Credit Card Debt Management

Many people use balance transfers to their advantage. If you don’t know how this can help you should learn as soon as possible. Generally speaking, a balance transfer is used to move debt from one credit card to another. This may sound like nothing more than spreading your debt around, but there are benefits if you qualify and know exactly what you are doing.

The main reason to look into a balance transfer is if you can move your debt to a credit card with a lower interest rate. For instance, you may have $10k of credit card debt at 10 percent. While this is not the highest interest rate, with a balance transfer you may be able to move your debt and experience zero percent interest for a certain period of time. As you can imagine this will allow you to save money and hopefully pay back the debt sooner rather than later.

Do you qualify for a balance transfer? There are several details a credit card company will look at when considering your eligibility. They include: employment history, FICO score, and credit history. If all of these details are in line and there are not glaring mistakes, you should qualify for a balance transfer.

In most cases, a balance transfer is only a good move if you are going to receive a lower rate. To go along with this, it is pointless to transfer a small balance or one that you will be paying off within a month or so. Most people who look into balance transfers are doing so because they either have a lot of credit card debt, or are dealing with a high interest rate.

A balance transfer can save you a lot of money. Now that you know more, consider your eligibility and search for a credit card company that will do business with you. 

Ready to pay down those credit card bills? Don’t know where the money will come from? Here are eight tips to help you find money where you never even knew it existed.

Credit card tips first, since that is the focus of this blog:

1) Balance transfers. More than 12 percent interest is too much for good credit, but be aware beforehand of the pitfalls of balance transfers as well. Try to transfer to a card that offers little or no APR on balance transfers, then pay it off as soon as possible. Check here for Banks.com’s balance transfer card recommendations.

2) Pay on time and stay under your credit limit. Those fees will kill you. Also try to use cards with no annual fees. If you pay off your balance each month, you can pretty much avoid finance charges altogether.

3) HELOC. Sure, it’s a money-saver at 6% to 7%, but I generally wouldn’t recommend it because who really wants to put their house on the line? Transferring your credit card balances to a new card with a better rate is a much safer bet.

And now for general, good-sense, money saving tips for your daily life:

4) Dine in, and that doesn’t mean take-out. Cook, for crying out loud! That oven isn’t going to kill you. Take a long, hard look at how much you are spending on restaurant fare and you will experience true sticker shock. Cut it out and save a ton of money.

5) Shop generic. Those off-brands are not going to kill you either. There is a significant savings between generic and name brand shopping. Don’t forget to compare volume as well, because some generics simply decrease their package size and content amount to justify charging less. It’s consumer trickery at its finest. It goes for toilet paper rolls, breakfast bars, cheese and lunchmeat, just about anything you can think of. And don’t forget about generic prescriptions, which offer a major cost savings over name brand prescriptions. And, let’s see … nope, generic prescriptions haven’t killed me yet either.

6) Stop smoking! Those cigarettes really will kill you. They’ll also kill your budget. While you’re at it, kick other unhealthy habits like drinking too much. This, along with tip number 4, can lead you to a healthier, happier 2008.

And just for laughs…