I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert you don't mean a dictionary to understand.

It's time for some money rehab. credit card debt can feel crushing and inescapable. I know this all too well I struggled

with it myself. There are lots of great plans out there though for paying down debt. My go-to recommendation is that you identify the debt with the highest interest rate and pay that one off first. But today I want to dig a little deeper and talk about some lesser

known tricks, things that go beyond making a budget to really tackle credit card

debt. Number one, debt can quickly snowball out of control with high interest rates,

but you can give yourself a quick break with a balance transfer.

Some credit cards will offer you a 0% interest rate for the first year.

If you can get one of those credit cards,

you can take your existing debt

and transfer it over to the new card.

Now, sadly, this is not free.

There's usually a fee between 3 and 5%.

And the sky's not the limit here.

Depending on the size of your debt,

you may not be able to put it all on one card.

But even just putting a significant chunk in at 0% or a very low interest rate for a year

will give you a chance to have a little wiggle room to get out from under that debt. Now the 0% rate is only for the first year which means you have to pay this debt off quickly.

But it also makes a big difference. So let's say you have $10,000 in credit card debt at a 20% APR and you make regular payments of

$926, you will still end up paying $1,116 in interest in a single year.

Yep, that's right.

You will pay more in interest overall

than you pay a month.

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