Saturday, January 24, 2009

Preventing those after Christmas credit card blues

As we get ready to start work in the new year, you may be suffering from credit cards blues as the thought of those bills that are about to hit your letterbox start to filter into your mind.
The easy way is not overspending, but I guess that that advice is a little late.
So lets have a look at a few suggestions for managing the debts that have become a reality for you.
The first thing you need to do know how bid your debts are.
Once you have this picture, maybe you can do a card swap. NAB and other lenders are offering interest free transfers right now.
Switching to this arrangement and then committing to debt reduction within the interest free period might save your bacon.
By pay off this debt over say the next six months or 90 or however long the grace period will put you in control.
Even if you don't switch your bank credit cards, make a habit of paying the whole debt to zero in the normal interest free period.
Never just pay the minimums. This is a suckers path to eternal debt.
Please remember that Christmas is a one day event. It is not worth spending six months of your surplus income on and then paying your credit card debt off over the following year.