Suze Orman and the New Rules of Credit Card Debt ~ Pay the Minimum

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This is interesting, might be worth while checking out.

Suze Orman and the New Rules of Credit Card Debt

Friday April 3, 4:14 pm ET
By Kimberly Palmer

Personal finance gurus usually treat credit card debt as the plague and urge consumers to pay it off--ASAP. But this week, Queen of Personal Finance Suze Orman announced on The Oprah Winfrey Show that the old advice is wrong. The recession has made job loss so prevalent, she says, that consumers now need to make creating an emergency fund with eight months worth of expenses their top priority.

"If you have an unpaid credit card balance [and] not much saved up in emergency savings, I need you to listen up. My advice has changed. I want you to only pay the minimum due on your credit card balance, and instead, make it your top priority to build as much of an emergency cash fund as you can," Orman said on the program.

Telling her fans not to prioritize paying off credit card debt is quite a shocker since her focus has long been about getting out of debt. In her latest book, 2009 Action Plan: Keeping Your Money Safe & Sound, she dedicates an entire chapter on the subject. But Orman says that now, with the number of unemployed Americans rising, having an emergency savings fund is even more important than being debt-free. "The sad reality is that the credit card industry is taking actions to protect themselves with no regard to your needs or how good you have been in paying your bills on time," she said, referring to the fact that credit card companies have been lowering credit limits, increasing interest rates, and revoking credit cards altogether.

Excerpt:

While this approach makes sense for those living with little or no savings, consumers who already have a significant emergency fund should still focus on paying off credit card debt.

Article continues: http://biz.yahoo.com/usnews/090403/0...king-budgeting