Reduce Debt More Quickly With A Credit Card Tune-up

Paying Off Your Credit Cards: Quick Tips for Debt Relief

Paying off your credit cards is likely at the top of your list for digging out of debt. While achieving a zero balance generally takes time, it’s possible to reduce your debt more quickly by making strategic choices regarding the type of credit card accounts you have.

Consider these tune-up tactics for credit debt relief:

Zero-Percent Balance Transfers

Balance transfer credit cards that don’t charge interest for an extended period of time, such as 6 or 12 months, give you a chance to save on interest. You can reduce debt by using the interest savings to make larger payments on your credit card. For instance, if you’ve been paying $200 a month on credit card interest and you transfer the balance to a 12-month no-interest card, you can put an additional $2,400 towards the balance in a year.

Always read the fine print of balance-transfer offers. Some credit card issuers charge fees for balance transfers that could potentially negate any benefits of transferring the balance.

Low-Interest Card Options

When it comes to interest rates, the best credit cards are those that only add a few percentage points to today’s prime lending rate. Locking in such a low rate is especially useful when the prime rate rises. Transferring your balance to such an inexpensive credit card offers you a chance to enjoy lower finance charges, which gives you more money to put toward paying off your balance.

Better Card Benefits

Considering the wide variety of rewards cards available today, when shopping for a new card for your old balance, it makes sense to get as many benefits as possible from your credit card account. Depending on your preferences and lifestyle, look for cards featuring rewards such as:

  • Gift cards
  • Cash back
  • Gas credit
  • Airline miles
  • Hotel points

The cash-back option provides you an easy way to pay down debt on your card, and other types of rewards free up money spent. All of these savings give you the opportunity to earmark additional funds for paying off debt.

Credit card balances can sometimes seem insurmountable, but these tune-up tactics can help with debt reduction.

About the Author

Julie Bawden-Davis is a Southern-California-based writer specializing in personal finance and insurance. Since 1983, her work has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Family Circle, Ladies’ Home Journal, Parenting, Entrepreneur, and The Los Angeles Times.

Julie Bawden-Davis

Julie Bawden-Davis is a bestselling journalist, novelist, blogger, and YouTuber. A prolific author, Julie writes in several genres. She enjoys creating page-turning suspense served up with a dose of romance, garden books that turn any brown thumb green, and spiritual books meant to enlighten and inspire. Widely published, Julie has written 45 books and more than 4,000 articles for a wide variety of national and international publications. She lives in Southern California, where she enjoys sunny, blue skies most days and year-round gardening. Julie gains inspiration from being surrounded by plants when she writes.