10 steps to lower your credit card debt

There is nothing more depressing than being stuck in credit card debt for months or even years. Every time when you think to lower your debt some way or the other, in one or two months you flip back to your former debt situation and are tied in debt again.

As contrary to the belief that you can erase or eliminate credit card debt just overnight is false, as it is takes time and efforts to lower your credit card debt. However, with these 10 simple ways you can reduce your credit card debt quickly and can stop more debt from building up.

1. Take stock of your situation. In other words, first know where you stand and how much actual debt you have. Be honest to yourself by writing down your debt as well as the interest rate of your every single credit card.
2. Improve your interest rates by asking for lower rates on each of your credit card. Even one per cent reduction on every card can help you a lot in reducing your overall debt. Just call each of your card provider and politely request to lower your interest rates.
3. Choose your credit card payoff strategy by ranking the cards according to your pay off priority. It can be the card with the highest interest rate first or the other way round.
4. Transfer your balance from a higher interest credit card to a lower one.
5. Stash your credit cards and instead pay with cash.
6. Track your costs by recording all your regular monthly expenses, such as utilities, insurance, mortgage, car payments, phone, cable, gym, etc. This will in turn help you in knowing your budget.
7. Create a budget by cutting out unnecessary expenses. This does not mean that you must live only on bread and water, but means to cut back your lifestyle.
8. Check your progress by evaluating your expenses in every few months. Put reminders to track your finances.
9. Get some support or motivation by creating concrete goals and writing them on a piece of paper. Keep this in your paper, so that you get reminded of your goals every time you are tempted to overspend.
10. Borrow money from a peer-to- peer lender to pay off your credit card, as they provide loans with 20 to 30 percent lower interest rates than many credit cards. Prosper.com or LendingClub.com can help you with this.

So, hurry up get out of red with these easy to follow action plans.