How to Pay Off Several Credit Cards Without a Debt Consolidation Company

In our credit-happy economy, it is easy to run up balances on several credit cards at one time. Between minimum payments, late fees and interest payments, it seems impossible to ever get them all paid back, but you can do it using the debt snowball method popularized by personal finance pundit Dave Ramsey.

Instructions

1

Gather the most recent credit card statements for all your accounts. On each one, locate the minimum payment, interest rate and current balance. Write these down for each credit card account.

2

Find the contact information for each of the accounts. Contact them and ask if there is any way to reduce your interest rate or your minimum payment. You may not have any success, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

3

List the accounts, arranging them from the lowest balance to the highest balance and notate the minimum payment beside each debt. Select the account with the lowest balance to pay off first.

4

Add the minimum payments for each of the credit card accounts. Subtract the total of the minimum payments and your living expenses from your income. The amount left over after subtracting these expenses is the extra amount you can use to repay your credit card debt each month.

5

Send the first credit card company on the list the minimum monthly payment and the extra amount you determined you could afford to use to pay off your credit card debt. Send the minimum monthly payments to each of the other credit card accounts on the list. Continue in the manner each month until the first credit card debt is paid off.

6

Take a moment to celebrate and then cross it off your list. Move to the second credit card account on the list. Send this second credit card account all the money you had previously been sending to the first debt combined with the minimum monthly payment you had been sending all along. Pay the minimum monthly payment on the other debts. Continue in this manner until the second debt is repaid.

7

Repeat the process with each debt remaining on the list. Each time, combine all the money you had been sending monthly to the now-satisfied debt with the minimum monthly payment you had been paying. Continue to make the minimum monthly payments on the remaining debts. Each time a debt is paid off, the amount of money for debt repayment "snowballs" for the next debt on the list.