Eliminate high interest credit card debt

Step by step, you can get rid of your high interest credit card debt:

1. Stop incurring more debt - unless it's an emergency. No spending, no debt. Real simple.

2. Evaluate your financial situation - get a plan. Take a close look at every creditor you owe and how much it's costing you to have each particular debt. Review your payment history with all creditors. Did you pay on time? Who charges what for late fees? From debt to debtless requires a plan. To get started, know how much your total debt is and how long it will take to pay it off, given your current payments, then you can look forward to a specific target day when your debt is gone.

3. There are money-saving options available so keep your eye out for those opportunities. Opportunities to save money, like low-rate credit card offers are in your mailbox almost every day. Most offer balance transfers at low introductory rates. And, pay close attention to the fine print.

4. TAKE ACTION! Put your moneysaving plan in action today! Formulating a plan to get out of debt is useless unless you actually start following it.

5. Track credit card offers and loan offers. Say you owe $20,000 on a credit card at 18 percent and you want to pay off the whole thing in ten years without ever borrowing another cent. You're looking at monthly payments of $360.37 - a total of $43,244! But if include that same debt in a home loan refinance at 8 percent, your payment is a much more manageable $242.66, and the $29,119 total saves you more than $14,000 in interest and the home loan interest is tax-deductible - saving you even more!

6. Don't be so hasty in closing credit card accounts, file them away instead. When creditors notice that you're no longer using your cards, they start sending offers that save you money! When closing accounts, you limit your options to whatever your remaining creditors decide to offer.

7. Pay on time - no matter what it takes! Late fees hurt you immediately, and are also a strike against your future bargaining power. More importantly, if you pay late you may not be able to get the best rates and deals when you need them most, like on a mortgage. In the long run, that kind of negligence can cost you thousands of dollars.