Take Care of Leftovers Holiday Debt - Fast!
Now that the holidays are done and over with, it's time to take care of the leftover bills that all the fun and frivolity left behind. With the right techniques, and consistent effort, it's not half as hard as you may think.

The holidays feel as though they are long gone, and all that is left is fond memories and a stack of bills. If you are dreading checking your mailbox even more than you're dreading checking your weight after you've let your new year's resolution slack, then you are not alone.

After all of the feasting and celebrating, there is the financing for the party which must be faced. All of that indulging simply cannot come without a price.

Fortunately, as much as there may be a down side to holiday celebrations, there is an upside in the solution - four straight-forward steps:

- Open your bills as soon as they arrive. Though it is extremely tempting to try to ignore a bill when it first arrives, not paying a bill on time will never be worth it when you have to pay a late fee on your next bill, with added interest and a red mark on your credit report. Instead of waiting, open up your bills and face what's inside. Organize your bills in order of their due dates and pay them off as soon as you can. Even if you can only make the minimum payment on your credit card bills, then pay at least that much.

- Call your credit card company and ask for better interest rates. If any of your cards have interest rates higher than 12 percent, you can do better. Call customer service and ask for a reduction in your interest rate by a couple of percentage points. Remember not to let the customer service rep intimidate you. You are perfectly within your cardholder rights to ask for something. This is especially possible if you have a good credit history to back you up. Most credit card companies will be happy to do what they can to keep your business when you're a good customer by simply lowering your rate. But to get it, you need to ask, first.

- Pay off the card with the highest rate, first. Do yourself a favor and look at the different credit cards you have and what rate is charged. Then, focus on the card that has the highest interest rate - not the highest debt - and bring that one down first. Don't forget to pay at least the minimum on all of your cards. You'll pay them all off the most quickly if you work from the highest interest to the lowest.

- Cut up your store cards and close the accounts. The highest interest rates come from department store and chain store cards. Cut them up right away, even if you still have a balance on them. Then cancel them so that all you can do is pay them off - not add to them. Once your balance is down to zero, never open the accounts again. With these cards, any interest you pay vastly outweighs any benefits or discounts that they offer.

By following these very direct techniques for reducing your holiday debt, you'll be on the fast track to bringing that balance back up to zero.