Eliminating Credit Card Debt: Avoid Promo Pitfalls

According to survey, 80% of US households hold at least one credit card. An average American earner, has 8 credit cards on his wallet, all accumulating interests and debts! It has also been found out that only 2% of credit card holders pay their entire bill each month. $574 billion are accrued as interest for all carried over debt per month! Well, it’s not easy to own 1 card, all the more managing 8 credit cards!

So how do you avoid having to resort credit card debt consolidation services or credit card debt counseling? SELF-CONTROL!

But what if it’s too late and you’ve already amassed headache-inducing credit card debt? Read on.

Ask your credit companies to help you lower your interest rate. You can phone these companies and request them to lessen your interest rates by negotiating and setting some limits. You can do this every six months; target the months of December or June.

Seeking the help of credit companies to lower your interest rates can also be disadvantageous. While most credit companies offer good services, be wary of those which take advantage. Here are some of the pitfalls:

a. Credit companies usually wait for you to be screwed up. A lot of bills (i.e. electric, water) can go along with your credit debt and these companies although lower your interest rates can change these rates without prior notice. Although they claim that this is risk management, it is obvious that this is all about profit.

b. Some credit companies are part of the identity theft. Experts warned that your information is not usually under your control. Paper solicitations are usually scams which purposely gather data about you. There are instances wherein anonymous accounts are transferred to your new card without your knowledge. Also, the latest trend is marketing to students such that they can get basic information enough to open a new card which can accumulate larger interest rates in the long run; without their parents’ knowledge of course.

c. Giving rewards or freebies is just one way to target creditors to spend more. These programs always come with extra charges and huge annual fees. For example, extra point in spending is needed before you get an extra milliliter of gasoline. Thus, the interest rates that you aim to be lowered will just be exorbitant.

Have you experienced any of these reward or promo pitfalls yourself? Kindly share them so we can all learn how to deal with these promo-cloaked debt-boosting tactics of some credit card companies?

[image from infomaniac]

Tags: credit card promo, credit card debt