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If you have ended up in a situation where you have multiple credit cards and debts spread across them, there may be a few things that you can do to ease the problem.

This article hoped to give you a few pointers and advice to help you make the best of your situation.

If you were like me then you may not have maxed out all of your credit cards. And as long as you have realized that debt is a problem you have hopefully stopped spending on them and are concentrating on keeping up with the monthly payments.

You need to try and reduce the amount of credit cards you have to make the payments easier to track and more manageable and obviously it is a good idea to find the cards with the cheapest offers.

So first thing to do is call each credit card company. Find out if they have any special interest offers in action or any coming up. Some may offer 0% for a period when you transfer over from another card. Others may be offering a low interest for the life of a transferred balance.

The important thing is to get all the information written down. A spreadsheet style such as that available for free in Google Documents or Microsoft Excel is an excellent way to analyse the data. It is also a good call to write the balance and credit limit for each of these cards down next to the offers so that you can work out where to transfer your money for the best long term deal.

Once you have this data you can start working out where your money should go. Most companies offer a balance transfer fee so always take this into account when looking at the figures.

Here is an example of what you may end up with.

This example is pretty simplistic but you can see how easy it could be to take advantage of available offers to simplify your payments and actually save money on interest in the long run.

What if you have maxed out all of your cards?

I’m not suggesting you go and get more cards but it may be worth your while in the short term, opening some new cards and transferring balances from your maxed cards. If you have kept up with payments up until now you are more likely to be accepted for a new card.

Look for new cards that have the same or better terms than your current cards. Pay particular attention to balance transfer fees, yearly fees and any offers they have. Don’t jump for any interest fee card. If you are in debt it is likely that you will be for a very long time, so it is worthwhile picking a long term offer at a low rate rather than a 0% offer that does not last long and then jumps to a high interest. You may not be in a position to switch the balance again when the term is up.

Alway make sure that you close the old accounts, this normally needs to be done in writing.

Playing with your cards and dealing with the stress

If you are in debt it is likely that you are prone to stress and outbursts at times, most of us have been there. I always advise to stay positive and be careful not to rush any decisions. Sit down by yourself with a cup of tea or coffee and work this out. Don’t let distractions get in your way and make sure you look over the figures until you are satisfied that you have the best solution. Then write down each step that you have to take. Follow this list and mark off each call and trasnfer until you are completed.

Once this is done, you will feel like a weight has been lifted and you will be one step closer to achieving a debt free you. Even if you still need to contact professional help, at least you will be in a more organized situation.

Finance