How to escape credit card debt? A step-by-step plan

The sneakiest part of credit card debt is the minimum payment: you pay a little, the debt barely shrinks, interest keeps accruing. The escape plan has four steps.

1. Lay out the picture

List every card's balance, interest rate and minimum payment. You can't manage debt you can't see. You can register your cards as accounts in Parasyo and track their balances there.

2. Pick your order

Two common strategies: the snowball (smallest debt first — motivating) or the avalanche (highest interest first — mathematically cheapest). What matters is choosing one and sticking to it.

3. Add a fixed amount on top of the minimum

Create room in your budget and direct the same fixed amount to the target card every month. When that debt closes, the amount rolls to the next card — the snowball grows.

4. No new installments

Taking new installments while paying down debt deepens the hole. During this period track installments as scheduled transactions in Parasyo; see on the calendar which month each one ends.

When the debt is gone, redirect the same monthly amount to savings — the habit is ready, only the direction changes.