How to Quickly Crush Credit Card Debt without More Income
In the financial journey of life, there’s a formidable foe that many of us face: credit card debt.
It lurks in the shadows, silently accumulating, and before you know it, it’s a mountain you’re struggling to climb.
What if there were a way to crush it without increasing your income.
In this article, we’ll talk about how to quickly pay down your credit card debt without needing more income.
If you have no extra cash flow each month to put toward the principal balance of your credit cards, do the steps in this article to pay down your credit cards much faster.
The Credit Card Debt Elimination Method
The statistics of credit card debt in the United States is staggering.
That’s trillion with a capital ‘T’.
So, the first thing you want to do to clear up your own credit card debt is list out all of your expenses for the month.
Instead of paying your bills directly from your bank account, use your credit card to cover those expenses.
What this does is allocate the exact amount of her bills toward her credit card to cover the minimum payment and interest.
It might seem like we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.
However, it uses the compound effect to your advantage.
With your bills paid using your credit card, your credit card balance remains the same, but you effectively redirect your cash flow.
Now, instead of paying your bills directly, you are channeling that money towards your credit card balance.
Here’s where the compound effect comes into play…
By consistently paying the minimum payment on your credit card, you not only cover your expenses but also chipping away at the principal amount.
And as any savvy financial wizard will tell you, the beauty of compounding lies in its exponential growth over time.
And when you decrease the principal balance, a larger portion of your minimum payment went towards reducing the principal rather than merely servicing the interest.
It’s a virtuous cycle that gains momentum with every passing month.
An Example of Using this Method
Let’s say you have a credit card balance of $10,000 and a minimum monthly payment of $600.
Of your monthly bills that don’t need to be paid with a checking account (like rent, for example), you pay $2,400 to bills you could pay with your credit card, including the minimum payment to that credit card.
By putting that $2,400 onto your credit card and paying those bills using your credit card, you have not only taken care of those bills, you also covered your minimum monthly payment of $600.
So let’s break it down…
$10,000 (total balance of credit card)
-$2,400 (bills to be paid with credit card)
$7,600 (new balance of credit card before bills are paid)
+$1,800 (bills to be paid minus the minimum credit card payment)
$9,400 (new balance of credit card after bills are paid)
Now keep doing that each month and by month four you’d be at a principal balance of $4,000 on your credit card.
And you would have it entirely paid off in just over 6 months.
Not a bad situation for not having any extra cash flow to put toward it.
Next, you do the same with another credit card, and keep doing this same strategy for each credit card until you have them all paid off.
It will not only get you out of debt much faster than almost any other way, it will also help you increase your credit score along the way.
Check out my article The 7 Best Ways to Increase Credit Score Quickly.
In a Nutshell
Of course, like any financial strategy, this approach requires discipline and commitment. It’s not a magic bullet for instant financial success.
Resist the temptation to splurge or deviate from the plan. Having credit increases the temptation to change your spending habits.
Be careful doing that because the reward of being debt free far outweighed the sacrifices.
And the reward is freedom.