4 Easy Ways to Lower Your Monthly Credit Card Payments

About 41% of American households carry some sort of credit card debt and among most individuals, the common practice, each month, is to pay just the minimum amount due.

Now, as far as credit cards are concerned, the minimum amount due is usually around 4% of the total balance owed by the consumer.

On average, when individuals pay the minimum amount each month, they get on track to pay off the entire debt in about 10-12 years.

This is due to the fact that when you pay 4% of the total amount due, most of your payment goes towards settling the interest, and very little goes towards principal payments.

However, as everyone knows, 10 – 12 years is a long time to be in debt – moreover, during this time, you may end up paying huge amounts as interest.

Luckily, a person can try to reduce their average monthly credit card payments in the following ways:

1. Prioritize your payments

If you own more than one credit card, figure out their interest rates and then rank the cards starting from the one charging the highest interest rate, to the lowest.

Next, examine your total monthly expenditures to understand if there is any section where you can reduce your expenses.

Perhaps there is a recurring monthly expenditure for a subscription service that you could do without.

Or maybe you could reduce your restaurant-related expenditures by eating out once every month rather than once every week.

Once you’ve cut down on unnecessary expenditures, calculate the amount of money saved.

Now, after paying the minimum amount due on each card, use this entire saved amount to pay down the balance on the card charging the highest interest rate.

Once the entire balance of the highest interest card is paid off, repeat the procedure with the next highest interest rate card.

As you pay off more and more of the principal amount on each card, the interest you owe will automatically reduce.

This, in turn, will reduce your average monthly credit card payments. 

2. Negotiate lower interest rates

If you are someone who consistently pays their credit card dues on time, you can call up your issuer and request them to reduce the APR on your card.

If the first representative, you speak to, does not concede to your request, try talking to a manager.

3.Transfer your balance

Instead of asking your issuer to lower your interest rate, you can also transfer your existing balance to a 0% interest card.

Many credit card issuers offer 0% APR on certain cards for an introductory period of time. Consumers can make use of this interest-free period to quickly pay down their balances without worrying that the majority of their payment would go towards meeting the interest. Having said that, keep in mind that most of these cards charge 3 – 5% of the transferred balance as a balance transfer fee.

4.Stop making new purchases with your credit cards

While you are putting all your efforts towards reducing the principal amount due on your credit cards, try to stop making new purchases.

Use cash to meet any expenses that you may have – taking money out of your wallet to pay for something is more difficult than simply swiping a card and may cause you to spend less.

If you must use a credit card, then sparingly make use of one that has no balance.

Budget for the expenditures that you make through this card and at the end of each month, pay off the entire amount due.

The greater the amount charged as monthly credit card dues, the more worrisome it is for the individual concerned.

In most cases, it is the interest charge that contributes towards inflating the dues.

There are many consumers who use credit cards for purposes such as funding their small organizations on a temporary basis.

Unfortunately, when they choose this method of financing, they quickly fall into debt due to the high-interest rates charged by the card issuer.

One way to tackle this problem is to contact our team at Fund&Grow.

We offer individuals, with good credit, the opportunity to obtain $50,000 - $250,000 of unsecured credit at 0% interest.

This amount is available for a period of 6, 12, or 18 months, and can be used for anything from funding a small business to providing a down payment on a property.

So, if you know someone who needs this sort of financing, call us, at (800) 996-0270, and we will help them out right away.