How I Paid Off My Credit Card Debt

I had four cards with balances under $500, one with a $3000 balance and the highest interest rate, and another card with around $1500 no interest until 9 months later. After setting up my budget (and taking all of my credit cards out of my wallet so I would not use them), I decided that I could pay an extra $350 a month towards the credit card bills (All the minimum payments had already been accounted for in my budget).

The first thing I did was plan out the payment of the NO interest credit card. I set the balance as being paid off a full month before the no interest period ended. For some reason it appealed to me not paying that company any interest even though I would have paid less interest in the long run had I paid this one last. So, to make it simple I put 1-9 into a spreadsheet column representing the months. Then I put $0 next to the 8 and then $350 next to the seven, $700 next to the six... etc until I hit $1500. On month 4 the total was $1400. Therefore, for months 1 and 2 I could put the $350 a month to any other debts and I had an additional $250 on month 3 because I had to pay $100 to the no interest card that month.

I was able to pay off three of the four smaller cards in those first few months before tackling the no interest card. I preferred this method not only because of the psychological benefits, but I also had three less bills to worry about paying. After the no interest card was paid off, the final small balance card was paid off the next month and I was down to one credit card payment. After that, I paid off the $3000 balance credit card.

To me the stress level decreased the fewer bills I had to worry about. That is the main reason I choose this method instead of paying off the highest interest rate cards first as many suggest. If I had it all to do over again, I would not have run up any credit card debt to begin with. Now, I only use my credit card to make online transaction for security purposes and I pay them off as soon as I receive whatever it was I ordered and approve of the product condition.