Struggling with too much credit card debt? You’re not alone. Unfortunately, having too much credit card debt can make you feel like you’re the only one with this burden. Here’s how to legally clear your credit card debt.

1 – Find the best credit product. Compare competing credit card offers carefully. Read the fine print and solicit advice on specific products from this community. Look for a product that offers a lower rate or other competitive advantage.

2 – Create a realistic budget. Here’s the hard truth: maybe you simply don’t make enough money to cover your credit card bills. That means just one thing: you need to maximize every dollar you do make in order to pay it all off and make your situation better. Yes, making a budget sounds intimidating and difficult. It isn’t. Write out all your regular expenses and track them online.

3 – Negotiate for better terms. As credit markets tighten in this economy many credit card issuers will agree to lower your interest rates if you tell them you plan to move your business to another card. Even a few percentage points will mean you’ll pay less in interest. However, this only works if you have a good credit score. If you’re recently finding yourself in trouble your score might not be high enough for this to work. If so you’ll need to work to raise your credit score first.

4 – Stop spending on your cards, and get help if necessary. It’s not shameful to ask for help. If you have stopped ALL spending on your cards and STILL cannot make the minimum payments it is time to get professional help. Find your local chapter of the non-profit organization Consumer Credit Counseling Service and/or join Debtors Anonymous.

Yes, none of these suggestions are “quick fixes”. Here’s the thing: to legally clear your credit card debt you really only have one choice. That solution is to legally pay off all your debt and consider your lesson learned. You can connect with other users who are legally clearing their credit card debt by making small, incremental shifts in their lifestyle.

Bankruptcy hurts your long-term financial health and will not address any underlining issues. It should be the option of last resort. The good news is that if you’re reading this article you’re open to learning more about personal finance.

Right now your credit card debt may feel impossible to solve. But with determination and hard work you can legally clear credit card debt and feel proud of the accomplishment. Start today!

Related:

VIDEO: How to Increase Your Credit Card Limit
Four Ways to Avoid Excessive Credit Card Use
In Debt We Trust – Film You Must See
Focus on the Payoff to Eliminate Your Debt
Meet DebtKid: he’s paying off $300K

Further Reading

• The ABC’s of Budgeting and Finance : A-E (1)
• The ABC’s of Budgeting and Finance : P – T (0)
• Blogger Focus : BeingFrugal.net (0)
• Did You Make These 3 Financial Mistakes Recently? (1)
• 4 Money Lessons to Teach Your Teenager Before They Go Off To College (0)

Tags: Business, Credit card, Debt, Finance, Geezeo, home, Money Management, Personal finance

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 9:25 am and is filed under Debt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.