Student Credit Card and Credit Education Blog

I usually restrict my writing to the Student Credit Forum (http://forum.studentplatinum.com) but since I felt this latest post was both timely and important I convinced Platinum Stud to give me some space. So here goes.

According to the National Retail Federation, it is expected that Americans will spend about $475 billion during the holiday period this year and that much of that will be bought with credit cards. It’s also expected that the difficulty paying off these holiday debts will very likely spur on a recession. With higher minimum payments now required and banks tightening up on loans and low interest balance transfer options people will be paying more money towards credit card payments than ever before. This means they will be spending much less on retail goods further increasing the odds of the economy spiraling.

If you’re one of the millions of consumers who will be carrying a holiday credit card balance or any credit card balances for that matter this is a very serious thing. You have a job to do and it has to start now or 2008 could be a very bad year for you. With this in mind here are 3 important tips I would like people to note.

1. Know your own financial details inside and out. Ignorance is the first thing that’s going to zap you. You should know exactly what your balances, interest rates (APR), minimum payments and due dates are.

2. Have a budget. If you don’t watch exactly where your money is going and the economy tightens up you will very quickly find yourself in a bind. We have provided a free interactive student budget for you here: http://www.studentplatinum.com/budget-template/index.php

3. Have a plan. I hear time and time again from people who are paying more than their minimum payments and still having trouble keeping up. We recommend as do most other experts that you select one card to pay off and pay all extra cash on that card while paying only the minimum payments on all the others. There are two different strategies for this called the “snowball” and “high interest first” strategies. We have a free plan for you which will describe in detail how to employ both to get you on the road to recovery and freedom from credit card debt. Read our free plan here: http://www.studentplatinum.com/credit-card-education/student-credit-card-debt-reduction-plan.php

- The Credit Card Guy