• Pay them on time, by making sure that you pay your credit cards on time you avoid late payments and effecting your credit score by keeping your finances up to date.
• If you can afford to do it then pay off your card in full, I know this is a lot easier said than done but many people even if they can do this don’t. The thing is if you can afford to do it then you will be avoiding paying interest thus not paying the credit cards anything and keeping what you have to pay back down to a minimum.
• Check your statement fully when you recieve it. Make sure that you have actually purchased everything you have been charged for. Calculate your interest payment make sure you have been charged the right rate. Any charges should have been informed to you in writing before they charge you. Anything that you are not sure about call your credit card company straight away and challenge it. If you leave it then you will be leaving yourself open for problems in the future.
• Call your credit card company anyway and ask them for a lower rate of interest. If they say no ask them to give you a valid reason. The best way to do this is to play off one credit card against another card offer, you will either receive one in the post or see them advertised on TV or in newspapers. Tell them you want that rate from them instead of moving to the new credit card company.

These are just a few ways that you can go about getting out of paying your credit cards a fortune in interest and charges. By doing these tips you pay the credit card companies less money and thus become their worse nightmare as they will not be making any money from you.

• STOP USING YOUR CREDIT CARDS! Living your life on borrowed money is not a good way to live no matter how much you pay of you will always find that you are just increasing your credit card debt by continuing to use them.
• Make sure you know what it is you owe. Make a list of what you owe and then take the debt that you owe the least on and pay that one off in full first. This will make you feel better and reduce your debtors by one!
• Always try and gather enough money together so you are paying more than your minimum balance each month. This means where you owe money you are actually getting the balance down rather than just sitting on the balance of the debt with the interest ever increasing.
• Set yourself a budget and stick to it! This way you will not spend as much as you have been when you were using your credit cards as you will have a stringent routine that you need to stick to in order to make things add up at the end of each month.
• Don’t rob Peter to pay Paul. Very simple thing that many people who are on the verge of no return get into. Borrowing money from one credit card to pay another credit card is a sure fire way to let your finances spiral out of control.

These are just a few of the simple to say but tough to enforce tips that we have told you about over the past few months. Make sure you have a good look around and get as much information as possible! Tomorrow we will be looking at some of the less obvious ways to reduce your credit card debts.

In this case the fact that you have already sent the payment means nothing to them, but you see there is a little thing you can do at this point. Say to them that you have already sent the monthly payment but you are very disturbed by the fact that you will be charged for the late payment as the money has been paid. Wait for their reply and if the words “I am sure we can waiver the fee this time!” then tell them you are considering closing your account with them and moving it to their competitor.

The power of competition is a wonderful thing and the credit card companies really want to keep your business because even though you have challenged payments, challenged interest rates and now challenged late fee’s you are paying them to give you a service. And you paying them keeps them in business meaning as many customers they have your business is valuable to them.

I discovered a long time ago that if you keep on contacting your debtors and asking them to reduce charges and reduce what you owe them then you will continue to reduce your debts! I managed to knock hundreds of dollars off of one credit card by calling them each week about a different matter.

Be warned though they will try and pass you off and they will say things like “I need to check it with my supervisor” or “I don’t have the authority to do that!” Well thats OK, you just tell them that you will wait for their call or if its a free line you are calling make them check with their supervisor there and then.

Its a matter of persistently keeping on at them! I know your debt plays on your mind because mine did so instead of putting it at the back of your mind bring it forward and take it on from the front, your debt will not go away on its own so make an effort and you will be making a breakthrough in no time! Don’t be a victim of debt!

Most people who are in debt have built that debt up over time using their credit cards and making purchases that they intend to pay off on their own. The fact is that most of the those who are in debt don’t realize they are not alone when it comes to their debts. Reality is that most people have debts its just some are better at hiding it and some just don’t like to admit that they have a problem.

The fact that you are here reading this means you are over the first hurdle you have admitted to yourself that you need to look at how to get out of credit card debt and doing something about it! This is a good thing and you should be proud of yourself for doing so!

