Take out your wallet or purse and remove all of your credit cards and lay them out in front of you. Now consider the 
amount of indebtedness that it represents. Overwhelming? Frustrating? It is that and more. But there is a method that you can use to help get a handle on managing your cards and accounts. Here are some steps that will help you.
Write them all down. Next in our process you need to list all of your accounts which your cards represent on a piece of paper, or on a spreadsheet. Write the name of the card company and your account number. Also, list the website address and customer support phone number in order to make it easier to contact them if necessary. Then, note the balance, interest rate and the due date for payments.
Begin to pay down the balances. Once you have picked a card to begin with, start to make as high of payments on it as possible. On the other cards, just pay the minimums to keep them going for now. You need to keep from incurring higher fees, however that will cause the balances to expand erratically.
Look for Balance Transfer Opportunities. Now that you have chosen a few cards that you can work on paying down as fast as possible, there is another tactic that you can use to help ward off the other cards and buy you some time. Look for good 0% interest balance transfer cards to which you can transfer money from the ones that have higher balances but that you have not yet begun to tackle with payments. Watch for transfer fees, however. Once you find a few, apply and get these going as soon as you can.
Close if necessary. Once you begin to pay off these cards, make a determination whether or not they serve you and your financial purposes. If not, then it might be time to close those accounts. Be careful with this, however, because you will get a small bump downward in your credit score if you do. Make sure you do not need to apply for any other credit at the same time. This will eliminate that as a concern. In addition, continuing to make strong payments on your accounts that you are trying to pay off will help bring your score back up.
Responsible usage. Stop using the cards and just focus on paying them off for now. In fact, if it is too much of a temptation, leave them out of your wallet and purse which you were instructed to do at the beginning of this process. Learn to use a debit card and cash to make purchases. Begin to change your mindset of what you can and should use your cards for from an activity standpoint.
View as part of the whole. This advice should be a small part of your overall plan to reduce your debt and live within your means. There is nothing wrong with having credit cards and the features and benefits afforded by the various offers. Just make sure that you are a responsible user. If not, take the steps now to become one. This is process that you will not regret performing.
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