Having multiple credit cards can get kind of fussy. Here are some things that make having multiple credit cards (and making CC payments) difficult:
- Your cards are from different banks.
- Switching between your different finance apps and calculator app gets annoying.
- Sometimes, you can’t pay off your entire credit card balance. So you have to decide which payments are most important.
Not all credit cards are made equal. The name of the game is interest rates (APR). This is Public Enemy No. 1 and the thing that can keep you in credit card debt. Here’s the best strategy for eliminating that interest faster:
- Pay the balances with the highest interest rates first.
- Always consider the minimum required payments when you budget how much you will be paying.
But it doesn’t have to be so hard! I’ve created a free Google Sheets template for you to know exactly how you should pay off your balances. Click the button to get access:
This sheet can show you:
- The interest each credit card generates (Column E),
- The minimum interest you’d pay after making payments (Columns J-K), and
- The total balances before and after payments (C10 and H12), to give you a good overview.
Follow those steps in the picture above and you’ll see everything you need! Here’s the gist:
- Fill out the info for your CC accounts.
- Add your total budgeted amount for credit card payments.
- Allocated that budget for each credit card (the “Leftover” cell in C13 will check if you’ve used all your budget for CC payments or have any spare amount left).
In the example, I assumed a $100 minimum payment on all cards, and I prioritized high payments on cards with higher interest. This will give you the largest decrease in interest payments, a value calculated in cell K12.
I hope this helps you plan your way through eliminating credit card balances. Let me know what you use to make the process easier!
Stay thrifty,
