Clark Howard's credit card debt program

Here is what Clark Howard thinks you should do to pay off credit card debt:

• The first thing you need to do is realize that it is going to take time to pay off credit card debt, especially if you owe several thousand dollars in credit card debt. So you are going to need to discipline yourself to make sure that you pay off that credit card debt.
  
• If you have more than one credit card that you are trying to pay off the first thing that you need to do is something called laddering. Basically this processing involves paying off your highest interest rate credit card first and then moving on to the next credit card with the highest interest rate.
  
• In order to pay off the highest interest rate credit card first what you are going to need to do is pay more money towards that card. And most likely in order to pay more towards this card you are going to end up paying slightly less on your other cards, in some cases you will only be paying the minimum payment on the other cards.  Once you have finally paid off that credit card, remember it is going to take time; you can rip up that credit card and move onto your next credit card with the highest interest rate.
  
• The best way to make sure that you pay off that high interest rate card as fast as possible, not to mention to help ensure that you are paying more towards that card, the best thing that you can do is to make sure that you are making a payment to the credit card company every fourteen days. The best way to do this is to mark your calendar every 14 days to remind yourself to make a payment to the credit card company. The reason for this is that making a payment every 14 days actually equals one extra month's payment that you have made at the end of the year. But you want to make sure that you work these payments around your statement cycle so that you do not get hit with any late fees.
  
• You should also try and avoid debt programs like debt consolidation loans because all you are really doing is rearranging your debt. The reason that it usually doesn't work is that once people have paid off the cards they tend to go and charge them back up again and still owe money on the consolidation loan.
  
• The last thing that you need to know about this plan is that it should take you no more than 30 months to pay off all of your credit card debt. But in some cases it can take as many as 60 days, which is acceptable as long as you can see the progress that you are making when it comes to paying off your credit card debt. In order to ensure that you have paid off your credit card debt in 30 months or even in 60 months what you need to do is to find an online calculator that will show you how much you need to pay each month on your credit cards to get out of debt in that time frame. A great place to find these calculators is Bankrate.com
  

Here are some other things that Clark Howard thinks about credit cards and credit card debt.

• No matter what you do or how tempted you might be you should not carry more than two or three credit cards. The reason for this is that having more than that is actually necessary and they can cost you up to $50 per card if they're lost or stolen. Not to mention that having more than two or three cards actually can get you further into debt.
  
• If you usually carry a balance on your credit cards you are going to want to make sure that you find and use only credit cards that have a low interest rate. The reason or this is that you are going to be charged based on your principal and the higher the interest rate the more money you will be paying towards fees and other things. When looking for a credit card with a low interest rate because of carrying a balance the last thing that you should be worried about is the annual fee because it means very little when you carry a balance constantly.
  
• For the most part debt is a type of disease and credit cards are actually one of the easiest ways to get sick. What you need to keep in mind is that nobody, not even the rich and famous, got wealthy from borrowing money for gifts, clothes, entertainment, travel, or anything else. The only way they got wealthy was from staying debt free and working hard.
  
• If you have been using your credit to buy things and do things that you cannot afford otherwise you need to change the way that you have been thinking. What you are going to need to do is to start thinking about your purchases, even if you put them on accredit card, as if you were using cash to pay for it. What you need to think about is the fact that if you can't pay for it within 25 days or even shorter than you don't need it. Basically you want to be able to pay your credit card bills off in full each month, which means using your credit cards like cash.
  
• The one thing that makes credit cards okay is if you are only using them for safety or convenience. Basically these would be credit cards that you pay off in full each month because you need to purchase the items with a credit card, but you are putting the cash away each time to pay that bill. Or if you are using them for emergencies, such as a needed car repair or something else unexpected.  This means that you are not using the credit cards to purchase items that you can't afford just because you want to have them.
  
• If you are the type of person not to have a balance on your credit cards you are going to want to find a credit card that has no annual fee and a 25 day grace period between the day of purchase and the day the interest meter starts running. This will help you save in fees, meaning you won't be paying any fees, not even interest because you are paying the card off in full each month.

Here are Clark Howard's Top credit card tips.

1. Break out of the minimum payment cycle. Basically what has been discovered is that 1 out of 9 people can barely make their minimum monthly payment on their credit card, and if they never use that card again and only continue to make the minimum monthly payment they are not going to be able to pay off their credit card until 2043. But not only that if you are only paying the minimum payment you are also subject to retroactive interest rate hikes under the current law. What this means is that your credit card company can raise the rate on you from your current rate to something even higher and there is nothing you can do.
2. So what you need to do is to get away from paying the minimum payment each month. If your minimum payment is $100 then try paying $50 every two weeks because that will add on an extra payment at the end of the year. This is the best solution to get away from the minimum payment cycle without increasing your monthly payment.
   
3. More banks are following Bank of America in the fact that they are increasing their surcharges for non-customers who use their ATMs. In fact Bank of America just recently raised their surcharge to $3. This is actual perfectly legal and it is also considered fair business practice because we as consumers need to change our behavior so we do not pay these high rates. If we continue to use bank ATMs that charge these higher fees rather than using our own banks or credit unions free ATMs or even using the cash back feature from a debit transaction, then all we are doing is allowing them to rip us off. So we need to stop using those ATMs or we might end up paying even higher fees next year.
   
4. You need to watch out for credit card companies that are doing something called "fee harvesting". Basically what has happened is that people who have damaged credit are getting these offers for credit cards that are offering a low credit limit, usually just a few hundred dollars. But the catch is the credit card companies then charge you numerous fees, and those fees pretty much eat up your credit limit that they have given you, rendering the credit card useless. So you want to be aware of credit card offers that you are now receiving especially if you have had problems getting approved in the past.