Getting out of credit card debt is an unfortunate dilemma that many people find themselves dealing with. This article is geared to those who are looking for a way to pay off their credit card debts and feel like they are actually accomplishing something as they make their monthly payments.
Let's say you have 1o credit cards and each one has minimum payments of $40, you will be paying around $400 per month on your credit cards when making these minimum payments and half of that will go to interest charges and other fees. It would take someone many, many years to pay off their credit card debt if all they did was pay the minimum payment each month on all of their credit cards. What your going to have to do is concentrate on paying off one credit card at a time. Which credit card? This is highly debated by some people as some will say to start with the one that has the highest interest charges and work your way down and some will say to start with the one with the lowest balance and work your way up. In this example in paying off your credit card debt, starting with the lower balances makes sense because you will be trying to get as many of your credit cards to $0 balances as quickly as possible. You will also need to dedicate an extra $100 per month minus your minimum payments each month to quickly get you out of credit card debt.
To further explain this example, let's say your 10 credit card balances to start off with are:
Credit Card 1 $300
Credit Card 2 $300
Credit Card 3 $500
Credit Card 4 $500
Credit Card 5 $500
Credit Card 6 $700
Credit Card 7 $800
Credit Card 8 $800
Credit Card 9 $1000
Credit Card 10 $1000
Month 1:
Make the minimum payments on all of your credit cards and add an extra $100 to your credit card that has the lowest balance. In this example, it would be one of the credit cards with a $300 balance and credit card 1. Credit card 1 would receive a total payment of $140 and all the other credit cards will receive $40. After interest charges and so on your balances will look something like this after your month 1 payments.
Credit Card 1 $180
Credit Card 2 $280
Credit Card 3 $280
Credit Card 4 $480
Credit Card 5 $480
Credit Card 6 $680
Credit Card 7 $780
Credit Card 8 $780
Credit Card 9 $980
Credit Card 10 $980
You will have paid $40 to all 10 of your credit cards but also applied the extra $100 (total $140) to the credit card your working on. In this example we are also assuming that your credit cards have very high APR rates, of course everyone's situation is different. Having low APR rates of course will help you get out of credit card debt quicker. In this example, we are assuming that half of your $40 payments gets eaten up by interest charges.
Month 2:
Make the minimum payments once again on all your credit cards and apply that extra $100 to that credit card you're working on, credit card 1. After month 2 payments, your balances will look like this.
Credit Card 1 $60
Credit Card 2 $260
Credit Card 3 $260
Credit Card 4 $460
Credit Card 5 $460
Credit Card 6 $660
Credit Card 7 $760
Credit Card 8 $760
Credit Card 9 $960
Credit Card 10 $960
Month 3:
Same thing again but this time the extra $100 that you apply to your credit card debt will not all go to that first credit card your working on (credit card 1) because you owe only $60 on it. You will apply the regular $40 to each credit card and will only have to apply $20 (out of the extra $100) to pay off that first credit card. You now have one credit card debt paid off (credit card 1). The extra $80 (out of the extra $100) will go toward the second credit card (credit card 2) you are working on so the total payment for this second card would be $120 this month. At the end of this month, your credit card balances will look like this.
Credit Card 1 $0
Credit Card 2 $160
Credit Card 3 $240
Credit Card 4 $440
Credit Card 5 $440
Credit Card 6 $640
Credit Card 7 $740
Credit Card 8 $740
Credit Card 9 $940
Credit Card 10 $940
Month 4:
Before you had to pay the minimum payments on all 10 of your credit cards at $40 each and it totaled $400. Now that you have paid off one of your credit cards and that bill is no longer coming in this month you can save that $40 each month, right? Wrong! If you want to quickly get out of credit card debt you are going to have to stick to the plan here. That $40 that would have went to credit card 1 will be applied somewhere else now. O.K., we understand that credit card 1 is credit card debt free and requires no payment this month. Credit card 2 will receive it's regular $40 monthly payment, the extra $100 payment plus the $40 that credit card 1 would have received. You have $180 right here that you can apply to credit card 2. Making the $180 payment will close out credit card 2 and leave it with a $0 balance. All of the other credit cards will of course all receive the regular $40 payments. After month 4 your credit card balances will look like this.
Credit Card 1 $0
Credit Card 2 $0
Credit Card 3 $220
Credit Card 4 $420
Credit Card 5 $420
Credit Card 6 $620
Credit Card 7 $720
Credit Card 8 $720
Credit Card 9 $920
Credit Card 10 $920
Month 5:
This month you will apply the regular $40 to each credit card but now you have two credit cards that you will not be receiving a credit card bill from. You will now be working on credit card 3 to pay off which has a $220 balance. To help pay it off, you will have the regular $40 for credit card 3, the extra $100, the $40 that would have went to credit card 1 if it had a balance, and the $40 that would have went to credit card 2 if it had a balance. In total you have $220 to help you pay off credit card 3. After these payments your balances will look like this.
