A Mint blog post discusses about debt repayment strategy.

The two main strategies are debt snowball, where you pay off the smallest debts first, and debt avalanche, where you pay off the debts with the highest interest rates.

Debt snowball has been created to generate a sense of achievement and momentum by accomplishing small goals. Although this strategy is more motivating, it will cost more in the end. Paying off the highest interest rate debt will cost you less in the end.

Debt Consolidation/ Refinancing

The post mentions debt consolidation but it does not give much weight, which I believe deserves much more attention. Debt consolidation or refinancing should be considered first because it is likely to lower the interest rate. Specially, if you have good credit, you can refinance your debt at a lower interest rate using peer-to-peer lending websites such as Lending Club or Prosper. So seek refinancing first.

Negotiate with the Lender

Borrowers can also negotiate with credit card companies or banks for leniency. Of course, you cannot demand outrageous requests but the lender wants to make sure that it gets its money back. Some money is better than no money. So if you talk to them reasonably, you can work out a payment plan and get some grace period. Please listen to Ramit Sehti who shows how to negotiate almost anything. You can listen to the credit card negotiation part from 7:46.

Effective Budgeting

Many fall into debt due to overspending. Please make a reasonable budget and make sure to follow through. Complicated or overly restrictive budgets are likely to fail. Simplicity wins. For instance, one can simply follow the rule of saving 50% and transfer half of the income to another account and live life with the remaining 50%. This will save you from figuring out how much to allocate to each category but instead just live off 50% of income. Getting out of debt is hard .That is why there are many personal finance gurus and celebrated podcasts and blogs about debt. However, remember that it can be done, and small steps will lead the way.

 

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