Aussies owe more than $50 billion on their credit cards. What are your top three tips for cutting this debt?

WHAT? Whoa! Really? You’re asking me to solve an out-of-control, national, credit-card bingeing problem?

How about something simpler? Perhaps stopping Australians drinking beer? Halting the Ebola Virus? Smashing our druglords’ supply chains?

I could get shorter odds at the TAB on me brokering peace with Islamic State.

There’s nothing actually wrong with credit cards. They’re a handy way to pay for stuff. They’re helpful with short-term cash-flow issues. They can give you points to fly places.

There’s not even anything wrong with putting everything you spend on a card. So long as you pay it off, in full, every month. That’s 40 per cent of us.

The “problem” is for other 60 per cent. (It’s this majority that pays for the rewards points for everyone, with the exorbitant interest rates they pay, plus extra for bank profits.)

The only way to stop that is Government intervention – a pill too nasty to swallow. The majority would suffer.

Concentrate on yourself. Aim to have others pay for all your airline points.

Control yourself. Curb your spending. Cut your card limits.

If you can’t pay off your full credit card each month, your problem is simple. It’s not the credit card. It’s self-control. You spend too much. You are treating the card like extra salary.

Do yourself a budget. An honest one. One where you cut out the rubbish spending and use those savings to pay down the card or cards. As you pay down the card, cut the limits.

Or we could invite Joe Hockey to fix the problem?

Bruce Brammall is the principal adviser with Castellan Financial Consulting (www.castellanfinancial.com.au) and author of Debt Man Walking.