If you feel like you’re hopelessly trapped in an endless cycle of paying on your credit card debts without making any progress, you’re probably right. High-interest fees and small minimum payments are just a few of the tricks that creditors use to keep their debtors on the line.
If you’re tired of having bad credit and looking to escape the rat run of paying on credit card debt, here’s a few software tools that can help you out.
1. Debt Quencher
Debt Quencher is the most straightforward tool on this list. In fact, you’ll probably have a harder time finding the interest rate for all of your credit cards than using this tool to figure out the best debt repayment plan for your family.
Once you’ve input your balance, interest rates, and expected payment amounts, Debt Quencher will give you three plans for paying down your debt. You can adjust the individual planned payments and monthly balance to better align with what you plan to pay each month.
You can also play a game of What If with the numbers to determine your pay-off amounts by looking at the minimum payment, highest interest, lowest balance, or highest balance plans to decide which to follow for the fastest payoff time.
The app is available from the MacOS Store for $4.99 and has a free trial if you want to try before you buy. Unfortunately, there’s no Windows counterpart.
Zilch Standard
Zilch Standard works much like Debt Quencher, except it’s for Windows users. You’ll list all of your debts and their interest rates, alongside your starting balance to determine how long your monthly payoff will be for your debts.
One of the unique features of Zilch Standard is Pledge Money, which is money that you’re not assigning to your debt repayment plan but could be allocated there if you don’t need it by the end of the month.
Once you plug in all these details, Zilch Standard will give you a print out that shows your Debt Free Date and the total amount of interest you paid over your payoff time, as well as the number of monthly payments required. The print out will also show you how much time you saved by setting up your repayment plan in Zilch Standard instead of just making the minimum payments recommended by your creditors.
Debt Analyzer
Debt Analyzer is another tool that works similarly to Debt Quencher and Zilch Standard. It allows you to work with up to 50 debts at a time, so it’s ideal for someone who has lots of credit card debt spread around.
Much like Debt Quencher, it allows you to craft several what-if scenarios to see how extra payments and snowballing payments will affect your debt repayment plan. You can choose to use the minimum payments or set up your customized payments for a speedier repayment plan.
The software may even help you figure out if a loan consolidation plan can save you money over the long-term on big-ticket items like cars and houses. Debt reduction plans include the ability to prioritize debts according to interest rate, balance, payments left, and the term left on the loan.
The software is available for Windows only and has a 30-day free trial. If you like it and want to continue using it, you can buy it for $29.95.
Mint
Setting up a debt repayment plan with software is a great way to get a grip on your current financial situation, but how do you integrate that into your daily financial life? That’s where a tool like Mint comes in handy.
It’s completely free online software that lets you track your budget, but it also comes with a nifty credit card debt tracker tool that allows you to keep an eye on how much you owe. It works much like the tools mentioned above, where you’ll input the amount owed, the interest rate, and your expected payoff date to generate the monthly payments you’ll have to meet each month.
Unlike the other tools listed above, this software is completely free to use. The only caveat is that you’ll receive credit card offers and other sponsored offers while you use the service. If you can resist the temptation of opening a new line of credit this tool is amazing.
You Need A Budget
If you want an online tool that lets you manage your budget and keep track of your credit card debts just like Mint but without all the credit card offers mixed in, then You Need A Budget is a perfect tool.
It’s not free and requires a $5 a month subscription, but it features automatic syncing with many popular banks, credit unions, and creditors for keeping track of all your financial information in one place.
YNAB also has a few extensive guides on their site for helping you better manage your debt and debt consolidation efforts. Concepts like snowballing payments are explained in simple terms that you can understand, so you can better employ a debt reduction strategy that works for you.
Conclusion
Each of these tools has their own unique strengths and weaknesses, but all five of them are great at helping you get a handle on your current debt situation so you’re no longer floundering around in a sea of debt and feeling like you’re going no where.