There isn’t one of us who wouldn’t like to lower his bills. A whole industry has been formed around balance transfer credit cards and similar credit vehicles which allow us to trade high interest debt for low or no interest credit, in the hopes that we will later use the cards to rack up more debt.
Fortunately, there are some ways that you can legitimately lower your bills, savings yourself a good deal of money and improving your monthly cash flow. Here are the 5 best ways to slash your bills:
- Refinance your house. This option is increasingly unpopular given the current state of the housing market, but if you have sufficient equity in your home, and relatively good credit, it’s still an excellent way to lower your monthly payments, creating more cash flow for other things.
- Take out balance transfer credit cards. Admittedly, this will backfire on you if you turn around and charge up a big debt on the new cards, too. But you can make use of introductory rates if you’re smart in the way you go about it. Make sure you know how long the zero or low interest rate is going to last, and pay the credit card off before then. Alternately, you could always roll the remaining balance over to yet another balance transfer credit card.
- Clip Coupons. Most people have no idea how much you can take off your bottom line on groceries by simply clipping out the coupons from the Sunday newspaper. The trick to saving money with coupons, though, is to only buy things you would have bought anyway. Otherwise, you can deceive yourself into thinking you are saving a bundle on your bottom line when, in reality, you are only adding groceries that you’ll never use to your pantry.
- Consolidate your debts. Many banks and credit relief agencies offer some form of debt consolidation. Take advantage of it, if you can. Generally speaking, it will lower your monthly bills considerably and allow you to get ahead.
- Switch to PLPD. As soon as your car is paid off, consider switching to PLPD insurance. In the vast majority of cases, if you put the difference between what you paid for full coverage compared to what you will pay for PLPD in a savings account, you will come out ahead. Of course, you are taking your chances, but this is a gamble that will pay off more often than not.
