Managing Credit Card Debt

If the convenience of credit cards has got the better of your spending avarice necessitating the services of a debt counselor, is it still possible to manage one’s credit card debt?


By: Ringo Bones


Admit it, most of us has come to the point of availing ourselves the services provided by credit card companies after an acquaintance of ours started touting the life saving convenience of credit cards. Not to mention that obligatory first-hand testimonial of a harrowing life-saving payment usually involving a stay in the emergency room. Nonetheless, every one of us should remember that once and for all credit cards are not the best thing since free money they are touted to be.

Ask every financial consultant worth his or her own salt and they will more often than not tell you that high-interest credit cards can be the most expensive form of money you can have in your budget. Time and time again they will recommend that the most cost-effective way to use your own credit card is to pay off the balance each month. At the very least, protect your credit standing or your very own credit rating of the card-issuing bank that you signed-up with - which can “easily” done by making sure you don’t let the level of your outstanding balance run away with you by your monthly payments. Even though these are just your unseemly basic debt management procedures, they can be a beneficial guide for the frequent credit card user.

Another method of keeping high-interest credit card debt at bay – as recommended by most financial advisers – which is also works in avoiding lingering credit card debt is by converting the balance into a personal loan. Personal loans usually have a lower interest rate, but it will only work if you have the fiscal discipline to avoid running your credit card debt again. This can be relatively easy if you take the necessary steps in reviewing your pattern of expenses to get to the root of why you had incurred such high credit card debt in the first place. At least it is way less costly than asking for debt advice from a debt counselor paid by your very own money.