The first step is to make a list of all of your credit cards. With the list, provide details of your outstanding balance, interests rates on each card, and minimum payments required for each card as well. All these details will be available in your credit card monthly statement provided by your bank.

With the above details available, order your list in descending order, having the credit card with the highest interest rate at the top and that with the lowest interest rate at the bottom. With this order, you will then be able to sum up the total minimum payment required by all the cards.

Having summed the total minimum, you are able to estimate the absolute monthly payment. Having in mind that we need to clear the depth fast, you will need to pay more that the minimum amount. This will force you to review your budget thereby channeling all the extra income on monthly basis in to clearing the credit card debt. Whatever minimum amount you can get will help cut down the interest being accrued by your credit cards.

When due for payments, make minimum payments on all your cards except the one at the top. The extra income that you raise from your budget should be added to the minimum of this card and then make payment slightly above the minimum. This is due to the fact that this card attracts the highest interest and is costing you more money to maintain a balance.
This process is to be continued until you clear the first cards payment. Employ the same idea over and over until you settle all your credit card dept. Note that these steps will not make you debt free overnight but will help you get out of dept as soon as possible.

Also note that with this system, your monthly payment will remain constant regardless of your balance. Before you notice it, your monthly minimum will be falling but ignoring that and continued payment, your principle will add up thus accelerating your payment. This will simply ensure that you have proper payment records and provide you room for negotiating lower interest rates next time with your bank.

To prove this, here is what most companies have done in the resent past in relation to their credit card holding customers. The Alaskan airline intends to eliminate a 2000 free anniversary mile that it has been granting on annual basis to its card holders. American express has increased the fee customers in membership reward program pay. Discover has equally eliminated one of the three tiers in its cash back program. Further on, city has doubled the total number of points that one has to have in order to redeem a domestic roundtrip airline ticket.

These changes have been characterized by the fact that should the new law take effect, banks will have limited ability to set interest rates and fees based on individual borrowers’ risk. Further more, lending money will become an expensive exercise and the banks will be forced to withhold credit. New customers will be charged high rates while at the same time the annual fee will increase.
Credit card rewards programs have been aimed at enticing new customers and have been used by most companies as a form of expanding their market share. Back in the days, companies competed to provide attractive rewards and in return people opened up to the receiving end with a majority of people ending up with multiple cards just because of the reward.

With more card holders not being able to settle their bills, companies are reluctant to show off attractive rewards anyhow unless you are a credit worthy customer. Therefore to counter the poor payment pattern by most customers companies are imposing penalties on the reward offers they have. Here are some examples. For American express blue card customers who make late payment are entitled to loose the points they earned over that given month.

While other companies are cutting down on reward programs, some such as chase are still good at the game and are rewarding their customers diligently. With its programs such as ultimate rewards, customers earn a point per dollar spent without earning caps or expiration dated.

The era and age of credit card rewards is here to stay and with time, it will be picked back up and used as have been the case. However, the benefits offered will be on a sequential increase and decrease for all income classes. With the new law taking shape, the credit card reward program is likely to suffer especially for moderate and lower income earners. Finally you’re advised to always inspect terms and conditions as notices of change are never labeled clearly.