How do you manage excessive credit card debt? I assume that your financial situation doesn’t warrant a bankruptcy, which is a last-resort option. Here are some ways to manage it…

1. Stop using your credit cards. Of course leave a credit card so you can use it for a purchase here and there. Just make sure not to over-indulge. It’s easy to spend money, much harder not to!

2. Use the snowball method. List the total amount you owe on each credit card from lowest amount owed to highest amount owed or vice-versa. Each month, keep on paying the monthly payment for each card. However, rather than the remaining money be spent on some random card here and some random card there, use the money you have left to pay off of the card with the lowest balance. Once the card with the lowest balance is paid off, move on to the next credit card until all of the credit cards are paid off. What are the benefits of this program? Well, not as great as you may have expected. The main aim of this program is that you’ll start seeing some quick results. Rather than slowly paying everything off, you’ll have the benefit of knowing that you’ve got at least one thing taken care of. Although you may think that the psychological benefits are a bunch of baloney, consider that our psychological desire to want things now is what gets many of us into debt in the first place.

3. Although the snowball method is useful, if the interest rates on your multiple cards vary significantly, it makes a lot of sense paying off the card with the highest interest first because that is the card that is doing the most damage. Some financial advisors say that it is best to ignore the snowball method all together and just focus on paying off the balances, which have the highest interest on them.

4. If you have multiple credit cards, take a look at which ones have the lower interest rates. If you have not reached the limit on one of these cards, see if you can’t transfer the payments you must make on your high interest cards to the low interest card. You can also consider getting a low interest card to transfer all your high interest payments to. Just make sure to read the fine print of the low interest card so that you don’t have yet another beast you have to pay for.

5. Other ways to deal with excessive credit card debt is by calling your creditors to see if they can’t lower the interest rate, getting a home equity loan, and filing for bankruptcy if your financial situation is beyond repair.

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