Credit Card 1 $0
Credit Card 2 $0
Credit Card 3 $20
Credit Card 4 $400
Credit Card 5 $400
Credit Card 6 $600
Credit Card 7 $700
Credit Card 8 $700
Credit Card 9 $900
Credit Card 10 $900
Month 6:
Same formula here, $40 to each credit card and for credit card 3 you have $220 to help pay it off. Of course, only $20 will pay it off this month so you have $200 extra to apply toward credit card 4, making credit card 4 total payment this month $240. Balances at the end of this month are.
Credit Card 1 $0
Credit Card 2 $0
Credit Card 3 $0
Credit Card 4 $180
Credit Card 5 $380
Credit Card 6 $580
Credit Card 7 $680
Credit Card 8 $680
Credit Card 9 $880
Credit Card 10 $880
Month 7:
Paying off your credit card debt is a numbers game and by this time you should see that you are really getting somewhere. This month, credit card 4 will receive the regular $40 applied to it, plus the $40 each that would have been applied to credit card 1, credit card 2, and credit card 3. This makes it $160 that can be applied to credit card 4. Let's not forget the extra $100 to make the total $260 that can go to credit card 4. The balance is only $180 so credit card 4 will be paid off and leave an extra $80 to go to credit card 5. Credit card 5 will receive a monthly payment of $120 and all others the regular $40 payments.
Credit Card 1 $0
Credit Card 2 $0
Credit Card 3 $0
Credit Card 4 $0
Credit Card 5 $280
Credit Card 6 $560
Credit Card 7 $660
Credit Card 8 $660
Credit Card 9 $860
Credit Card 10 $860
Month 8:
You will have $300 to apply to credit card 5. The regular $40 for it plus the $40 that would have went to credit cards 1-4 equals $200, plus the extra $100 equals $300. All other credit cards will receive their $40.
Credit Card 1 $0
Credit Card 2 $0
Credit Card 3 $0
Credit Card 4 $0
Credit Card 5 $0
Credit Card 6 $540
Credit Card 7 $640
Credit Card 8 $640
Credit Card 9 $840
Credit Card 10 $840
Month 9:
By now you should have a good understanding on how this formula for paying off your credit card debt works. This month credit card 6 will have $340 applied to the balance and all other credit cards will receive $40.
Credit Card 1 $0
Credit Card 2 $0
Credit Card 3 $0
Credit Card 4 $0
Credit Card 5 $0
Credit Card 6 $220
Credit Card 7 $620
Credit Card 8 $620
Credit Card 9 $820
Credit Card 10 $820
Month 10:
Credit card 6 has $340 that can be applied but $220 pays it off, leaving $120 left to be applied to credit card 7. $40 goes to all others with credit card 7 receiving a $160 total payment.
Credit Card 1 $0
Credit Card 2 $0
Credit Card 3 $0
Credit Card 4 $0
Credit Card 5 $0
Credit Card 6 $0
Credit Card 7 $480
Credit Card 8 $600
Credit Card 9 $800
Credit Card 10 $800
Month 11:
$380 can be paid to credit card 7 and all others receive $40 payments.
Credit Card 1 $0
Credit Card 2 $0
Credit Card 3 $0
Credit Card 4 $0
Credit Card 5 $0
Credit Card 6 $0
Credit Card 7 $120
Credit Card 8 $580
Credit Card 9 $780
Credit Card 10 $780
Month 12:
$380 can be applied to credit card 7, of course $120 will pay off credit card 7 balance so there is an extra $260 that can be applied to credit card 8 which will give credit card 8 a total payment of $300 for the month with the others getting the regular $40 payment.
Credit Card 1 $0
Credit Card 2 $0
Credit Card 3 $0
Credit Card 4 $0
Credit Card 5 $0
Credit Card 6 $0
Credit Card 7 $0
Credit Card 8 $300
Credit Card 9 $760
Credit Card 10 $760
TOTAL = $1,820
The above will be your balances on your credit cards after one year of using this formula. After 12 months, continue using this formula to pay off all of your credit cards until done. If you had just paid the minimum payments on all 10 credit cards during the year, your balances would have looked more like this:
Credit Card 1 $60
Credit Card 2 $60
Credit Card 3 $260
Credit Card 4 $260
Credit Card 5 $260
Credit Card 6 $460
Credit Card 7 $560
Credit Card 8 $560
Credit Card 9 $760
Credit Card 10 $760
TOTAL = $4,000
Using this formula, you will owe $1,820 after 12 months of work instead of owing $4,000! Of course, your credit card debt situation and numbers will differ from the above example but use this method to pay off your credit card debt and you will be satisfied as you see your balances go down. Of course some discipline is involved as for this plan to work you have to stop using any of your credit cards. Good luck yo you!
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