Here are some common sense guidelines to eliminate credit card debt: 

1)    Make a budget listing all your fixed expenses. Rent or mortgage, car insurance, car payments, cell phones, utilities, day care, fixed loans, etc. Then try to estimate a reasonable budget for discretionary items like food, drinks, dry cleaning, etc. 

2)    Make a second list of all your outstanding balances and sort by balance, minimum payment, and interest charges if you have multiple credit card debts. 

You may think the wisest thing to do is paying off the credit card with the highest interest rate. However, there are 2 preferred methods to follow. 

First, you should first reduce the number of credit cards. Pay off the smallest balance first with larger payments until the number of credit cards you have in debt is down to one. Your ultimate goal is zero, or when you can pay your monthly balance in full every month. 

The other strategy is to pay the balance on any card exceeding 50 percent of your credit limit because balances above this level may cause your credit score to diminish. 

3)    Use cash or a debit card from your savings account. You can't spend what you don't have. 

4)    Consider starting a Blog. If it becomes popular, slap on some Ads. 

5)    Look for the little things that add up in your expenses. Maybe change your cell phone plan if you are constantly going over the monthly minutes. 

6)    Don’t sign up with a new credit card. 

7)    You probably receive a lot of junk mail enticing you to sign up with a new credit card. Unfortunately, the biggest risk is they are simply giving you more credit to spend, and the number of cards and liability increases. 

Unless you are extremely disciplined, this doesn't really work as you end up bigger and deeper in the hole. Reducing the number of credit cards is the goal. 

8)    Don’t get a consolidated bank loan to pay off all your debt. 

Logically, a 12% p.a. bank loan is less than 24% APR on a credit card. It sounds like good advice, because you can’t spend what you don’t have. You can pay off your credit cards and can have one with a small balance. However, there are some pitfalls to the personal loan you are taking. 

You might have accustomed to paying off the minimum requirement on your credit card bill on a monthly basis. You know what you are earning and what you are paying. In case of personal loan, you have to pay off the equated monthly instalment on due date. Means that if you pay off your credit card bills with personal loan; you cannot use your credit card again.  

This is simply because if you use your credit card again, the credit card limit will quickly reach what that was before taking the personal loan. Now you have two payments to make: your EMI and credit card minimum payment. This is the risk and pitfall in using personal loan to pay off credit card debt.