Credit card debt is one of the leading reasons that so many people find themselves in debt and unable to make their monthly payments. It is so easy to make a purchase using a credit card with plans to pay later. Many who do buy in this way have plans to repay the total amount used on the card at the end of the month but there always seems to be other expenses that crop up. As you continue to use your credit card, the outstanding balance creeps up and before you realize it, you have maxed out your available credit. This is true no matter how many credit cards you have.
When you have several credit cards, all of which are maxed to the limit, it becomes increasingly difficult to pay them off because of the interest charged on the balances each month. Even with making a high monthly payment, it is quite possible that you are only paying $10 or $15 dollars on the actual balance and the rest of the payment goes toward the interest.
There are ways of negotiating with banks and credit card companies to reduce your debt. This does not mean that they will lower the amount of money you owe. What it does refer to is that you can have the interest rate lowered on your card so that more of your payment does go towards paying down your debt. In order to start the negotiating process, you first need to examine the interest rate that you are paying on all your cards. Then look at the length of time you have had the card and have been using it. If it has been a number of years and you have been making your payments each month before the due date, you can contact the customer service and ask to have your rate reduced. In the majority of cases, the company will do this for you after taking a look at your payment records.
Another way of negotiating credit card debt reduction is to take out a consolidation loan. This loan pays off all your outstanding balances and combines all the debt into one loan with one payment. The interest rate is generally a lot lower than that of the credit cards, especially if you have a high credit rating. The monthly payment will be a lot less than the total of all the previous payments and you have a set term for the repayment. At least you do know that by making this payment each month you will be debt free in a set number of years.