If you’re like most people you’d love to pay off your credit card and get rid of that high interest debt once and for all. Unfortunately not many people can often find an extra few dollars each month to pay more than the minimum payment.
How to Pay Off Your Credit Card Debt Easily
If you’re serious about finding ways to pay off your credit card debt, then you’ll need to be realistic about a few things. Your own budget is probably already stretched, so you might think it’s difficult to pay more than the minimum payment due each month, but it can be easier than you think.
Of course, the usual tips generally tell you to stop buying take-away food or to have a good old-fashioned garage sale, but the reality is, 90% of people will never do these things. They simply don’t want to change their current lifestyles, even if it means helping themselves.
So here are some other ways you can pay off your credit card debt just by changing the way you view your banking.
Change Your Payment Frequency
Most people pay their credit card bills when the statement tells them to. This means they’ll pay only the minimum amount once a month. However, did you know that you can make much smaller payments whenever you want?
If you’re paid your salary weekly, why not pay one quarter of your minimum credit card payment each week? Let’s say your minimum repayment each month is $90. Divide this number by 4 and pay $22.50 each week when you get paid.
At the end of the month, you’ll still have only made the minimum payment, but your interest will be calculated slightly differently.
Credit card interest is calculated on the balance you owe daily and shown on your statement at the end of the month in arrears. By making smaller, more frequent payments on your balance, the interest you pay is slightly reduced, meaning you’ll be paying a little bit more than the minimum payment it says on your statement. You’ll find it easier to pay off your credit card this way.
Round Up
Using the example above, if you’re paying $22.50 each week out of your pay, why not round it up to the nearest dollar and pay an even $23 per week? This doesn’t sound like much, but that extra 0.50 cents per week is enough to help increase the amount you’re paying off your balance. This will also reduce the amount of interest you’re being charged. Every little bit counts.
Direct Transfer Payments
Now that you’ve chosen an amount your budget can afford to repay each week out of your salary, ask your bank to set up a direct transfer payment for you that gets paid off your credit card balance.
Each week, your bank will deposit the same amount of money into your credit card automatically until it’s paid off. The benefit of using this system to pay off your credit card is that you won’t be tempted to reduce your minimum payments as your balance drops.
There are plenty of ways to increase the amount you pay off your credit card debt, but you need to remain disciplined and stick to your plan in order for it to have a real benefit for you.
