Get back to work now to pay those high credit card bills

Thursday, January 24, 2008

By EILEEN elevation POWELL
Associated Press

NEW YORK

As the recognition card measures axial rotation in this calendar month from the recent vacation season, many consumers are going to acquire that queasy feeling that they've overindulged. There are counterpoisons for "debt hangover," experts say, but they necessitate putting payment schemes in topographic point -- and sticking to them.

"I believe some people are afraid of even opening up their bills," said personal finance expert Jennifer Openshaw. "But they have got to gaze Niggard in the oculus and undertake the job caput on. The more than than than people make that, the more confident they'll experience -- and the more they can make about it."

Consumers have got a batch of card debt to cover with. Even before the 2007 vacation disbursement season began, Americans added more than than $50 billion to their recognition card game in the first 10 calendar months of the twelvemonth to attain a record sum of $928.5 billion in October, according to the Federal Soldier Reserve. The further disbursement in November and December undoubtedly pushed balances even higher.

Dick Reed, regional guidance director with the non-profit-making Consumer Recognition Guidance Service of Greater Atlanta, said that January and February are the agency's busiest months.

"A batch of people do a New Year's declaration to acquire their fiscal house in order," he said. "But often, it's "I spent too much on the holidays' that actually conveys them in."

Reed said that the first measure troubled borrowers have got to take is to do certain they're current on their place mortgage or rent.

"No substance how bad things get, you necessitate a topographic point to live," he said.

The adjacent measure may look obvious, but a batch of people don't take it, and that's to halt charging on your recognition cards. If you don't make that, Reed said, "the measures will only acquire bigger and the envelopes heavier and the emphasis greater."

Dealing with outstanding balances may necessitate both increased hard cash flowing and an aggressive refund schedule, he said.

People who are heavily in debt may have got to see stairway such as as merchandising their 2nd car, taking a part-time job on the weekends and slashing disbursals for dining out and other optional purchases, Reed said. That volition free up more than hard cash to use to debt, he added.

Payments should cover "more than the minimum" on every card -- with any other money applied to the card with the peak involvement rate, Reed said.

"If you've come up up with an other $100, set it toward the high involvement charge per unit card first," he said. "Once that acquires paid off, maintain using that other $100 on the adjacent peak and the next, until you acquire all the card game paid off."

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