Paying back all of the money that you owe to your credit card debt is not nearly as easy as it was for you to go into credit card debt in the first place. Still, it can be done. When you put together a good working plan coupled with discipline and dedication, you can and will achieve a life that is completely free of any credit card debt.
The first thing that you are going to want to do is to figure out exactly how much you can really afford to be paying on your credit card debts. If you have put together a monthly budget, then you are going to want to put it to good use in order to figure out how much money you currently have left over. If you do not currently have a monthly budget, then now is as good a time as any for you to begin one. Begin by adding up all of the net monthly income that you have from all income sources, then add up all of the monthly expenses that you have including the minimum payments that you need to make on your loans and your credit cards.
Now subtract your expenses out of your income, and the number that is left is the net income that you have remaining, or how much you can reasonably afford to send to your debt collectors every month. Now that you know what you can spend to pay off your credit card debt, there are essentially two different paths that you can take to pay your credit card debt off. The first method is to pay off the high interest rate debt first, and the second method is to pay off the debt with the lowest balances first.
Highest Interest - When you pay off the credit cards that have the highest interest rates first, you are going to end up saving money in the long run. This is especially true if the card that has the highest interest also happens to be the one with the highest balance amount as well. When the highest interest rate and the highest balance are on the same card, you are going to be facing the longest pay off situation. It is definitely easy for you to lose some motivation while you are paying off your debt, especially when it seems to be taking too long. If you are in this situation then you might want to consider the lowest balance option so that you can pay some debt off more quickly.
Lowest Balance - This method has immediate benefits that are quite tangible in nature. The first balances are quicker and easier to pay off. When you finally do manage to pay off a bill, the accomplished feeling is enough motivation to keep yourself going on the road to repaying all of your debt.
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