Smart and Easy Ways to Pay Off Your Credit Card Debt

Last Updated : March 17, 2017, 12:52 p.m.

Credit card is always a substitute for easy money. When most of the people are living on a fixed source of income, credit card is something like a key to all-time money access. It is really beneficial for those, who use it wisely. Credit card companies offer you various benefits and special schemes to spend more. But, these are all traps to encourage you to spend more and get into the vivacious cycle of debt. Therefore, it is really necessary to keep a track of all credit card bills and other spending done by these cards. If you use these cards smartly, these cards can serve various benefits and advantages on your spending limits. You should always spend only that much amount which you can repay easily. Here are some smart and easy ways to pay off your credit card debt.

Balance Transfer: Balance transfer is most convenient and simple way to get rid of bad debt cycle. You can transfer the balance from higher rate of interest to some other lower rate of interest bank to save money on your monthly EMIs. This facility allows you to shift your balance from one card to another or from one card to multiple cards or single card. This kind of transfer also gives you a free credit days. It will give you some breathing space to arrange the funds and close or pay maximum amount with lower interest rate.

Convert your payment to EMIs: This is another way to pay back your loan amount with ease. If you have a long outstanding amount to repay, just ask your bank to convert it into small and easy instalments. It will help you to repay your loan amount with ease. However, banks charge monthly interest on these EMIs. The interest rates may vary from 1-2% of the outstanding amount.

Clear the debt with the highest interest rate first: While spending money with your credit card, always check how much money you will pay as interest if you would not be able to make the payment within the billing cycle. What will be the charges? How much rate of interest will be levied on your credit amount? This is something which we hardly consider while spending big amount with these credit cards. Always ensure that you don’t forget to make payment of your credit card first which have shorter billing cycle. This will also help you to reduce the total interest outgo.

Try to pay more than minimum amount: Most of the people who use credit card go for the minimum EMIs and pay minimum outstanding amount. The mounting debts resulted into card blocking in unending debt spirals. Also, remember credit cards come with a very high interest rate and paying only the minimum due amount is only increasing your outstanding amount significantly at a higher rate, which depends upon the outstanding amount.

Opt for automatic payment option: Almost every credit card bank charges high rate of interest and late payment fee on your outstanding amount. Nowadays, when everything is online and automated, banks also provide facility for auto debit the amount. Always, go for automatic payment system to avoid such surcharges. This way the bill amount may get deducted automatically from your bank account rather than making manual payments. This way you need not to worry about the repayment dates and missing the billing cycles. This will also help you in making the payments on time of you are travelling or not having access to your bank.

Know your billing cycle: This is really important to know the billing cycle of your card. If your bank offers a 30 days credit free period, it does not mean that you will get 30 days credit-free period from the day you purchased the product, but from the first day of every month. Therefore, if your billing cycle starts from 15 ^th of every month and you purchased something on 13 ^th of that month, this means you are have just 2 days credit-free period.

Minimise the credit card numbers: Every credit card bank offers your numerous benefits and advantages. These banks send you thousand of mails regarding the endless offers and irresistible deals on owning their credit card. Having multiple cards increase the chances of getting trapped in bad debt. Therefore, always keep those cards at minimal to save yourself from these luring traps.