Credit card debt can be stressful. There is no other way to put it. You may have balances on multiple different credit cards with interest piling up, missed due dates, missed payments, and calls from credit agencies demanding money. Naturally, your credit score is also a mess because of your debt.
Paying off your cards can be difficult. Most people follow the strategy of paying the minimum balance every month. The card with the highest interest rate gets a bit more of a payoff. Of course this is hard and you are struggling to stay afloat.
One of the best ways to pay off credit card debt is to consolidate your debt. There are 3 strategies for consolidating all of your bills:
- Balance- Transfer Credit Cards
- Debt consolidation loans/Personal Loan
- Personal Line of Credit
1. Balance – Transfer Credit Card
It does get difficult to keep track of all of the credit cards you owe money to. The best thing to do is to transfer all of the balances from all of the cards to one single card. This is known as a balance – transfer credit card. You may also be able to pay a lower interest rate on the new card. There are a lot of cards that offer a low rate balance transfer that you can qualify for. These cards offer a 0% APR for a short period of time.
2. Debt Consolidation Loan/Personal Loan
You can apply for a personal loan from a credit union or a bank. This helps turn your debt into a single installment loan. Personal loans generally have fixed interest rates that are lower than credit card interest rates. This way the personal loan can pay off your other debt and you will no longer have interest to pay.
You can then pay off the personal loan in installment payments. Installment payments are when you agree to pay back a certain amount of money at a set interest rate over a specific amount of time. This means that there will be a deadline to meet for your debt to be paid off in full to the bank or credit union.
3. Personal Line Of Credit
The third strategy is getting a personal line of credit. What is this do you ask? It works similarly to that of a credit card. You get a pre-set credit amount and borrow what you need. You then pay off the balance. Once you pay off the balance you get access to that credit once again. You can borrow money from your personal line of credit by writing a check or making a money transfer. The interest rate that you end up paying on your line of credit directly depends on your credit score.
Being in debt can be stressful and frustrating. It is not the end of the world. Look into these three options to see which one can best help you get out of debt. Once you are fully out of debt, you will be much more relaxed and hopefully smarter about your spending.
