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The Fastest Way To Pay Off $10,000 In Credit Card Debt
These two powerful steps may be all it takes to set yourself up for a lifetime of debt-free days. [SPONSORED]
What's the best way to pay down a credit card balance as quickly as possible, while paying the least in interest, and without hurting your credit? What follows is a powerful method recommended by the most astute personal finance experts* to achieve exactly those objectives. It's extremely effective, completely legal, and leverages programs created by credit card issuers to your advantage.
Follow these steps and start to become credit card debt-free.
Step 1: Use A Powerful Tool To Immediately Stop Paying Interest On Your Balance
Think of someone carrying a credit card balance like a patient who enters an emergency room bleeding badly. The first thing a doctor will do is stop the bleeding. It's no different when attacking a credit card balance; the first thing you do is stop the interest charges.
There's a simple way to do this, and its brilliance is that it actually uses the banks' marketing offers to your advantage: find a card offering a long "0% intro APR balance transfer" promotional offer, and transfer your balance to it. These are cards which offer new customers a long period of time (often as much as 18 months) during which the card charges no interest on all balances transferred to it. We constantly track all the cards in the marketplace to find the ones currently offering the longest 0% intro periods.
Compare The Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards Here
If you need more motivation, just think of this: on a $10,000 balance, $150 of a $200 monthly payment would get vacuumed up by interest charges.** That leaves only $50 of your $200 that reduces your balance, the rest vanishing into bank pockets. That's just brutal. Use our reviews to find a card which offers the longest possible no-interest period while charging low, or even no fees. Moving your balances to the card you choose will stop the bleeding, allowing you to move on to step two.
Step 2: Power Through Your Balance During The 0% Period.
Once you've transferred your balances and put a stop to the interest charges, it's time to capitalize on the interest-free period to really break free of the debt. The best part of this is how simple it is: just keep making the payments you used to make when you had to pay big interest payments, except now 100% of your payment will go to reduce your balance.
Going back to the $10,000 example above. (just be aware that we're using the $10,000 number as an example to demonstrate how the process works. You may be approved to transfer an amount greater or less than $10,000). If you transferred that balance onto a card, which offers 15 months of 0% intro APR with no transfer fee, and maintained the same $200 monthly payment, you can see how much faster you'll be reducing your balance in the chart below.
As you can see, without using the 0% card, the same $200 monthly payments barely make any headway. It's like swimming upstream, or walking while taking a step back for every two steps forward. That's no way to swim or walk, and attempting to pay off your cards while paying high card interest rates is no way to manage your finances. Move your balances onto one of the cards below, stop getting crushed by interest, and start making real progress toward getting rid of your card debt.
The Top 0% Intro APR Balance Transfer Cards
Wells Fargo Platinum Visa® Card
If you have a lot of outstanding credit card debt, you aren’t alone. The average U.S. consumer carries a total balance of $5,551 on two bank issued credit cards, according to Experian’s latest State of Credit report. Take control of your finances with the Wells Fargo Platinum Card. This no-annual fee card gives you an exceptionally long 0% introductory APR on balances transfers. If you only make the minimum payments on high-interest credit card debt, it could take years to pay it off. Using a card like this means every cent you pay during the intro period will go toward paying down your principal. If you are looking to make a big purchase, you will also get an extended 0% introductory period on purchases with this card. Wells Fargo is one of the few card issuers to offer generous cell phone protection. Check out the unique cell phone benefits offered with this card.
Discover it® - 18 Month Balance Transfer Offer
Earn cash back rewards, while you pay down your debt, with this no-annual fee card. The incredibly long 0% introductory APR balance transfer period on this card offers you the chance to wipe the slate clean on high interest debt. Use the cash-back rewards to pay down your debt even faster! You'll earn one of the highest cash back rates available in rotating categories each quarter, combined with a potentially huge first-year cash-back bonus. If your credit isn't perfect, don't worry it is aimed at people with good credit or higher.
If you are ready to ditch your debt, in our view, this is the one of the best balance transfer offers available. The rare combination of no balance transfer fees, no annual fee and long 0% introductory APR will save you money that you can funnel back into your debt payments and help you get out of debt faster. You can save hundreds on balance transfer fees and high-interest charges if you make the switch now. You will need excellent credit for this card.
See The Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards Here
* Savings calculation: Credit Card Balance * (1+Average Card Rate/365)^639 days – Balance Transfer Fee - Average Household Credit Card Balance Balance transfer fee is minimum of 3% or $10
** Monthly interest calculated on $10k balance at 18% as: 10000*(1+(0.18/360))^365-10000)/12
By Jarret DiToro.
Editorial Note: This content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuer. Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and may not have been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer. CompareCards.com may be compensated through a credit card issuer partnership.
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Image credit: Jarmoluk via Pixabay
