Credit cards are almost a necessity today, but they need to be used with accountability. Having a good credit score will help you with a good interest rate on your mortgage, get a car loan and make other important purchases in you life. A low or damaged credit score could raise your interest rates and make borrowing money very expensive

You need a lot of self-control when using credit cards, once you have a good credit history ,every day applications will come through your letter box and you could easily have a wallet full of plastic with thousands of dollars of credit at your fingertips.

The plasma TV, vacation, bathroom renovation, etc which was once unattainable is there now for the taking. But you could be digging a big whole for yourself, you could lose financial flexibility due to the fact that your balance and financial charges leave you broke or even in the red every month.

Take action and reduce credit card debt. Take account of all your credit card bills, create an office spreadsheet or just write it all down on paper, for each card write down the minimum monthly payment then prioritize your repayments. Look closely at where all your money is going and try to make some sacrifices (maybe the daily morning cafe latte needs to go!). Use this money to help reduce credit card debt.

A minimum monthly payment is required by the credit card companies, this is what they prefer and where they make their money . For example if you owe $2500 on a card at 21% interest and you paid the lowest monthly payment (typically 2%) it would take you 63 years to pay off the debt.

You would pay $14,699 in interest charges. This is a win win situation for the credit card companies.

If you want to reduce credit card debt you must make more than the minimum payment. In the example just mentioned if you added an extra $50 a month to the payment it would take 10 years to pay off as opposed to 63 years with the minimum monthly payment.

Pay off your highest interest cards first, or your cards with the smallest balances, once these are paid off use the cash freed up to pay off the bigger balances. Keep repeating this over and over until all your balances are paid off in full.

You can also reduce credit card debt by moving your balance over to a card with a lower interest rate, if it’s only for a short promotional period (usually a year) then move it to another low rate card once the promotion is over.

Don’t apply for any more credit cards or create more charges . Get the scissors out and cut up your credit cards to get rid of the temptation. You may need to adjust your repayment plan as you start to reduce credit card debt but whatever you do don’t stop making more than the minimum monthly payments or lose focus on what your trying to achieve !!!