No one likes to think about credit card bills. That monthly letter that shows up in your mailbox is enough to cause a rise in blood pressure by at least 30 points. Personally, I prefer to be holding a shot of Patron (or two) while I peruse my statements. This month’s bill was a doozy; I’d completely forgotten about my hotel, car insurance, and gardening supply charges on my Discover card. However, Discover hadn’t.

For many of us, the worry is this: how can I make the minimum monthly payment on my credit card bill without having it outweighed by next month’s interest charges? Well, the obvious answer is to pad your payment with some additional money. While this is sage advice, it isn’t always possible. The next best thing you can do is this: make weekly payments.

Now, you might be scratching your head, wondering how this is possible. After all, you get your credit card statement once a month, not every week.

This is where online banking comes in. If you have an account with a bank, more than likely that bank has an online presence. While online, you can check your account, transfer balances, and make online payments on your utilities, your car insurance, and even your credit cards. Likewise, you can schedule payments in advance, so that the money is taken directly out of your account at a certain date. This plan is convenient for when you plan to be out of town for extended periods of time, for example, and therefore cannot check your mail and pay regular bills.

Regular payments can be scheduled for your credit cards too. They do not need to occur monthly either; you may schedule weekly payments.

Weekly payments have several advantages that you may not have thought of:

1. They stop you from dreading one big bill per month. 

2. You budget your money more effectively, knowing that each week you will be deducted "X" amount of dollars from your checking account.

3. Padding your payment with a few extra bucks is much easier, since it really can be just a few extra bucks.

and most important of all:

4. Weeky payments reduce interest charges.

Weekly payments to your credit card dramatically reduce your overall interest charges. This is because your debt is continually dropping throughout the month. You are no longer sitting on money that could be used to pay off credit card debt today, instead of a month from now.

Weekly payments are used in other debt repayment plans too. The idea of fortnight mortgage payments, for example, means that you are paying a sum of money to your mortgage lender every two weeks versus once a month. Calculated over the space of 30 years, fortnight payments save a huge amount of money over monthly payments.

All in all, by making your credit card payments weekly, versus monthly, you save on interest charges considerably- even if you tack on no additional money to your minimum payment.