Sangetta wrote to me through the GetOutOfDebt.org site and asked the following question. If you have a credit or debt question you’d like to ask just use the online form. I’m happy to help you totally for free.

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“Dear Steve,

I’m trying to figure out how much I should put monthly toward each of my credit cards. I’m using this calculator from CNN.com. The problem is that I have a 0% interest on a few cards that expire in a few more months, and that calculator does not take that into account. Should I still pay the monthly payment they suggest?

Sangetta”

The Answer:

Dear Sangetta,

The answer is a balance. The amount needs to be as much as possible but not so much that you are having to go into savings or use the cards to get by each month.

You also need to make sure that the level of repayment you select is sustainable until the debt is repaid. It does not do much good to start repaying so much each month that you can’t keep it going, that’s when people give up and return to the addictive minimum payment amount.

A very good approach to paying down your debt is to use the debt snowball approach. It’s the method I think gets the greatest overall results.

When evaluating how to rank your 0% debts using a debt reduction calculator you should use what the interest rate will be once the balance transfer or introductory rate period expires.

Here is another online debt reduction calculator you can use to plan your way out of debt.

Steve