Paying Off A Sudden Accumulation of Credit Card Debt

Sometimes the unthinkable can happen and you can take a sudden financial hit. When the ordeal has passed and only the debt is left how do you start paying it off effectively?

Finding yourself in a situation where you have to make large payments on your credit cards is very common - especially these days. If you have good financial habits normally this can be a really stressful situation and make you feel like your finances are unstable. What are you to do?

Take A Breath

Financial ups and downs happen to everyone so take a breath and try to lower ease some of that stress. If you take a moment before you try and tackle the debt you will make smarter and fewer rash decisions.

Make A List of Debt

First take stock of what you owe on each card. A great exercise is to physically write the numbers down on a piece of paper so you can retain what you are dealing with. If you see that you have small balances on some cards and can tackle them easily get those out of the way first! If not rank which cards have the most debt and what their interest rates are. You are going to want to pay off the high interest cards first to avoid the accumulating fees.

Make Note of Your Income

After making a list of debt go through your income. What is your monthly take home income? Are you expecting any kind of additional income whether through sales, tax refunds or stimulus checks like the redid COVID relief check. If you are expecting anything additional to your normal income make sure you make a plan on what to do with it beforehand.

Take Sensible Action

Paying off an entire card in one bulk payment is great but not something most people can do without some kind of unusual financial windfall. The best way to tackle this debt is by chipping away at it and making small changes in your normal habits in the interim. You can change your spending habits slightly for a few months and use that to make additional payments to get rid of the debt. Or you can change your payment settings on your cards to pay more frequently like a bi-weekly payment plan to add some structure to your repayment strategy.

If you have done the homework and can make those small changes the sudden debt won’t be gone overnight but it will be gone soon without throwing your normal finances into a tailspin.

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