit cards can be useful especially if you have a major buy to make and you don’t want to tie up funds in your regular checking account. But the problem occurs when you go overboard and overspend. You end up racking up large credit card debt.
When you get this far in debt, you have a major problem, for you have to work harder to pay off that debt. Well this doesn’t have to be the case if you know some things about credit cards. As a matter of fact, you can really save thousands of dollars on your credit card if you know the score.
Take for instance the amount you are paying each month and each year on the interest. Interest is what the bank charges you for using your credit card. It is the way they make money on your buys. If you are paying more than 12% interest in any one or all of your credit cards, you are paying way too much. With the prime interest rate in the single digits, if lenders charge you more than 12% they are ripping you off. If you have excellent credit, you should be able to negotiate a lower interest rate on your credit card. Somewhere between 9% and 12% is excellent. But lower is better.
If you should have a high interested rated credit card, see if you can transfer the balance to a lower interest rate credit card. This will help you save a bundle on your credit card payments.
One of the best ways to save money on your credit cards is to pay the balance when due. Do not let it go by the expiration date or overlap beyond the cut off time for the interest free period. Otherwise, you will be paying interest on top of your principal.
If you own a home, one sure way to pay off your credit cards is to take out a home equity loan. Then take those proceeds and pay off the balance owed. This way you eliminate the credit card payments and have only the one monthly mortgage payment to deal with.
When you do make your monthly payment, it is advisable to pay more than the regular payment. This way you can get the balance paid off quicker. By paying off your balance quicker, you end up with extra money at the end of the month you can place into your savings or investments.
If you happen to have more than one credit card, you can pay off all your cards in time by doing the credit card crunch. This is when you pay more than the monthly balance on the credit card with the highest interest, while you make minimum payments on the other cards. Once you have the high interest credit card paid off, you can switch to the next credit card with the highest interest of those left, and pay off the minimum with the other cards. Keep doing this until all credit cards are paid off. While you are doing this, do not place another charge on your credit card.
Don’t be a slave to your credit cards. Let your credit cards be your slave instead. Learn to use them only when necessary and remember to use your credit wisely.
Martin Lukac
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/saving-money-on-your-credit-cards-96389.html
Posted in credit
Should I save my money or pay off credit cards?
I am officially unemployed. I am getting a severance. Hopefully I will get a job in around a month or two. What would be better in the long run, to pay off my credit cards or save my money just in case I may need it later down the line?
If you can pay off your cards, it would help you alot more down the road. But, if you can’t maintain your standard of living, then you need to budget and pay off as much as you can each month. You should restrain entertainment activities that cost alot of dough in the meantime.
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Save your money and make minimum payments on your cc until you get another job. In this economy it may take longer than you reckon. Be very, very frugal until you get a new job.
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You better save it, you’ll need it if you don’t find a job. But as soon as you start working again and get that first paycheck use whatever is left of the severance to pay down debt.
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in the long run, it would be preferable to pay off the debt.
if you need the money in the next couple of months, but don’t have it because you paid off your debt, then you can always just go back into debt. in the mean time, there’s no point in paying 20% interest.
if you can get rid of your debt with less than 75% of your severance, i’d do that. if not, then i’d probably keep 25-33% in cash, and place the rest toward the debt.
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pay off your credit cards… seriously.
paying the minimum payment on a credit card is basically paying the interest rate which in turn gets you no where and you just keep losing and wasting money.
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My personal opinion is that it’s might take a while to find a job that pays well so place enough money aside to pay your rent or mortgage for six months and then use the rest to pay down your credit cards. Otherwise the interest will grow and grow and place you even farther behind the eight ball. Also, if you have an extra room, consider renting it out to help pay the mortgage.
Now, I was in a similar situation just a few months ago looking for a job but I just wasn’t finding a job that paid what I needed. So I started learning how to make money online and I learned a way to make money making small videos about affiliate programs and posting them on YouTube and Squidoo. It worked so well that I’m not even looking for a job!
After I learned everything, I chose to build a membership site to teach others how to do the same. And the really excellent thing about my site is that I have a free membership to get people started and I make the videos.
I just posted a new video on YouTube so you should check it out!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW8hvLx70Ak
http://www.thefastestwaytomakemoney.com
Pay the minimum until you get a job. Keep no paying the minimum on the card until you have a saving of $1000.00. This is for emergency only. Now pay off your credit card. Even if you don’t use it they are still taking your money in interest. In the future use your credit card only if you can pay it off in a month no more then three months.
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I reckon that you should pay only minimum for your credit cards and save money. The economy will be horrible for a while and it might take longer for you to get a job.
So I would say, save money and live cheap.
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It would depend on how much of your severance pay it would take to pay the credit cards off. If it would take the majority of your severance pay I would certainly not pay them off. You could keep paying the minimum payments until you get a new job, keep enough of the severance pay for six months living expenses and use the rest of it to pay off or pay down your credit cards. You will save a tremendous amount of interest if you can pay off or lower the balances on credit cards.
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the first thing you need is a JOB, there is no ‘hopefully’ go ahead and apply now for a quick food job since you are in debt, trust me, you will thank me in the long run
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