What To Do If You Have A Year Without Credit Card Interest
Trying to manage your finances can feel like playing a game of Tetris where the pieces keep falling faster than you can fit them into a good enough, if not ideal, location. It is not just your imagination. The amount you owe might be even bigger than it was when you first incurred the debt, even if you have paid at least the monthly minimum payment every month for several years. Some lenders depend on this; for example, Pro Publica recently published a report about two Title Max managers whose employer punished them when they told customers the truth about their loans, namely, that if the customers kept paying only the minimum payments, they would owe the same amount of principal when they died as they did the day they signed to take out the loan. Paying off your debt may feel like a pipe dream; all you want is to pause one of the debts so that it does not keep piling up so that you have to pay more and more each month just to avoid creditor harassment, defaulting on loans, and other awful consequences. A credit card balance transfer could give you temporary relief that would enable you to pay down some of your other debts during the interest-free period, but you need a detailed plan, or else credit card balance transfers can make your debt problems worse. To find out more about how credit card balance transfers can help your situation, or how they can make your debt problems even bigger, contact a Boca Raton debt lawyer.
Credit Card Balance Transfers Aren’t So Bad If You Have a Plan
According to Ted Rossman of the personal finance website Bankrate, the average interest rate for credit cards is about 20 percent. Even worse, 43 percent of credit card account holders do not know the interest rates for their cards. In other words, even if you do not know your credit card’s interest rate, you can be sure that a large portion of your monthly payment is going to interest instead of paying down the principal.
Credit card balance transfers offer an interest-free period, usually a year, if you transfer the balance to a new card. A balance transfer is a good option if you are making the minimum payment on your current credit card but your outstanding balance does not seem to budge. If you transfer the balance and make the monthly payments as you are making now, you will see your credit card balance shrink considerably. Credit card balance transfers are not a panacea for debt, but they can give you some relief from rapidly accumulating interest and free up funds to pay down other debts.
Work With a Debt Lawyer to Confront Your Credit Card Debt
A South Florida debt lawyer can help you strategize about how to avoid accumulating additional interest as you make payments on your credit cards and other debts. Contact Nowack & Olson, PLLC in Boca Raton, Florida to discuss your case.
Source:
wptv.com/money/credit-card-expert-advises-pay-down-debt-pay-attention-to-rates
