One of the better ways to avoid debt is recognize and learn from the habits that lead to it. Gain knowledge of the behavior that can lead you to accrue debt so you know what you’re doing wrong and fix it. Don’t pay someone else to manage your debt for you – free debt management begins with the decisions you make about your own credit card and debt management.

Continually transferring your balances. Transferring balances on high-interest cards to lower-interest cards can be a helpful way to lower interest rates and therefore save money. It makes sense to take advantage of this leverage. On the other hand, it isn’t a good idea to keep transferring balances to cope with debt over long term. The savings from one card to another generally aren’t sizeable and there is a temptation to use the new card and overspend more, instead of paying down …

Being in debt can be extremely stressful. The pressure of being in debt makes it hard to worry about everyday living expenses. If you’ve been receiving phone calls and letters from creditors it makes even worse. Sometimes debt can be so bad that you have to consider filing bankruptcy because of the debt load. Before the debt begins to pile up, there are warning signs that you could be headed for trouble.

It becomes difficult to pay normal expenses.
It becomes increasingly difficult to make ends meet each month.
You are spending more money than you earn.
You find yourself using credit cards to pay for normal expenses such as groceries.
Your credit card balances continue to increase.
You have several credit cards that are at or close to the credit limit.
You begin decreasing your monthly credit card payments.
You are juggling credit card payments, holding off one credit card to pay another.
You …