It's an easy mistake to make - all of the offers come in the mail, and you aren't sure which ones are best. They are pre-approved offers, so you accept every one that you receive, and before long, you find that you have a mountain of credit card debt and don't know how you are going to get out of it. Worse yet, you don't even recall how you got into trouble in the first place. It was simple enough, and there was no interest - for the first six months! You took advantage of that offer, but when the interest started, your payments doubled, something that you didn't consider when you accepted the offer.
Sadly, you didn't accept just one offer, but several, so now you have more credit card debt that you can ever repay and don't know what you are going to do about it. You can make the minimum payments, but you know that your balance will never decrease that way.
What's the answer? Rather than dwell on how you are going to eliminate the credit card debt, think about how to avoid it in the first place. Once you graduate from high school or college and begin working, it's a logical desire to have a credit card, and a practical one. After all, if you ever want to travel, you will need a credit card to book airline tickets, hotel rooms, and rental cars. Having a credit card is not the problem; it's what you do with
it and how many you have that creates havoc in your life. Card issuers are at fault for soliciting college and high school students that they know most likely depend upon the parents to pay the bills. As long as Mom and Dad are taking care of it, you don't give a second thought to how much you are spending. The problems develop when you graduate and find that your parents expect you to now take over the payments. Oops! You didn't plan on that scenario.
What often happens now is that you begin looking for a credit card with a higher credit line and lower interest rate in order to eliminate the one you have. Your intentions are good - when you are approved for another one, you will cancel the one you have and transfer the balance to the new one. Problem - the new one arrives, and you just have to have a new computer, cell phone, stereo, wardrobe, or numerous other things, and if you transfer the balance from the old card, there won't be enough left to go shopping. It doesn't happen just to young people, either; middle-aged adults fall into the same trap and for the same reason. To avoid this trap, learn to limit yourself to one of two credit cards and no more. If you receive one with a higher credit line, get rid of one you have and transfer the balance, no option. Look for new cards as a replacement, not an addition.
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