The main tip to reducing your Irish credit card costs is to pay them off every month. But in real life, that’s not always possible. Emergencies come up, and you need time to pay off your expenses. But if you can’t pay off your entire balance every month, the next best thing you can do to keep expenses down is to pay as much as you can, and pay on time. That way you’ll keep your average daily balance as low as possible (which is what your minimum payments are based on), and you won’t be hit with late fees. If you have a low APR credit card, then the interest will be low also, just in case you cant pay back the whole amount borrowed in one go!

If you have a wallet full of credit cards, the most obvious way to keep your expenses down is to pay off and get rid of cards you don’t use. Another option is transferring the balance to another card if that is possible. Most money experts recommend having two credit cards so that you minimize the amount of financial hot water you can get into while having a “backup” card if the other one should be lost, stolen, or not accepted somewhere you need to use it.

One of the best ways to keep your credit card costs down is to avoid cards with lots of “perks” like points, airline miles, or some other incentive. While these cards can work well if you are disciplined, use your card a lot, and pay off your balance in full every month, if you carry a balance, the interest you’ll pay will far overshadow any benefit you’d get from the card’s perks.

So, supposing that you can’t pay your balance in full every month, you usually pay on time, and you’ve cut back to two credit cards. How do you save on credit card expenses? You could use them less, for one thing. It is much harder to be disciplined and stick to a shopping list if you have the extra cushion of credit that a credit card gives you, so taking out cash and using it may be a way to cut down on card use, thus lowering the amount of debt you have.

Other than that, your best bet is to choose a credit card with no annual fee and the lowest interest rate you can qualify for. Once you have that, and you avoid late fees, or over the limit fees, you’ll do best with a low interest rate card.

1) A Vacation

We’re all in need of a vacation once in a while but going into debt for a plane ticket or hotel stay is a bad idea all around. Accumulating debt to take a trip somewhere sunny might be exactly what you’d like to do right now but sit down and look at your finances before you get too excited about the trip. You don’t really need to go – of course, it would be nice but make sure you have the cash first. It’s that simple.

2) Buying Clothing

Yes, that was a beautiful dress and yes it fit you perfectly. Just because you would look great in it doesn’t mean you need to buy it. When you look at the credit card bill a month from now you’ll be thinking another story altogether. And it’s not just expensive fashion items… if you pick up a whole bunch of small items you’ll be breaking the bank very quickly. That dress wont feel like such a great idea if you can’t pay rent in a few months. Buy the dress but make sure you have the money for it.

3) Pay Off Other Debt

The only time this one might work is if you use a small loan to pay off other debts that are at higher interest rates – something like an IVA. Make sure you know what you’re doing though because it could end up costing you. Moving money around isn’t going to pay down your debt – you have to get serious and start paying it off.

4) Getting Gifts for Others

Some people can’t help themselves… they just love giving gifts. That is fine but when it’s going to put you in the poorhouse it’s probably time to start thinking about holding off. This is one that hits people really hard around Christmas. Families will buy all kinds of presents during the holidays and when they wake up to this spending in the new year things aren’t looking so great. Spend what you have!

5) Furnishing Your Home

It would be nice to get a new couch. That one you have is falling apart but then where does it end? If you can’t afford a new couch then don’t buy one. Going into debt for furniture doesn’t make any sense – just like clothing – these things are not necessary for your day-to-day life. It’s nice to nice things but it’s not worth it to go into debt for it.

I guess you see a pattern arising: don’t buy it unless you have the money. Otherwise you’ll be need of debt help. If it’s something that will hold it’s value or will even increase in value (like a home) then go for it but don’t go into debt for a coffee table!