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Paying off debt is the most popular financial resolution going into 2025, according to Motley Fool Money’s recent survey. It’s a valuable goal that can drastically improve your financial well-being, but it can also be challenging. This is especially true if you have high-interest credit card debt that’s constantly growing.
The right strategy can make things a little easier. Here’s one trick you can use to help make your 2025 resolution one you’ll stick to all year long.
Paying only the minimum on your credit cards is key to avoiding debt collectors and tanking your credit score, but it’s one of the worst things you can do if you hope to get out of debt quickly.
If you had the average American’s $6,380 credit card debt and your card had a 23% interest rate and required a minimum payment that’s 2% of your balance, you’d pay $128 per month. It would take you 164 months — 13 years and eight months — to get rid of that debt completely and you’d pay $14,578 in interest. That assumes you don’t charge anything more to that card during that time.
If you want to get rid of that debt as quickly as possible, you need to pay more than the minimum. It would be great if you had thousands of extra dollars to spare, but most people don’t. However, you can make a serious dent in your debt repayment timeline with much smaller payment increases.
Returning to our previous example, say you pay $138 per month instead of the card’s $128 minimum payment. Now you’ve dropped your repayment time to 115 months — nine years and seven months — and you’d save yourself $5,167 in credit card interest.
Now again, this assumes you don’t charge anything else to the card during that time, which probably isn’t realistic for most people. But it demonstrates how even paying a little bit more each month can save you money and get you out of debt a lot faster.
Paying more than the minimum payment is one way to get out of credit card debt, but it’s not the only way. Here are some other options to consider.
This works when you have credit card debt on multiple cards. It involves paying the minimum payment on each card to avoid late fees and then putting any extra cash you have toward the card with the highest interest rate first until it’s paid off, then moving onto the card with the next-highest interest rate, and so on. It’s supposed to help you pay less in interest compared to spreading your money among all your cards evenly.
A balance transfer credit card gives you a 0% introductory APR, often for 12 to 21 months. You will pay a one-time fee to do the balance transfer, but then your balance won’t grow for a while. This makes your payments more impactful because they’re all going toward reducing your principal rather than paying the card’s interest.
Each balance transfer card varies in terms of the fees they charge and how long the 0% APR period lasts. Check out some of the top balance transfer credit card offers today to see which is right for you.
A personal loan is worth considering if you want a predictable monthly payment. These loans don’t require any collateral, but because of this, interest rates are higher than on many other types of loans. But you won’t have to worry about your balance growing as long as you make your payments on time.
It’s best to compare offers from several top personal loan lenders before deciding which to work with. It can take time to do this, so start submitting applications soon if you want to put this plan into action right away in 2025.
Depending on how much you owe and how much extra cash you have, it may not be possible to get out of debt completely next year and that’s OK. Remind yourself why you’re doing it and how much you’re saving in interest by taking the above steps to keep yourself motivated to keep going.
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