Organize Your Credit Card Debt For 2009
Posted on January 21, 2009
Filed Under Advice, rates | 1 Comment
Getting the mail this time of year isn’t a whole lot of fun as the credit card bills from December start to arrive. Alexandra Lieberman is trying to cope with the impact of all the shopping she did last month.
“It was everything. It was groceries, going out to dinner, shopping, everything.”
It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that January bills tend to bigger than any other month of the year.
Ori Schnapps of justthrive.com says the bills can often be two-to-three times larger than consumers expect.
Avi Karnani, also of justthrive.com, says the first thing to do is something they call “get personal with your paperwork.”
“This a really good time in the beginning of the year to organize your financial life for the rest of 2009, and you can start off with some good habits. You can get to know all your terms and fees on your different credit cards and your accounts.”
In this current credit crunch, it is more important than ever to be on time with your payments.
Otherwise, you could quickly get hit with fees, or a higher interest rate.
Schnapps says that banks are becoming less forgiving of little mistakes.
Although money is tight, try to pay more than your minimum.
Otherwise, it will be hard to make a dent in your overall debt.
As Karnani explained, “You go out and buy somebody a gift. That gift is going to cost three or four times as much if you just pay the minimum.”
Stay on top of any zero percent interest deals you have, so that they don’t expire unexpectedly.
Finally, be pro-active this year and make a budget.
Karnani believes then “you won’t have as many unexpected purchases, and you can basically stay in control of your finances.”
Alexandra has used the free services available at justthrive.com and already feels better about her financial future.
“Keeping organized really helps.”
by Paula Ebben
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One Response to “Organize Your Credit Card Debt For 2009”
it is necessary for you to identify the government grant that you are qualified for. You must obtain the guidelines for applying the grants. If you are facing the problem of being retrenched, you can look for grant that is offered for those who don’t have sufficient income to pay back credit card debt. Since you have got your total amount of debt on hand, you can quickly know whether you are qualified for the grant or not.