by Dallas Brown

Created on: April 14, 2011   Last Updated: May 22, 2011

Credit cards are too easy to get, too easy to fall into debt with, and too hard to pay off. Sure, if you have enough income, you may pay regularly more than the minimum each month.  But what if you find out that a couple of these cards have payments that you now cannot keep up with, due to a loss of income or a job that was helping you do just fine.

When you have such a hardship, these credit card companies need to be told to lower the interest rate, not raise it. If one can’t make a payment, why would you want to add to the problem at 25-30% per year? Then, they should be required to give up one monthly payment per year with no penalties or interest charged at that time. It would be nice to see if government could curtail the open-ended road to debt for us, even if they can’t do it for themselves.

These two rules alone could change the industry. Given the chance to pay once they’ve caught yet another bill a family can now direct those payments they were making into the regular payment of something else. Then add $240.00. At $240.00 per month, added in with another payment, your next card will be paid off fairly quickly. If you then have $280 per month to dedicate to the next card, you will probably be paid off there in six months. When you get to the last card, just destroy it. Give it all the money you can to put it away as soon as possible.

Once you have paid off all your revolving credit accounts, look to your own self discipline. Can you hold a lot of cash in your wallet for periods longer than three days? Can you go by McDonald’s, without even a thought of stopping in? Can you walk all the way across the mall and spend no money at all? If you can do these things, you need to deal with cash alone, and put your checkbooks away. It may be convenient to have a checking account, but sometimes, even this account is a little too convenient for many who are used to  using credit.

Keep in mind that a credit card offers you only one opportunity: the ability to pay 18% more for your items than you should. The 18% represents the interest rate. But most credit cards have lower rates for some people. Find them and ask about discounts!

If you are still one of the people in “collection mode,” do all you can to pay off some of your cards, while calling on the others and asking them to either suspend the account or at least settle for an amount now that they may never see in future days.

Then, stay off credit completely, so that they will not enslave you again.

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