How to stop credit card debt before it even happens

Debts can gift you sleepless nights make you irritable and tense. Being deep in credit card debt sucks. Whether you went on some Blackfriday spending spree with your Visa card, or had to pay your bills with your MasterCard to make ends meet, ending up with an unheard of amount of credit card debt and in need of credit repair services is no fun.Thankfully, there are some warning signs that can help keep you to make you aware that you are falling into a credit tar pit. Here are a few of the most common signs of approaching credit card debt I have come across:

You’re using your card to pay for necessities
If you need a credit card to pay for rent it probably means that you are living beyond your means and when your paycheck finally arrives you won’t be able to pay the credit card bill. Credit cards should be view as a sort of short term loan, the proper way to use them is by buying big ticket items that you can not pay in full immediately but you can pay in installments, if you’re paying for all of your basic day-to-day items like food and gas with a credit card it’s probably safe to say you’re headed for financial trouble.

You don’t even bother to open the monthly statements
The law now states that credit card companies have to tell you in the monthly statement how long it will take you to clear your debt if you only pay the minimum and how much you would need to pay in order to get cleared in three years. This information is very useful and it will give you a reality check before thing get out of control. Also reading your monthly statements is the best way to stop identity theft. Instead of pretending that the monthly credit card statements don’t exits of will take care for themselves take a look at them, it will be worth it.

You don’t have an saving account for a rainy day.
If you don’t have any funds saved to take care of any unexpected bills such as a car repair or an unexpected medical bill, you may find yourself in a position where you will need to charge your credit card to cover for the cost. Such a large bill could throw you in to a huge debt that will take you quite some time to repay. At any moment mayhem may cross your path, be ready.

Your credit cards are all maxed out
If you’ve already reached your card’s limit, then this article came to you a little late, you are already in debt. If this is the case, there are a few things to consider; on the bright side you won’t be making any more charges, on the dark side being maxed out drops your credit score considerably. Start paying as much as you can to cover the debt in the least amount of time possible, the sooner you pay the less interest you pay.

If your goal is to build a good credit score then you need to better than a half-hearted effort. Many people are on top of their spending and bills when they know thing are going great but try to ignore the problem when thing are not so tremendous. Make your first goal to build your financial freedom and stay on top of it.

Author: Kay is a financial writer,she writes the website creditkay.com about achieving a good credit score range