how to pay off debt
the best way to stay out of debt trouble is to have a plan for paying it off that starts with not taking on too much debt in the first place for example consumers should pay attention to their credit utilization ratio also known as a debt to limit ratio that s the amount of debt they currently owe as a percentage of the total amount of credit they have available to them for example if someone has two credit cards with a combined credit limit of 10 000 and they currently owe 5 000 on those cards their credit utilization ratio is 50 lenders typically prefer that consumers keep their credit utilization ratios below 30 and credit scores penalize individuals for exceeding that level 4the fastest way to pay off debt is to devote a greater portion of your income to monthly debt payments ideally paying off credit card debts in full each month before any interest charges kick in if you need to prioritize experts generally recommend paying off your highest interest debts first and working your way down from there you can also consolidate several debts into one which may make sense if the new loan carries a lower interest rate similarly you may be able to transfer your credit card balances to another card with a lower interest rate or ideally a 0 interest rate for a period of time 