April 16, 2005

Falling into the black hole that is credit card debt in the U.K, can happen so easily and can make you feel as if the situation is ever going to end. It can all come closing in on you when you start to receive the dreaded phone calls and lettered reminders from your creditors, can only add to the stress that you are all ready going through. The best way people will probably tell you is that you should stay away from altogether, but that is all well said and done when you don’t have this sort of credit card debt.

The first thing that you should be thinking about when you think about a credit card, is how do I avoid getting myself into a financial mess? Well hopefully if you follow these few simple rules will keep the wolves from your door.

The first and most obvious plan of action is to receive your statement and pay it off in full at the end of each month and on time, will save you any high interest charges and late payment penalties being added to your bill. An advantage of doing this means that your credit status will get you any more credit if you need it, for things such as a personal loan or mortgage.

Related Articles

Credit Cards Can Easily Build Up Debt
Credit Cards Are All To Easy Run Up Debts
Do Not Let Credit Card Debt Build Up

This can be a privileged position to be in and most of us don’t or cant pay in full, so the best way to pay for the credit card debt, is by making sure that you pay more than the minimum payment that the credit card issuer is asking for, which will usually be 2% of the amount due or £5 which ever is greater. If you stick to minimum payments then you are only basically paying towards the interest and will get into a situation where you will be paying this debt for longer than it takes to pay off the mortgage.

If you fell that you are going down this road then my advice to you is to ask your credit card company if they could give you a lower APR, when doing this have a plan of what to say to them. Say such things as you have had a better deal offered to you by another credit card issuer, but add in that you are happy with the services that your current card issuer has given you and you would rather stay a customer of theirs, this will usually work, though if it doesn’t make sure that your plan includes a credit card that has a better APR and will let you balance transfer your debt on to the new card.

Another tip is to consolidate the debt into a single monthly payment, this will mean that you will know that with every payment you will be paying off the debt and you will know the time span of the debt, but remember to get rid of the cards in the mean time so that you don’t fall into using them again because they have a balance of zero, this will only worsen the situation.

Once you are back on your feet make sure that you learn from the mistakes that you made the last time and not to over spend, leading to not being able to pay back what you cant afford. are a handy way of paying for things and if used to their full potential can be more advantageous than cash.