Strategy to paying off credit cards

Now that I have finally graduated from nursing school, it’s time to get serious about paying off my credit cards.  I accumulated a serious amount of debt in nursing school and I want everything but the loans off my shoulders. Thankfully, having a great job to start will allow me to start this quickly and I am hoping by the end of this year, it should all be paid!

Here is advice from the book “The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke,” by Suze Orman about paying down those balances.

1. List cards in order from highest interest rate to lowest – not highest balance, but highest rate.

2. Next to each card’s rate, write down the minimum that the card company is asking you to send in.

3. On the credit card with the highest interest rate, you are to pay as much over the minimum as you can afford. I want it to be at least $50 extra. So if the minimum payment on that card is $50, pay $100.

4. On all the other cards, pay only the monthly mimimum due. And pay it on time.

5. Keep paying the extra amount on the highest-rate card until the balance is gone.

6. When the first card is paid off, take all the money that you were paying on the first card (which is now paid off) and apply it to the card with the next highest interest rate. So for instance, if you were paying $100 a month on the highest card and $45 a month as the minimum payment, pay $145 on the new card.

7. Keep going!