One of the biggest mistake when paying off credit card debt is when one will only make a minimum payment. By just making minimum payments can make even the smallest balance over a decade to pay off thousand of dollars in charges and getting out of debt would be so hard.

You can get out of debt if you follow some basic steps and put a plan in your place. This will help you incur less interest and improve your credit score too.

1. First thing you have to do is to list every credit card you have and include on it the balance, interest rate, and minimum payment.

2. Organize your cards on the list so that the credit card with the highest interest rate is at the topmost and the lowest at the bottom. You have to prioritize the card that has the highest interest rate.

3. Sum up all the minimum payments.

4. Your total monthly minimum is your lowest monthly payment but you have to pay the minimum to be able to repay the debt fast. So try to look at your budget and see how much extra you get each month in addition to the minimum.

5. If your payments are due, pay the minimum on each card except for the one at the top of your list. Don't forget that the one with highest interest rate is costing you the most money so if you have additional money you budgeted use this to pay on that said card.

6. Do this process repeatedly until the first card is paid off and repeat this with the minimum payments on the other cards but this time take the amount you were paying on the first card in addition to the minimum payment and apply it to the second card on your list.

7. Do this until all the cards are full paid, then you are out of debt!

I think the absolute biggest mistake people make when trying to pay off their debt is that they don’t prioritize right. They think that they are doing exactly what they need to discharge that debt but in the long run they aren’t putting the debtors that can hurt their credit score the most as the first creditor they need to pay off and they end up with that creditor hurting their credit score the most while they are dumbfounded because they have worked so hard to get other creditors off their backs.

Medical creditors are ones who are actually more willing to work with you, but for a lot of people these are also the people who they owe the most money too so they try to get them paid off first, and other creditors end up getting left out of the payments and hurting people’s credit more.

If you want to get out of dept you have to have declining balances on all accounts, every month, no matter what!

I always follow up Suze Orman’s advice on The Oprah Magazine, and realized that the mistakes people actually make when trying to pay off their debts is to do the opposite of what they should be doing to clear off the debts.

When most people get into debts and want to pay it off, they forget that they have to address the factor that got them into the debt. It could be a bad spending habit, a bad use of the credit card or a financial risk the person took. It has to be noted and addressed , so that you would not repeat the same mistakes again.

Another mistake people make is to that While paying off debts they tend to continue with their bad spending habits and always end up in more debts.

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The biggest mistake that I made when paying of my student loan was I put all my extra cash into paying the loan. That meant that I didn't have enough cash to pay for other things that I needed. I would instead pay for my gas on my credit card because I just used all my cash to pay off the loan. This was a big mistake! My paid off credit card is now certainly not paid off. I will be spending the next couple months paying that off instead.

I would start with writing down everything that you spend. That way you can see where your money might be leaking out. You might think that a couple dollars here or there to pay for lunch at work isn't that expensive but over the course of a month those costs do add up. When writing down your monthly spending if you notice that you have high living expenses then you can evaluate what you can do to make those expenses cheaper. This for me meant that I went out to eat less and before I went to the grocery store I planned out my meals for the week. I only bought food that I needed instead of being tempted by the rows upon rows of yummy foods.

Pay off your highest interest card or loan first. My boyfriend tends to wait for credit cards to offer him really low promotional interest rates. He transfers his debt over to the low card and is then able to pay off more of the principal on the card. It saves him from paying a lot more money towards the cards interest.

While we try to follow our own advice we sometimes forget but we are well on our way to being completely out of debt within the year.

One of th biggest ones they make, and this might sound stupid but, they don't stop spending. Next pay off your highest interest debt first but if there is such a huge balance put extra towards smaller ones also. Getting these paid off gives a physcological boost to stay on track. Do not deplete all your savings to pay off debt. If something comes up it's nice to pay cash for it. Don't buy a new car get one a year or two old. It will run just as good and has already gone through that big drive off the lot depreciation. Car loans are behind credit card debt for ruining people's credit. Most of all stay focused, set goals and reach them and know where you are going.