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Digital News Report – If you are falling behind or barely making your monthly credit card payments, you might have to rework your strategies so that you can make sure that you can pay your bills every month. There are a few ways that you can help yourself to pay off you credit card debt.
One way to pay off your credit card debt is to cut back on living expenses that you could live without so that you can have the extra money to pay it off. It may seem impossible at first to think of anything that you could live without. Can you live without cable or satellite TV? Can you reduce your mobile phone bill? Is there a less expensive landline phone option? Many times people over pay for more than they use.
The mobile phone plan could be changed to a prepaid making it necessary to stick within an affordable budget. The Pay-as-you-go Mobile phone plans are widely available and they cost around 10 cents per minute, and to keep the phone number the same and keep the minutes you can expect around $10 per month. You might have to pay one year at a time, monthly, or every six months depending on what is available to refill the minutes.
Giving up television might be a tough one for many people. Is it possible to take a break for 6 months? Can you watch free TV air signals for a while? Do you subscribe to a movie rental service or other monthly services that you can cut back on? If you can’t quit cold turkey, see if you can downsize the package to a cheaper one. Giving up even a little bit can add up to some savings.
Do you really need that caller id service on the landline phone? I know, it is nice to know who is calling and all, but if you consider how much more telephone companies charge for it every month, you probably wouldn’t miss it that much. Just downsizing your telephone service could save you $20 each month, and you wouldn’t be that inconvenienced. Some people use their mobile phone only and never even have a traditional landline phone in their home at all.
Shop around for lower car insurance and homeowners insurance rates. It is possible that you have too much coverage for these things, and you could save money on your premiums each month. If you don’t drive as much as you used to, are going to school, have reached a certain age, you could get extra discounts that haven’t been applied. So make sure to take the time to shop around for you insurance quotes and learn what you need and don’t need in a policy.
Can you commit to not running the air conditioner as much and set a higher temperature on the thermometer during the summer months, and in the winter can you live with it a couple degrees cooler? If you can this can add up to a couple hundred dollars worth of savings. Contact your local electric company to ask if they have any discounts for low income people. They also might have a program that will turn off your electricity during peak high demand times, in exchange they will pay you around $200 over the summer months.
Magazine and newspaper subscriptions can add up. It’s something you don’t think much about but, you should make a note of how much you spend each month for your reading entertainment. Do you buy lots of books? If you are an avid reader and you notice that you spend more than $10 per month on subscriptions and books, you might want to visit your local public library instead. That way you can read the magazines, check out some books and get your reading done for free!
Have you been overdue for a spring cleaning and your home is getting to cluttered? Have a garage sale or sell your extra stuff on eBay to not only make room for living, but to also put some money back in your pockets. Selling stuff can also help you deal with the fact that much of the money spent wasn’t worth it. You will be less likely to want to go out and buy more stuff after going through a garage sale.
Set spending limits and establish a monthly budget so that you can make sure to pay all of your credit card bills each month. Sometimes paying cash for everything you buy can be helpful to avoid over spending.
One thing that you should do to help make sure you can pay off credit card debt is to get professional help. You can get help from a credit counseling service. These debt counseling agencies can go over your finances, help you set up a budget and a plan to pay off your credit card balances.
By: Victoria Brown