Do You Need Money To Pay Off Credit Card Debt? Ideas To Find Money To Pay Down Debt

August 1st, 2010 | Posted in Credit Card Debt

One of the primary obstacles that a lot of people confront when trying to pay back personal debt is acquiring money to pay off debt. To be able to pay down your credit balances, you must pay more than the minimum payment, yet this is hard to do when you’re having difficulty just making ends meet every month.

Where on earth do you get money to apply to your credit card debts each month? Here are a few ideas:

Tax return: Do you normally receive a sizeable tax refund each year? If you do, perhaps you can use part or all of your tax refund to pay down your debts. On top of that, you should change your tax withholding so that a lesser amount of taxes are being withheld from each paycheck; you will get a smaller income tax refund, but you will have more money to pay towards your credit card debt payments every month. The thing you don’t want to do is give Uncle Sam free money when you need money to pay off debt!

Borrow from friends and relations: Most people dread asking family and friends for money, but when you are in too deep and you have loved ones with the financial means to provide assistance, this really is an alternative you mustn’t overlook. If it helps assure your family that the debt will be paid back, you could draft a written agreement to make sure that each person is aware of what to expect, and there’s no possibility for arguments or difficult feelings later on.

Part-time and / or temporary employment: When you are genuinely in a debt emergency, you should consider finding a part-time, seasonal or temporary job. It doesn’t have to be forever, just long enough to repay or at least make a dent in your debt situation.

Sell items: One other option would be to sell items to raise money. Hold a garage sale or auction off items you no longer use on Craigslist or eBay. Sell books that you no longer read on Amazon or Half.com. You’ll be shocked by the amount certain things can sell for on an online auction!

Decrease spending: Although mentioned last, this is really the first step you should really take to uncover extra cash to repay debts. Make sure you review your expenses to see if there are any areas that you can scale back on to create additional money to be used towards your debt. Some frequent areas that might be reduced, at least for the short term, to help pay down debt include food (both groceries and going out to restaurants), entertainment (health club memberships, newspaper subscriptions, cable, internet, trips to the book store) and personal care (haircuts, clothes, house cleaning services, etc.).

These are only a few ideas on how you can get money to pay off debt. There are hundreds of other ways you can find money to use towards your debt if you are motivated to find them.