7 steps to quickly eliminate your holiday debt

Christmas may now be past, but holiday credit card bills can haunt you well into the new year.

Maybe you spent more than you planned on a last-minute gift or sprang for dinner for unexpected holiday guests. Decembers tend to bust the best of budgets.

Let’s say you charged $500 in gifts and food over the holidays on a credit card with an 18 percent interest rate and a minimum monthly payment of $20. If you pay only the minimum due each month, it will take you 32 months — and cost you $131 in interest — to be rid of your holiday debt.

You can plug your own numbers into an online credit card repayment calculator. Then try these post-holiday hacks to pay down debt and replenish savings:

How do you handle holiday debt? Share with us in comments or on our Facebook page.

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