American Debt Girl - Credit Counseling

Credit Counseling

Living in a Material World

The pressure is all around us. Whether it's going out with your friends once again to your favorite restaurant, or finding that shirt that you've been looking for at your favorite overpriced store or flipping through both the Victoria's Secret or Pottery Barn catalogue, let's face it, the temptation is there to spend spend spend. And after satisfying our retail therapy, we can only find ourself cluttered with items we don't need and hundreds of dollar in debt. It's the material world that we live in. You see your neighbor with a brand new Lincoln Navigator in his front driveway and crave for one in the same color. Or you buy yourself a knife set at Williams and Sonoma anyway, even when you know you can find the same set of knives much cheaper anywhere else. Still can't help yourself? Well, it looks like you're in some need of consumer credit counseling, my good friend.

The story behind the counseling

If you find yourself with a spending problem that you just can't get over, fear not, as you're not alone. Millions of Americans are right there behind you and are in need of credit and debt counseling just the same. We are a credit card culture that are obsessed with consuming, yet can't find the right light when it comes to paying it off. Well, the good people behind credit counseling know where you are coming from and do their best to help you find your way to financial freedom once again.

Here are some useful tips complied by the credit counseling to help you get rid of your credit card debt:

Pay off more than just the minimum balance! If you stick to paying the minimum balance with every statement, then it can take forever to pay off your credit card debt. And plus, according to experts from credit counseling, you can end up paying more money in interest than the actual purchases that you made.
A good pointer from the credit counseling experts is: if you don't otherwise have the cash to pay for it, then don't charge it. There will always be a day and time later where you can buy all the luxury items you can afford, but if you simply can't afford to pay for it with cash now, then leave it until a time when you can.
If you plan on going out to eat for dinner, the good people at credit counseling say to keep your credit card at home and bring cash instead. You'll end up paying 25% less when you pay for cash rather than with your credit card.
Use your credit card as an investment. If times are rough, the experts at credit counseling suggest to use your credit card wisely for gas and grocery purposes only (as those are two essentials). When things pick up again, you'll be able to pay off your bills without additional headaches.

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