It is common knowledge that over the last few years, almost anyone could obtain a credit card, which is one of the reasons why so many millions of people are up to or even over the top of their head in debt. I am raising my kids on credit and it is really costing me!
This is no secret, nor is it a secret that many people are struggling to keep up with their credit card payments just to maintain a steady income.
As suggested, there are things that you can do to reduce your credit card burden, one of which is to pay off your credit card accounts from your mortgage. If you are in the fortunate position of being to do this, the first thing you should do immediately afterwards is to get rid of the freaking credit card that got you into this mess in the first place.
We’re not talking anything complex here.Do what I did! Take the biggest pair of scissors you can find and cut all of your credit card into the tiniest pieces. Start going without and paying in cash only and you are never going to go far wrong.
I have already mentioned that obtaining credit cards over the past few years has become incredibly easy. It is undoubtedly true that one of the reasons so many families have got into credit card debt to such a tragic extent is that most people were not satisfied with just one card.
Individuals with no previously proven financial track record, people who previously would have found it difficult to obtain even a store card, never mind a fully fledged credit card were inundated with offers of one card here, another card there and all too often, they took all of these offers up. I had terrible credit and still got credit at really high interest rates.
While the situation is to get rid of all your credit cards if at all possible, it may simply be impractical to do so, meaning that you have to look at the most efficient way of dealing with the credit cards that you retain either by choice or because of a lack of choice.
If you cannot add your credit card debt to your mortgage, an alternative is to consider is switching to a credit card lender who is offering a 0% interest rate on any credit card balance transferred to them. However, when you do so, there are a variety of potential pitfalls which you must keep your eyes open for.
Firstly, 0% interest rates are unlikely to last forever. Make sure that you understand what the interest rate is going to be like once this special introductory discount offer expires. Work out how much it is going to cost you once the ‘real’ interest rate kicks in, and how well this figure compares with what you would pay with your current card providers.
One final thing to be careful of is the fact that if you use the credit card which you obtained with the specific intention of transferring the balance to it, any additional purchases will be charged interest.