Bad Credit Card Debt

Bad credit card debt can really make getting to sleep at night a challenge. There have been a few times in my life where I had such bad credit card debt that I was certain there were at least a few contracts out on me from Visa and Master Card. Avoiding the phone, screening calls, jumping whenever the door bell rings, and constantly feeling overwhelmed are just some of the symptoms of very bad credit card debt.

I don’t really have any sure fire solutions to get out of bad credit card debt and I’m not really sure that there is a quick fix for it either. Today, everyone wants an instant solution to everything, but bad credit card debt doesn’t go away all on its own. I’m a little suspicious of sites or services that claim they can reduce your payments by X percent every month; the few people I know that have tried such services just ended up having to pay more money. There are, however, some genuine credit counseling services that offer some guidance free of charge; like social service workers, these counselors can be helpful but by no means will do all the work for you.

The best way I’ve found to get out of bad credit card debt is to avoid getting there in the first place. Credit card debt is so much easier to pay when you don’t have any credit card debt to pay. Make sense? So maybe that’s incredibly obvious, but its surprising how easy it is to forget these simple things when you’ve got several available credit lines and lots of things you want to buy. Over spending is almost like a compulsive behavior; in fact, in many cases such as my own, you can take the ‘almost like’ out of that description. Even though you know you’re making a mistake, you just can’t help but buy buy buy.

Some simple things that have helped me avoid bad credit card debt have been reducing the freedom I have to dig myself into a whole. The first thing I did was cancel all my cards except one. It’s a lot easier to manage my credit when I only have one line to worry about. Also, I made a rule with myself to only use my card once a week; all other purchases I make have to be by check or cash, thus not adding to my debt. While I don’t always follow it, little rules like this can help you avoid bad credit card debt in the future.