Persistent Debt: What Is It And How You Can Pay It Back

Are you spending more on the interest and charges than the balance for more than 18 months? Then it's time that you must work on raising the payments. Making minimum payments on your credit card can prompt the credit card company to ask you to increase it.

The company might send you letters suggesting you to increase the amount of monthly payments on your credit card. Initially, this rule is only applied to credit cards, but now even store cards and catalog account fall under this guideline.

A Brief Insight into Persistent Debt

So you have received a letter from the credit card company that has the word ‘debt’ mentioned in it. You might be a bit surprised or confused. But, persistent debt isn’t actually a debt. If you pay more in interest and charges than the actual balance amount then it is called persistent debt.

So you have received a letter from the credit card company that has the word ‘debt’ mentioned in it. You might be a bit surprised or confused. But, persistent debt isn’t actually a debt. If you pay more in interest and charges than the actual balance amount then it is called persistent debt.

Your persistent debt is calculated on the basis of your credit card activity for about 18 months. Although persistent debt isn’t that dangerous it can make your finances difficult to manage in the future.

The minimum payments that you make are actually the interest and the charges of the credit card. You can then potentially lessen your credit card balance faster by making greater payments every month. Consequently, you can take your card out of persistent debt.

When Does the Credit Card Provider Inform You About it?

According to the rules, every credit card company has to inform you when they feel your card is under persistent debt. Moreover, your card company also needs to get certain information from you about the debt.

• They need to know if you can repay back more of the loan every month.

• Your credit card company wants you to learn about all the methods that you can use to repay the loan amount. This is crucial as you can get to know the various options that are open for you.

• They also want to warn you of the various consequences that you can face if you still keep making low repayments.

• Your card company is simply following rules and wants you to avoid any debt-related issue.

What Happens When You Don’t Increase the Payments?

If you keep making minimum payments on your card it won’t immediately affect your credit card account or its performance. The company will now constantly contact you urging you to increase the payments. In case you fail to do it they would take certain actions. They might either reduce the interest rate or can even go to the extent of suspending your account.

However, some card companies increase the minimum payment to take customers out of persistent debt. Credit card providers update the terms and conditions of the minimum payments. In case your card provider does it, you’ll get to know.

After 18 months

So you have spent more on interest than on the actual balance of the card for 18 months. Now, your credit company will contact you informing that you are in persistent debt. Also, they will suggest you some methods. So, if you follow them you can successfully get your card out of this debt within the next 18 months.

After 27 months

If you still act on making the minimum payment your card provider will contact you again. They will then suggest ways to get rid of the persistent debt on your credit card.

After 36 months

After the completion of 36 months, if your card is still not out of persistent debt, they’ll give you two options:

• They will offer you an affordable payment plan which would help you remove the debt faster.

• They can provide you a credit product like a loan to let you clear the entire debt.

In case you fail to repay the debt within a few years, they will suspend your credit card.

In case you fail to repay the debt within a few years, they will suspend your credit card.

Here’s How You Can Repay Persistent Debt

To successfully pay off the persistent debt you must first take a look at your budget. Then, go through all of your expenses and try to figure out where you can save some money. Once you finalize on the monthly savings you can follow any one of the methods to pay back the debt-money:

Pay a Fixed Amount Every Month

To repay the debt you need to first decide on an amount that is slightly above the minimum payment. Now, you must keep paying this amount every month until the loan is repaid.

Pay the Minimum Amount Along With a Fixed Amount Each Month

This is another method to repay the persistent loan amount. All you have to do is to pay an additional fixed amount each month apart from the minimum amount. Paying an extra amount each month can make a huge difference in the long run.

Go for a One-off Additional Payment When Possible

Whenever you can afford some extra money you can make an additional payment to the card company. However, you will have to keep paying the minimum amount every month as per the contract.

To sum up, persistent debt doesn’t do much damage to your financial life. But it can potentially affect your credit ratings in the future. This can lead to more serious problems later on. Hence, you must always make sure to repay your persistent debt within the permissible time.