Many with debt are banking on new federal rules curbing the way credit card lenders exact interest rate revenge on cardholders who miss a payment deadline by a day, or have complications arise with other, unrelated cards in their wallet. But the new rules will not take effect until 2010, and a lot of financial damage can be experienced if inaction is your strategy.
So what can you do now to jumpstart getting your credit card debt under control and even better – into fast decline? Consider these quick steps:
- Set up a debt tracking form to see how your debt changes from month to month.
- Learn about the avalanche of debt that will continue to accelerate from delaying a change to the “just make the minimum payment” strategy
- Get organized. With a dedicated afternoon, or in conjunction with spring cleaning, it is easier than you think.
- Choose one of the creative ways to stop spending on credit cards from this list.
- Create a debt paydown plan that works in no time.
- Learn about debt stacking and the snowball method to set priorities for which cards to pay off first.
- Negotiate better interest rates on your cards with this handy guide.
- Pull and understand your credit report and credit score.
- Understand your Debt-to-Income ratios (DTI) and how they measure your financial health.
- Learn to distinguish between discretionary and non-discretionary spending, and cut the discretionary.
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