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Most people don’t get into serious credit card debt overnight. Instead, things go wrong little by little until they realize they’ve got a serious problem.
The first credit card mistake is not paying attention to your cards and balances. Your debt can turn into something serious and not so small.
If you’ve ended up in credit card debt, it can seem overwhelming. Even though it can be painful, be sure to find all your debt and track it.
The good news is that credit card debt is almost always manageable if you have a plan and take disciplined steps to reduce it.
Credit Card Traps To Avoid
Seventy-five percent of Americans claim they don’t make major purchases on their credit card unless they can pay it off immediately. Yet from looking at actual spending behaviors, over 70 percent of Americans carry a balance, and fewer than half are willing to reveal their credit card debt to a friend.
Those numbers are an indication that American consumers are ashamed of their debt levels, says Greg McBride, senior vice president, chief financial analyst at Bankrate. He told me, “They are more willing to give their name, age, and even details of their sex lives than provide the amount of their credit card debt.”
Really? Their sex lives? If this is you, let me know. I have a few single friends who’d like to meet you.
This shame means that those in debt often don’t educate themselves on how to stop the madness. A lot of people end up using credit card scripts to normalize their debt in every day life. Instead, they fall victim to the credit card traps including nefarious company practices, which prey on the uninformed—and the undisciplined. These companies have become very good at extracting more money from us, and we’ ve become very bad at knowing enough to say no.
Should I Pay My Credit Card Off In Full?
For instance, the number one mistake people make with their credit cards is carrying a balance, or not paying it off…
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