Bad Credit Card Debt - How To Cope With It

Eliminate bad credit card debt

Credit card has become a way of life for many people. However, this has resulted in an increase in bad credit card debt.

Other than student credit card, a regular credit card provides an average person about twice the amount of credit than his or her monthly income. This gives many card owners a false impression that they have twice the spending power. Couple with the fact that there is no need to repay the full amount at the end of the month, many people tends to spend beyond what they can afford.

This give rise to a steady growth in bad credit card debt each and every year. This has also leads to an increase in bankruptcy, which is devastating to your financial health.

It is stressful when dealing with bad credit card debt. However, by taking responsibility, you can cope with it and devise a plan to eliminate it. It will take time but if you don't start soon, the problem will only get worse.

What you should do first is to review your current financial situation. List down every income sources that you have each month. Then list down all the essential expenses that you have, such as phone bills. Next list down all the outstanding credit card balances that you have, their respective minimum payment and due date.

Take a look at how much you have left after deducting your essential expenses from your total income. If it cannot cover the total minimum payments, you will need to do a few things quickly.

The first is to look at your expense and cut off any unnecessary stuffs, such as starbuck coffee in the morning.

The second thing is to talk to your creditors to arrange a new payment plan that you can manage. You can seek help from with the Credit Counseling Centers of America, Inc. to help you do this.

The third thing to focus more attention on creating new revenue streams. This can be holding a garage sale, take on a second job, sell unused stuffs on ebay, do freelancing work such as giving tuition, mow your neighbors lawn, etc.

The fourth thing is to start a saving program. This will be challenging when facing with a huge debt. But you have to start cultivating the habit now, even if you can only save a penny a day.

The important thing is to start tackling the bad credit card issue as early as possible. Your credit card debt can snowball to the extent that it is too big to handle and you have no choice but to file for bankruptcy. The early you start, the sooner you will be debt-free.