Credit cards come in handy for emergencies as well as for things that we know we'll probably regret later. If you're like us you're not exactly using cash to pay your way through school. With around $85 billion in new student loan debt projected this year we're definitely not alone. With the average graduate already owing $20,000 in student loans, credit card debt is the last thing you need.

The fastest way to get into credit card debt is to ignore your own financial details. If you don't have a budget, you need to create one to track your income and expenses and you need to look at it often. Ignoring your finances and using credit cards is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. You can download a free interactive student budget template we made for you and customize it to meet your needs.

What are the APRs for each of your credit cards and how much credit do you have available? If you can't readily answer these questions you need to do your homework and find out. The next step in getting on top of your credit card debt is to determine and record your essential credit card details. You can call the phone number of the back of your credit card and you'll need to ask about regular APR, credit limit, minimum payment and current balance. You should organize your credit card information into some format where you can track it. If you downloaded the budget template we've provided for you, we've already set up a table for you.

Now that you've got your credit card details straight you should try to get them a little more in your favor. You have the right to call your credit card's customer service number and request a lower interest rate. Explain that you're trying to pay down your debt and that a lower interest rate will help you do this. If you have a good payment history with the company, many will lower your rate and if they do thank them and call back in a month and ask for even a better rate. If they won't help you out, you might consider a balance transfer to a lower interest card. For more on balance transfers see Appendix I.

If you want to get your credit cards off your back you need to make more than your minimum payments. Review your budget to see your total minimum payments on credit cards and also how much money is left over in your budget each month. Re-evaluate your expenses to determine how much money you can free up. Then add your total credit card payments up and add the extra money to that number.

Armed with your list of credit card information and your new total credit card payment (minimum payments plus extra) amount, you’re ready to choose your repayment strategy. Paying a little extra on each card is not the best strategy as it will get you nowhere fast and be discouraging. There are two schools of thought for repayment strategy which both have you paying the minimum payments on all cards except one to which you apply all the rest of your available credit card payment money.

The reason we had you first create a budget was so that you would have the information in front of you to assess your resources and also to help you stick to the plan. Once you’ve set aside a certain amount of funds to pay towards credit cards you can’t just go off and spend without looking at your budget or you’ll be back where you started. It’s also OK to tell other people such as your friends and family about what you’re doing. This will help them understand when you want to rent a movie and stay in some weekend and they’ll respect you for being responsible and handling your finances.

One way to save some money each month or speed up the rate at which you pay down your credit card debt is to take advantage of a low interest balance transfer. Credit card companies are crazy about offering low interest balance transfers. Why shouldn't they be? They get an opportunity to make money from fees and interest on money that you were loaned by another company. Before you transfer your credit card balances around you should make sure you understand the important details. Always keep in mind that credit card companies are in business to make money and they make boat loads of it from fees and interest. You're responsibility is to read the fine print and ask questions. That way you can make the transfer a smart financial decision rather than a poor one by paying fees and a much higher interest rate than you expected

Reaging a past-due account means your creditor sets the account due date back to current. If you are a few months behind on your payments your creditor may agree to reage your account thus wiping out those missed payments! This sounds great and it's possible that many lenders will do this for you if you've otherwise been a good customer. Not all creditors are willing to do so however, and they must follow federal guidelines when deciding whether or not to reage your accounts. Creditors may only re-age your account once in a 12-month period and twice in a five-year period for credit card accounts.