As we looked at on the past few days posts and in articles that have been written there are a number of things you need to do to ensure you can start to reduce your credit cards:

1. Stop Using the Credit Cards
2. Reduce your Monthly Spending
3. Don’t take for granted the cheapest deal, shop around
4. Buy bulk where possible
5. Talk to your Credit Card Company, get better rates
6. Get rid of old clutter for good hard cash

Now there are many ways to earn a little bit of extra cash and there are many scams out there aiming to take your money off you. If something says it will make you a million overnight or guarantee to make you a certain amount each month, chances are they won’t and you will end up putting in a lot of time and effort into something that will result in frustration.

If you are looking to make some extra money then look around at what you do every day, look at your hobbies, is there something you do to just help someone out when they would be willing to pay? There are a lot of ways to earn a little bit of cash as there are ways to reduce your every day outgoings.

Now many sites that I look at tell you the way to get out of debt is to “BUY THIS WONDER BOOK NOW!” I am going to tell you not to get that ebook or the physical book that tells you how to make a fortune online because to make money online is hard work, and no matter how FREE people tell you it is, if they are wanting you to sign up for something then chances are it will cost you money or they will sell you that vital last link of information that you need!

My brother was $18,000 in debt when he noticed on his way home from an IT job that was 9-5 every day there was a computer school looking for someone to run a class in the evenings. Three evenings a week for 6 months he ran the computer class and helped people learn their way around on the computer. He was paid $50 for the 90 minute lesson, which to him was bread and butter work. Suddenly he was earning an extra $600 a month and with a little scrimping and saving, along with the private work that came from the same class, he was out of debt in a year. Not a single ebook in sight!

Now the days for my brother were long but there was no get rich quick ebook involved it was just the power of observation. My wife and I look after peoples pets when they go on holiday by going to their houses during the day and ensuring that the dogs are walked and the cats are fed. Some of the people we do this for pay us $50 for a day and if we have to stay over it is $75 for the day. EASY MONEY!

Working hard to get out of debt is something that is rewarding and if you work hard to get out of it once you are clear from debt you will appreciate the time and money that you do earn in the future. So todays tips on How to get out of Credit Card Debt, look for easy money if it is around you and avoid scams and get rich quick scheme (think of them along the lines of, “if this is a get rich quick scheme why are they selling it to me for $50?” The truth, they will get rich the more people they get to sign up then get you to sign up! SCAM!)

Loads of talk at the moment about the environment and reducing the energy that is used in order to bring down greenhouse gases, well its easy to do this and save money. How? Well simple turn off your computer, your TV and your DVD player when you are not using them. Don’t just put them on standby actually turn them off from the mains that way there is no power going into them at all. By doing this you can reduce your electricity bill by up to $60 a month.

The cold winter snap has happened and lets face it there is the technology and the know how to keep ourselves comfortable and warm in the cold winter months, creature comforts are great, but we can reduce energy bills even more by putting an extra layer of clothing on and keeping ourselves warm by moving around the house. This way not only is the TV not on and your sat in front of it getting cold but you can also save on energy by keeping warm in this fashion.

When you shop for your food instead of going to the very nice shops that sell all the really good food and the brand name household items try the cheaper shops that have their own brands at 1/20th of the normal cost. When I have advised this in the past I have been told “Those brands you have to use twice as much to get them to work!” Do the MATH! if it is only 1/20th of the cost and you use twice as much then you are still saving!!!

Making excuses to stay in the comfort zone is something that keeps people in debt and gets them in a situation where their debts spiral out of control. For example I knew a guy that liked to have the best top of the range laptop as he went out to clients and wanted to look good. I mentioned to him that his laptop was amazing and he said “I just got it, it is the latest model!” He was $10,000 in debt and had just increased that to $13,500 by purchasing the latest laptop. Then it turned out he still had the last 4 laptops that he had purchased. This moves me nicely onto my next point which I will tell you all about tomorrow.

The credit card companies know that you there is a good chance that you will only pay the minimum payment on your outstanding balance this is why they make the two numbers so close together. By doing this it means that you are paying off what you owe over a longer period than you really need to be. By getting you to make that call yesterday your minimum payment is now a fair bit more than that of the interest that you are paying, in turn this means while you are at the lower rate you are making a dent in that overall balance.

So now the next tip has to be to stop using your credit cards. This is the part that is common sense but gets overlooked! The reason your credit card bill gets bigger rather than smaller is because you keep adding to it each month. If you are at the point where you can’t live without your credit cards then you need to seek more help than just and advice blog on the internet. Talk to the companies that you owe money to and tell them what you can afford to pay back rather than what they expect you to meet each month. Respectable and well managed financial institutions will make the effort to help you as much as possible.

