The Globe and Mail had a good article earlier in the week with a few tips on reducing the holiday debt on your credit cards.

Laurie Campbell, executive director of Credit Canada said, “This is a good time to jump-start your financial situation [and] recommit to making some good financial decisions. Interest rates are likely going to increase in mid-2010, so you want to take advantage of this low-interest-rate environment today.”

Her tips to get that annoying credit card debt down were as follows:

1 Household bills: Be smart with these and look for ways to save money. A few examples she gave were switching to a no fee bank plan where you could save more than $300/year, and renegotiating with your cable, phone and internet providers to save up to $400/year. Some of these companies have “retention departments”, so if you tell them you’re leaving you’ll get passed to them and then you may be able to negotiate better deals.

2 Budget: Make a budget and try and stick to it. Money saving ideas include bringing your lunch to work, using public transit and use your savings to pay off those high-interest credit cards and get rid of the holiday debt.

3 Pay off the highest-interest credit cards first: some credit card have an interest up to 28.8% and most bank cards have interest of 19-20%. If you’re only making the minimum payment on your cards each month you are actually paying more than 3x the value of your purchases. Here’s a handy tool to help with this.

4 Get a line of credit or consolidation loan: These types of debts are offered at much lower interest rates then a credit card, with some banks offering lines of credit at prime or slightly above prime. So compare a loan at 2.25% versus credit card interest rates of 20%+! To help you focus on trying to pay off these cards, try cutting them all up, except one emergency card, and try not to use it for a few months as this will help train you to use other payment methods and break that credit card routine.

5 Stick with your debt elimination plan: And stay on it. Avoid thos impulse buys at the mall which can be at least 80% of all purchases, and only buy what you absolutely need.

If you think you are in more debt trouble then simply paying off your credit card debt than you can contact Credit Canada who can help with your situation. They are a leading Canadian charity that provides money management and credit management counselling and education services that help individuals and families prevent and respond to financial difficulties.

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