When credit cards put you in jeopardy

(CNN) -- Americans are drowning in debt.

Consumers have got racked up more than than $2.2 trillion in purchases and hard cash progresses on major recognition card game in just the last year. And it's go a wont for them to pass more than than they have. The overall recognition card debt grew by 315 percentage from 1989 to 2006, according to public policy research house Demos.

To intensify the problem, fewer people are paying their recognition card game measures on time. The per centum of people delinquent on their recognition card game is the peak it's been in three years, according to CardTrack.com.

With Banks tightening their criteria and the rub-a-dub of recession getting louder, there's no better clip to catch control of your debt now.

First, you have got to find if your recognition card disbursement wonts are out of control. Here are some signs:

You happen that you can't do your lower limit payments on your recognition cards.

You recognize you've been adoption money from household members or friends to cover your payments.

You've gone to a loaner you wouldn't normally utilize -- like a payday loaner that loans you money at really high rates against your adjacent paycheck.

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Once you've made a listing of your debts, it's clock to prioritize your payments. Interest rates can run from 10 to 18 percent, according to William Curtis Matthew Arnold of Cardratings.com. Undertake your highest-interest recognition card first. With rates averaging about 14.5 percent, you really desire to strike hard out the high-interest debts quickly. Try shifting high-interest credit card debt onto card game that have got less involvement rates.

The rule is not the lone problem, it's also the involvement you're accruing. If you have got a $2,000 balance at a 14 percentage involvement charge per unit -- and do just the lower limit payments -- it will take you more than than 14 old age to pay off that debt plus the interest. Try to pay more than than the lower limit payments on your recognition card game whenever you can.

Another tip: Keep a stopping point oculus on your card's involvement rates and happen out if there is room for negotiation

Recognition card companies are increasing fees and cutting recognition limits, and some are increasing rates, according to Arnold, so be certain to size up your monthly statements. Often the inside information of these alterations are included in the mulct black and white on your statement.

If you've been a good client and you have got good credit, now is a good clip to negociate for a higher recognition bounds or to strike hard some points off your involvement rate, states Toilet Ulzheimer of Credit.com.

All it takes is a telephone call. And it could salvage you 100s of dollars in involvement payments. Many recognition card issuers already have got policies in place. These recognition card companies don't desire to lose your business. Of course, if you don't have got a great recognition history or you've made a few late payments, you may not acquire anywhere.

One of the most of import stairway you can take in tackling debt is improving your credit. Your recognition study is being even more than closely scrutinized today by recognition card issuers, mortgage lenders, car dealers, coverage bearers and even possible employers.

Also, don't fold old recognition card game accounts. Even if you don't utilize them frequently, it looks better for your recognition mark if you can demo a long recognition history, said Ulzheimer.

And, he says, hold some spending.

As a regulation of thumb, you should seek not to utilize more than than 10 percentage of your recognition bounds when making purchases. "The people with the best recognition have got a use charge per unit of no more than than than 7 percent," he says.

If your recognition use is 50 percentage or more of your recognition limit, you are doing some existent harm to your recognition score, states Craig Isaac Watts of Carnival Isaac, one of the companies that supplies recognition scores. When the new FICO '08 scoring theoretical account is adapted in May, if you have got a use of over 50 percent, you'll be penalized even more than heavily