Ways to avoid getting in the red again.

The trouble with amounting credit card debt, is that one day or month you may find that you're able to pay off all your credit card bills and leave you balance at a nice healthy big fat nothing to pay off. However, all too often people will fall into the trap of thinking that it was easier than they'd expected to pay off their credit card debts, and will therefore be tempted to start using the plastic again. After all, if you've done it once and got out of the red, then surely a little bit of debt back on the cards is alright. In no time at all you'll be able to pay it off again. Here's way the dangerous thinking lies, just because you did it once doesn't mean that you can do it again ad infinitum. It simply doesn't work like this.

A much more sensible approach to take after getting yourself out of credit card debt hell, is not put yourself in the position again. This means doing whatever it takes, to not rely on that bit of plastic. Quite frankly more people should follow the rule, that if they can't afford it then don't buy it. Often it's the purchases that we can't afford, that we don't really need that land us in the most trouble. Buying stuff that we can't afford and don't need, just makes more money for the credit card company and puts more stress on you to come up with the payments. So do yourself a favour, if you manage to get out of red, stay in the black for a while and see how that feels.