I have decided to stop using my Associates visa card. This is a card I got when I was in college and it is at the LOVELY rate of 17%. (PF Bloggers groan and roll their collective eyes).

I had been using this card to make a few purchases because it was giving me cash back. It took me a while to realize this but the cash back that I get from the card is at a much lower rate than the interest rate on the new purchases.

Credit CardsI carry a balance on this card so the amount I am paying in interest is outweighing the amount I get in cash back.

This means that there is a negative return on the card. I know this is bad and I really have no idea why I am just realizing this now but hey better late than never.

I have called and tried to get the interest rate on this card lowered a number of times but they only lower it about 1 percentage point. I take the small reduction but it is still not enough to help me to take huge chunks out of the debt.

I recently said I was going to use the card to pay the rent to get the cash back from it but I have changed my mind on that. It will be better to pay cash (well check actually) for the rent and then just pay down on the debt on that card.

The only card that I will be using right now is the Chase Freedom Visa card because I have started to build up a cash back plan on that one. The card is at a zero balance right now and I schedule a payment from Electric Orange to the card each time I make a purchase so there is not enough time to have interest build up on the card.

It is much easier to track the rewards on one card and they will also build up faster if I just use this one card for everything. The only problem I have with this card is that it does not have enough of a limit for me to put the rent on it and Chase will not let me make an overpayment on the card to have a credit balance on it.