So today make yourself the promise to stop using your credit cards.

Yesterday I told you that you needed to make a frightening list of the money that you owe to the credit cards. Today its time to take the fight to the front line and talk to the credit cards. There is a massive credit crunch on at the moment and there are less companies willing to give credit to people but if you make that call they have to listen.

Take a look at this video on Calling your Credit Card and you will see that you can get your interest rate lowered in order to help you pay off some of the balance and not just the money you are totaling up in interest each month.

The next twelve months are going to be difficult for anyone who has any debt and taking control of what you owe now is a good way to start paying off what could get out of control in the next few months.

The first thing you need to do and to do right now is to make a detailed list of exactly what you owe! If you are going to pay off credit cards in an orderly fashion the first thing you need to do is to make sure that you have enough information to fight the enemy and the enemy is the your credit cards and your debt!

Once you are rid of these then you will feel so much better about yourself and what you are doing with your life!

So get yourself started today and make that list of what you owe to the credit card companies or to whoever you owe money to and get your finances ready for a good kicking!

Tomorrow we will be looking at ways to go about getting the debt reduced so it is easier to pay off credit cards!

So where do you start? Well having just had a good old spend up on a fantastic Thanks Giving and Christmas period you would do well to get copies of every up to date credit card statement, store card statement and utility bill that you have and get yourself a detailed list of exactly what you owe.

Once you know exactly what you need to pay back take the monthly utility bill payments as an average of what you will be paying on them each month. Then work out how long on the minimum payments it would take you to pay back your credit card bills. After you have done this you will probably think that you can never do this in a year, well the answer is yes you can.

It is important that you do these steps first but over the next 4 weeks we will be bringing you tips on how to get extra income, get money off your credit card bill and get everything organized so you are in a stronger financial situation! Make sure you subscribe to our feed to keep up to date!

Now being the eternal optimist I had been doing the lottery each week in the desperate hope that I would roll in the big jackpot but as one of the best ways to pay off credit card debt…..this isn’t the best way. However by stopping spending $10 a week on lottery tickets I did save an extra $40 a month towards my credit card debts.

I then start looking around for other ways that I can save a little extra or make a little extra that will give me more ways to pay off credit card debt.

Now I have in the past helped out some people in my spare time because I am that sort of nice person (modest to boot) but some of the things I was doing could be classed as professional services, so with this in mind and looking for ways to pay off credit card debt I decided to say to the next person that asked me for help I cold do it but I would have to charge. Now strange enough the reaction was not the get stuffed I was expecting but a welcome “How Much?” Not to be to up myself I asked for 75% of what I would normally earn in my day job which they were happy to pay.

So that was two more ways to pay off credit card debt and I was already $250 a month to the good and looking for maybe two or three more ways I could earn some more or save some more each month. My ultimate aim was to have an extra $400 a month that I could pay off in addition to my lowest monthly payment that the card companies would allow me to pay.

I decided that as I was working extra hours on helping people outside of my normal 9-5 day job it might not be such a good idea to get another part time job as I would have no quality time at all with my family. After speaking with my wife she said that a friend of hers ran a children’s club three times a week and they needed someone to help out. As we had already spoken about ways to pay off credit card debt we saw this as the extra contribution that we needed in order to get our finances into a situation where we were free from credit card debt. This was more than the case my wife is being paid $225 a week for her 4 hours an evening and it all ties in with the extra work I am doing as well.

So along with the methods above we cut our groceries down to what we needed rather than what we wanted, we car pool with some neighbors that work close to where we do which saves us our fuel by half each month and by canceling our magazine subscriptions and finding out the information on line we have cut our outgoings by a further $150.

So in looking for ways to pay off credit card debt it is now going to take us around 18 months to become completely free from them rather than continue to pay off the minimum each month which doesn’t dent the overall total at all. You too can do this if you put in a little extra effort.

For more valuable debt relief and free financial planning advice try visiting Online Money Advice located at http://www.onlinemoneyadvice.net where you will quickly and easily find a wealth of information on debt consolidation, credit repair and credit counseling advice that will help you financially and give you peace of mind for the future.

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