Is there truly a way to get out of credit card debt? Without going without? How to pay no interest on your credit card!

Many families, including mine, have spent years in credit card debt.  

So much temptation out there, so many "things" that become needs really quickly.  Needs we cannot afford.  God knows I have struggled to bring up my family in a way where they didn't go without.  We all seem to have this belief that we need to provide a world for our children that is better than what we had.  Why?  My childhood was perfect, I don't think I went without, but if you ask my mum, she would tell you we always needed more, and things could have been better.  As mothers it seems to be embedded in us, we need to supply everything our children could possibly want.  

This, almost always, results in us getting credit cards, and/or store cards.  Then we proceed to pay the minimum payment each month, in fact, some months we struggle to do that and suffer the penalty rather than go without anything for fear of someone finding out!  We always believe that one day we will have enough money to pay the whole thing off and cut it up.  Truth is that will not happen.

There are so many emotions associated with the term "credit card" it is really interesting as a financial literacy tutor to see the absolute terror people show when I ask "have you got a credit card".  The apologies start flowing so fast as to "why" they have a credit card.  Truth is, I don't want to know why.  I just want to help them move forward from this point.  Once I get them to draw a line in the sand and they realise they do not need to explain why they have credit card debt, then, and only then, can I move them forward with the way out.  

The way forward is so simple and so cost effective it is ridiculous!  I will do my best to keep my explanation simple, although, it is quite complex.  

Firstly, unload from your brain all you know about credit cards!   Get rid of it, they are not the root of all evil, they can be a very useful tool.

I have used lots of generalisations in this and taken average monthly payments and average interest, it may be far higher or lower than this but basically this is the guts of it.

If you have, say, a $5000 limit and you are maxed out on your limit and you are paying around $130 each month as a minimum payment and probably about $120 in interest, this process will take you about 50 years to pay off the card!  The total you will pay for $5000 is just shy of $80,000.  Yay, NOT!!!!  

This has huge repercussions on, not only you and your family but also it means the local "money go round" that keeps small communities going is missing out on this money.  You are earning it from this community but it is going elsewhere, never to return.  The local economy seriously suffers.

How do we stop this awful thing from happening?  Believe it or not, it is very very simple to change. Within a couple of months without draining your savings and starving to death to pay it.  

Are you paying attention? 

Here goes.....

• Each payday, put all your wages EXCEPT for what you need for mortgage/rent, other debt payments, payments to individuals, or any cash withdrawals. 
• Everything you need to pay to "merchants" from this day forward will be paid by the credit card, cancel all direct debits and automatic payments that go to merchants and pay them with your credit card instead.  Do not pay them by a bank transfer from your credit card but ring or go on their website and load your credit card.  This will take a tiny bit of your time, it will seem an eternity but it will only take a few hours to do
• Don't worry about convenience fees or the like, what you will save will absolutely counteract any of these.
• Use it for everything, power, rates, bottle of milk, takeaways, petrol, internet, sky tv, netflix, the pub, everywhere that takes credit card. 
• What will happen is that the amount you owe (on the due date) will reduce each time you put money in, but the money you spend will not be due until the next cycle so won't be charged interest. 
• The total balance will not reduce much, however, that is not the point, the point is to have less "dead money" paying interest, believe it or not.
• The amount of interest will reduce to nothing over the first few months of doing this.
• The amount due on the due date will reduce to nothing
• The minimum payment will disappear the moment you put your first payment in
• Because you are using a credit card, most people are a bit nervous of using, as a result you budget better and spend less!

This is an absolute truth!  

You lose nothing by trying it.  

You basically funnel your spending through your credit card.  

I tell you what else will happen: you will begin earning points, not to be sneezed at, no matter what type of points system, it is money for nothing.  

You are actually making money from the credit card and they are not making money from you. 

Congratulations!!!  You have won!!