Here is a sentence that should make you put your coffee down: the people handing out debt advice are, in a remarkable number of cases, deep in debt themselves. A new piece on rising credit card arrears (missed payments on what you owe, the polite term for falling behind) points worried readers toward expert guidance. The guidance is worth reading closely, because by the look of it, following it may leave you owing even more.
Take one consultant who wrote a three-step plan for escaping your balance. By his own account, his balance transfer card is on its third transfer. A financial educator recommending a budgeting app is funding a sofa on a 29.99% APR (annual percentage rate, the yearly interest charged on what you owe). This is not a scandal. It is a pattern, and the market rewards it, because a person who has paid everything off has nothing to sell you.
So here is the advice, reversed for your convenience. Pay the minimum, since that keeps the lender happy, and let compounding (interest charged on interest) do the heavy lifting. Open three store cards for the discount on your first purchase. Never add up the total. If you need guidance, consult an expert, preferably one whose own statements are kept in a shoebox.
So what does this mean for you? Ignore anyone whose income depends on your anxiety. Listen instead to whoever pays their card off in full every month and has never once appeared in a webinar about it. That person is rarely selling anything, which is exactly why they are worth listening to.