If you are one of the many North Americans that has credit card debt, you know how easy it can be to get deeper and deeper in the hole. The most common way to get yourself into trouble with your credit cards is by not paying the full amount each month when the bill arrives.

Now after many months have gone by, you find yourself in debt. $2000, $5000, $10,000 and maybe more. So now you try your best to get out of debt, but the interest rates are killing you. $100 or more of your monthly credit card bill could be interest alone. What do about this? Call your credit card company.

Yes, give them a call. Tell them that you are trying to be more aggressive in paying off your debt and can they give you a break on your interest rate. Tell them that you have been a good customer, always make your payments and want to remain a loyal customer and can they please give you a break.

Don’t take no for an answer, keep on them. Do not be rude or pushy but be persistent. If you keep at them, they may just lower your interest rate a couple points and if they do, that couple of percentage points can make a huge difference in how quickly you can pay off your debt.

Let’s assume you have $7,500 in credit card debt at an interest rate of 16 per cent. You can afford to pay $250 per month on your bill. At this rate, it will take you 39 months to pay off your debt and you will pay $2142.10 in interest alone!

Now, let’s say you call your credit card company and negotiate an interest rate of 12% instead of 16%. Now, it will take you 36 months to pay off your debt and your total interest payments will be $1461.55, saving you around $700 in debt. If you can manage to pay $300 a month the results are even better. You will pay off your debt in only 29 months and pay $1173.66 in interest!

The one thing you cannot do is make the minimum payment. This will kill you. If you only make the minimum payment of, let’s say $150 and your interest rate is 16 percent, you are now looking at 300 months to pay off your debt…and total interest of over $12,000.

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