Will 2024 Be the Year You Pay Off Your Credit Card Debt for Good?

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Paying off your credit card debt forever is a great goal for the new year. Here’s what you’d need to do to make that a reality. 

If you’re in credit card debt, you’re most likely well aware of how stressful it is to have that monthly payment to make each month. You also probably already know that credit cards charge very high interest rates (averaging 21.19% as of August 2023) so you know all too well that your card is costing you a fortune.

With that in mind, you may be really eager to pay off your outstanding credit card balance once and for all and never go into debt again. If that’s a goal you’ve set for yourself and you’re hoping to make it happen in 2024, ask yourself these four questions to see if you’re likely going to succeed in this goal or if you need to make some changes in order to make it happen.

1. Do I have a payoff plan?

Your credit card debt is not going to pay off itself, and it’s going to take many, many years to pay off if you only pay the minimums. If you want to become free of it in 2024, you need to make a plan to do so.

To figure out how to get rid of your credit card debt for good, use an online calculator to estimate how big your monthly payments would need to be in order to hit a $0 balance by the end of 2024. If you have a $2,500 balance and a 21.19% interest rate and your goal is to be debt free in 12 months, for example, you’d need to pay $233.00 a month.

2. Am I willing to put in the extra work?

Depending on how big your payments must be in order to become debt free by 2024, you may have to go the extra mile to ensure that you can send your creditors enough money each month to wipe out your balance.

For example, if you need to pay $233 a month, but you only have enough money right now to pay an extra $150 a month, you’ll have to find that extra $83. You could slash your budget and make some sacrifices — like not eating out or buying new clothes next year — in order to find the extra $83 a month. Or you could take on a side gig to make the money to cover the added payments.

While it most likely will require sacrifice and some extra effort, it’s worth trying to find a way to make the minimum payments necessary to say goodbye to your credit card debt forever.

3. Have I automated my payoff process?

It’s easy to set goals like becoming debt free, but it’s harder to stick to them. That’s why you should try to make it automatic. If you know you need to pay an extra $233 a month to get rid of your debt by the end of the year, set it up so that payment is automatically withdrawn from your checking account and sent to your creditor each month.

You do need to be sure that you won’t overdraft your bank account, though — which is where your plan for cutting costs or earning more comes in.

4. Do I have a plan to stay out of debt?

Finally, if you want to make sure you pay off your cards for good, you need a plan to avoid charging up your cards again in the future. This usually means making a budget to live within your means and saving up cash in an emergency fund to cover three to six months of living costs so you are prepared for surprise expenses.

If you can answer these four questions and take the associated steps, you may be able to get out of debt and stay out of it — and can keep all that extra money you were wasting on credit card interest charges and put it towards something that betters your life instead.

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