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Personal Finance > Credit & Debt
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To get out of debt, get on the phone
The Chatzky Program, Step 5: Three easy ways to trim your borrowing costs.
August 5, 2004: 5:40 PM EDT
By Jean Chatzky, MONEY Magazine. Additional reporting by Carolyn Bigda.

NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) - Highway robbery. That's what Jill King thought every time she made a payment on her credit card. "I would make what seemed like really big payments," King says, "and it didn't seem to have any effect at all."

Chances are, many of your monthly expenses are borrowing costs, from your mortgage to your credit cards. So lower -- and lock in -- those rates before they go up.

Here's how to do it. Plus, see steps one through four in Jean Chatzky's nine-part program for getting out debt. Continued...  Top of page




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Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2012 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer The Dow Jones IndexesSM are proprietary to and distributed by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and have been licensed for use. All content of the Dow Jones IndexesSM © 2012 is proprietary to Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Chicago Mercantile Association. The market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2012. All rights reserved. Most stock quote data provided by BATS.