Credit Card debt sucks! Not paying a credit card off in full is a trap that keeps people stuck in a pattern of borrowing. Once money is borrowed the only limitation is how much can be used. For those of you who are stuck in the rut of paying a credit card minimum due every month, it is time to switch it up. 

Imagine going to the store and not having to pay interest on the groceries you just bought. Yes, if you bought your groceries with a credit card, you do have to pay the interest if you do not pay the balance off.

What would it be like to spend money on vacation when you are on vacation instead of until next year or beyond.

You can keep your money and stop giving it to the credit card creditors. They need your money to market new products to you that will most likely keep you spending your hard earned cash. 

Stop wasting your money on interest. Start saving that money and making interest. 

When a credit card is used, you may be getting points, however, there is no long term benefit. The item or thing still has to be paid for.

Let’s say you bought your $5,000 vacation on a credit card. The minimum credit card APR today is 12%, according to my research, yours is most likely higher. I won’t bore you with the math, but numbers shake out to a monthly payment of $111 for 61 Months (5 years 1 month will pay that baby off).

The next time your team decides to go on vacation, sit down with the numbers and make sure you are committed to the time frame and the interest paid over that period ($1,678). That $5,000 vacation turned into $6,678 and a five year commitment.

This tells us few things, paying for a vacation with a credit card racks up more debt. Secondly, buying anything with a credit card will take longer to pay off, have a bigger strain on your budget and invite a pattern of dependency on credit rather than your cash.

Every credit card offer I have seen has come with a limit or max amount that can be charged to it. They only give you a limit!!

There are terms to pay it back but there isn’t a time frame to pay it back, aside from the minimum payment, which if a credit card is used daily and only the minimum payments are paid, is a never ending cycle of payments. 

Don't forget the minimum can fluctuate depending on the balance. If you only made one large purchase and paid the minimum, that could equate to years of paying off the card.

You are stuck to figure out how best to pay off a credit card on your own terms.

Luckily, we have some ideas

Here are our tips to paying off credit card debt and moving onto growing your interest rather than paying theirs.

The number one thing is, don’t be late. There are exceptions, however.

If you have multiple credit cards, focus on one card at a time. If you cannot make the minimum payments and pay off your cards, stop paying the higher amount cards until the smallest is paid off.

Put any extra money into paying off all open credit cards. Get extra money from selling things, working a part time job, helping out in your neighborhood to people who are willing to pay. Think yard care for an elderly neighbor. Not trying to rip them off, just being neighborly.

Focus on the small numbers and then work to the big numbers.

If you have three credit cards, one with $5,000 balance, a second with $2,000 balance and a third with $500 balance, the smallest can be paid in just a few short months, maybe even one month. Then you have the minimum payment plus the extra for the second largest credit card, and so on. 

Use the minimum plus the extra to move through the credit cards. (i.e. $35 minimum plus the extra $100 = $135 to the next credit card.)

The goal is to be out of debt. Start with your credit cards and then move to your cars and the rest of your debt. After you pay off all of those, start saving the extra money.

Once you have saved enough to live on for a few months. Start investing.