Like many of us, I have a few credit cards with high limits whose interest rates have suddenly skyrocketed. This makes it now almost impossible to pay the usual minimums, and of course, it drastically lowers my overall credit profile. The higher interest rates and resulting higher minimum payment amounts are affecting almost everyone who is still trying to keep their credit scores at a decent level.
So, when this happened to me, what did I do? I decided that if I was going to make the new high minimum payment, I would have to make a compromise among my other bills. Here's what I did: (1) I identified my other bills which I was permitted to use a credit card to make the payments (some bills, like utility bills, for example, don't permit payment using a credit card, while others, like cell phone bills do allow payment from a credit card). (2) Add up the total amount to be paid to the other bills + the previous minimum normally paid to the credit card, (3) pay that total amount to the credit card and then (4) use the credit card to pay the other bills.
These simple steps seems obvious to some people, but believe me, it isn't so obvious to everyone else. Use this trick to knock out a few bills and to relieve yourself of the stress your new credit card minimum has brought you.
Please share any bill payment trick you've got. We need all the help we can get.
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