It can be a punch in the gut each paycheck when you deposit a significant amount of money into your account, only to find that you immediately have to withdraw it to pay off your debts.
It can easily start to feel like all of your hard earned cash is trapped in a cycle of going straight from your bank back to the bank.
If you feel like you’re swallowed by debt and can’t figure out how to get out of it, here are some of the most likely reasons you can’t make any progress paying it off.
You Are Only Paying The Minimum Due
Each time that you take out a loan or charge something on your credit card, you’re expected to pay it back. You are given the option to pay the total amount due or the minimum amount due in increments.
Although it may seem appealing to pay the minimum due and keep the rest for your lifestyle, it’s in your best interest to pay more than the minimum due each time. This way you can ensure that you aren’t letting interest pile up higher and higher.
Try to pay the most amount that you can for your budget. This way you won’t have to worry about feeling guilty about not making the best choices.
You Keep Accumulating More Debt
Many people make payments on their debt each month, only to continue charging their cards and taking out more loans and credit.
When you do this you are essentially canceling out anything that you’ve paid off up to this point.
If you are completely committed to paying off your debts, then the first step is to stop accumulating more. Make a commitment to pay everything off before you build up more money that you owe.
You Aren’t Paying On Time
Paying your cards late will only result in late charges and derogatory marks on your account. The more derogatory marks on your credit score that you have, the more that your score goes down.
This means even if you pay, but it’s not on time, lenders will see you as an unfavorable client and refuse to lend to you in the future upon seeing your report.
Consider signing up for automatic payments which will ensure that you’re never late. Just make sure to have enough money in your account to pay for it, otherwise, you’ll get hit with an insufficient funds fee.
You Haven’t Developed a Plan
If you have a considerable amount of debt laying in front of you then you have to make a point of creating a plan for knocking it out of the way.
This means deciding how much you’ll pay each month and what kind of sacrifices you’ll commit to in order to ensure that it gets done.