The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, act as legal, financial or credit advice; instead, it is for general informational purposes only. Information on this website may not be current. This website may contain links to other third-party websites. Such links are only for the convenience of the reader, user or browser; we do not recommend or endorse the contents of any third-party sites. Readers of this website should contact their attorney, accountant or credit counselor to obtain advice with respect to their particular situation. No reader, user, or browser of this site should act or not act on the basis of information on this site. Always seek personal legal, financial or credit advice for your relevant jurisdiction. Only your individual attorney or advisor can provide assurances that the information contained herein – and your interpretation of it – is applicable or appropriate to your particular situation. Use of, and access to, this website or any of the links or resources contained within the site do not create an attorney-client or fiduciary relationship between the reader, user, or browser and website owner, authors, contributors, contributing firms, or their respective employers.
Credit.com receives compensation for the financial products and services advertised on this site if our users apply for and sign up for any of them. Compensation is not a factor in the substantive evaluation of any product.
If your credit is heavy with debt, one of the first things you should do is make a plan to pay it off as quickly as possible. After all, failing to pay off your credit cards can lead to high interest payments that could eventually see the cost of your gift purchases doubled or tripled within a few months.
[Credit Score Tool: Get your free credit score and report card from Credit.com]
1. Preferred: As quickly as possible, pay off all of your credit cards so that you are no longer carrying a balance.
2. If you can’t pay off your credit cards in full, pay them down as much as possible. Your credit scores are affected by the amount of available credit you have, so the more you have, the better. And this obviously reduces the amount of money that you’ll have to pay interest on next month.
3. If you can barely pay your credit cards down, at least make the minimum payments to avoid late charges and an outstanding notice on your credit report.
4. Avoid: Skipping your credit card payments.
If you have several cards and not enough to go around, put some money on each card but just make sure you are at least paying the minimum payment. If necessary, go on a spending diet in the next few months to keep yourself from adding new charges to your credit cards. Take some of your credit cards out of your wallet and keep them in a safe place at home if they are too much of a temptation in your wallet.
Available credit is critical. It ensures that we have money when we need it. Sometimes our credit card balances can be bloated from too much spending, reducing our available credit. If that’s the case for you, put your credit on a diet and get those credit card statements slim and trim again! To see how paying off your debt helps your credit, you can monitor your credit score for free once a month using Credit.com’s free Credit Report Card or pull a copy of your credit report for free at AnnualCreditReport.com.
[Free Resource: Check your credit score and report card for free with Credit.com]
Image: iStockphoto
June 14, 2023
Credit 101
January 25, 2022
Credit 101
February 19, 2021
Credit 101