How to Manage Credit Card Payments

Leverage programs exist to work for you and were created by credit card issuers as a way to help with credit card debt. There are a few steps that you must take that can help you to legally pay off your credit card balance fast, bringing you much needed relief.

Step 1: Instantly Stop Credit Card Payments and Interest on Your Balance

A good analogy of someone who has a credit card balance while being in debt is to think of a person bleeding badly who makes a trip to the emergency room. The person will be tended to immediately, and the doctor will stop the bleeding. With that in mind, a person who is struggling to pay off their credit card balance is in a similar situation urgency-wise. They need help immediately and the first place to start toward alleviating the situation is to stop the interest charges attached to their credit card balance.

It is quite easy to accomplish this task. The great thing about it is that it uses marketing offers from the bank to your advantage in finding a credit card that offers a long introductory promotional zero percent APR balance transfer. Such credit cards are those that offer new users a long duration — usually up to 18 months — of no interest on balance transfers. All of the credit cards in the market are tracked so that it is easy to find the one that best fits your needs and offers the longest zero percent introductory periods.

Something that might convince you that this is the right course of action is just how much money this method can save you. For instance, with a balance of $10,000, interest charges would take up $150 worth out of a $200 monthly payment. That means that only $50 of a reduction toward your balance, but the remainder goes to the bank. Use credit card reviews to your advantage to find the best one with a long no interest period and low or even zero fees. Once you have done this, you can move on to the next step.

Step 2: Power Through Your Balance During the Zero Percent Introductory Period

After you have transferred your credit card balances and curtailed the interest charges, you will want to take advantage of the zero percent interest period to leave debt behind you once and for all. All you have to do is to continue making the same payments you made when you had higher interest. To build on the $10,000 example, if you transferred your balance onto a credit card like Chase Slate — which offers a zero percent introductory APR for 15 months with no transfer fee — and made the same $200 monthly payments, your balance would quickly be reduced. In other words, not using a zero percent card, those payments would barely make a difference. It is comparable to taking 10 steps back for every one step forward. Move your balances to one of these low or no rate credit cards!