You could take out an unsecured loan as a way of consolidating your debt. Personal loans can give you a consistent cheap debt, and as you must make the repayments each month, it helps provide structure to your repayments. Those with poorer credit scores might not always get decent rates, but it’s still often a cheaper option than paying back credit card debt each month, and overall a faster method of repayment.

If you have them, use savings: The interest paid on savings is usually far less than interest charged on borrowing, so paying off debts with savings makes eminent sense. Even if you think of your savings as an ‘emergency cash fund’ or money for the future, better to fall back on it in the short term and pay it back later, than paying interest to a credit card company so that money for some far flung eventuality is at your disposal.

It’s worth mentioning that for many people, credit cards provide sensible short term, flexible lending, that’s both cheap and convenient. You should always try and proceed cautiously, but credit card debt woes are not an inevitable consequence of taking them out. Tens of millions of Americans use credit cards cheaply and conveniently every year.

For those who feel they are in trouble, don’t feel stigmatized by your debt woes and don’t pretend they’re not there. Help is at hand should you seek it, and a solution is never far away.

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