How to Freeze Cards with Credit Cryogenics

Stormy financial forecasts call for creative contingency plans. Taking precaution requires much-more extreme measures than stashing your hard-earned cash under the mattress. Consider this time around credit cryogenics, the act of freezing one's debt-liest credit card(s) in your friendly Frigidaire.

Instructions

1




Face Your Credit-Card Debt Demons. Spread out on a clear workspace your most recent credit-card statements. Note and highlight the balances and annual percentage rate (APR) of each.

2




Consolidate Credit Cards. Single out the card statement(s) with the highest APR and/or heaviest debt load. Debtors who aim to pay off the highest balances first - unless they can double their minimum monthly credit-card payments - often find themselves even deeper in the hole. Set aside one or two low- or zero-APR credit cards and shred the highest APR cards.

3




Throw a Private Tupperware Party. Transfer the total balance from all credit card debt to the remaining cards. Then, transfer those credit cards from your wallet into a freezer-friendly storage container.

4




Just Add Coffee. No frozen block of plain H20 is going to shield the seductive flash of your MasterCard hologram. You'll have that Tupperware in your paws in no time - along with your credit-card number. Fill the container with black coffee and save yourself extra shame and debt.

5




Take That Card and Shove it... in the Freezer! But first, place it in a plastic grocery bag as an extra security measure. Push the parcel to the back of the freezer behind the two-year-old bag of frozen spinach or other long-forgotten food stuff.

6




Pay Debt Forward. Out-of-sight is not out-of-mind. Just because you can't see a coffee-popsicle of a credit card doesn't mean balance and interest rate have disappeared. Double the minimum monthly payment and set up automated bill-pay.

7




Balance with a Budget. Without our plastic friends, we are left with old-fashioned checking and hopefully savings accounts. A budget therefore is mission critical to debt resolution. Invest in financial software such as Quicken or create your own spreadsheets using Microsoft Office applications (Excel is a natural but Word also offers a variety of user-friendly budget-worksheet templates).

8




Get Help. If within a few weeks you find yourself gravitating like a moth toward your freezer, tempted to chisel through the iced coffee, it's time for an intervention. Ward off a financial crisis on the homefront by joining a support group, such as Debtors Anonymous, or researching other credit-card counseling solutions such as those listed in Resources.