6 Ways to Get Out of Credit Card Debt Faster

The average American is in debt, and the rising gas prices and interest rates are not helping matters. If you are anything like me, you have felt the financial crush from time to time. What follows are six tips that I have personally used to get out of credit card debt faster.

1. Stop Using Your Credit Cards

Stop using your credit cards! This should be a no-brainer. How can you ever hope to get out of debt if you keep digging yourself into a deeper hole each month? Just put them away and save them for an emergency.

2. Use Your Credit Cards Wisely

In a perfect world we all could just stop using credit cards. I realize that this isn't an option for everyone. At the very least you should use your credit cards wisely and never charge anything that you can eat or wear. The interest will kill you and you'll end up paying off that happy meal for years to come.

3. Pay Your Bills Early

The sooner you can make your monthly credit card payment the better. Interest charges for most credit cards are calculated on a daily basis. The sooner you can pay the balance down, the less interest will accrue on your account. It's as simple as that, even if you are only making the minimum payment the savings will add up.

Paying your bills electronically via direct debit or internet payments are ideal for this and will get you out of credit card debt faster.

4. Pay Off High Interest Rate Credit Cards First

Pay as much as you possibly can to the credit card with the highest interest rate. Make only the minimum payments required on the rest of your credit cards.

The reason for this is simple. The longer you carry a balance on the high interest rate card, and the higher that balance is, the more you will be paying each month in interest. You will get out of debt years faster if you pay off each credit card in order of the highest interest rate card first.

This tip alone will probably get you out of credit card debt the fastest.

5. Loan Consolidation

Loan consolidation is a valid and often overlooked choice for homeowners. Using loan consolidation you can refinance your home and pay off your credit card debt at the same time. This leaves you with one monthly payment at a much lower interest rate than the credit card companies were charging you.

Just be careful not to get back into debt now that all your credit cards are carrying a zero balance.

6. Balance Transfers

Loan consolidation isn't an option if you are not a homeowner. Balance transfers can however fill the void and do much the same thing. Using balance transfers, you can transfer the balance of a high interest rate card to a brand new card that has a 0% introductory interest rate from six months to a year or more.

For this to work you still need to have decent credit. I would suggest going to bank websites directly to investigate their introductory rates as well as skimming those offers that you get in the mail.

Follow the above tips and you will get out of credit card debt faster.