Are you feeling like you're drowning in credit card debt? Believe me, I know how it feels. You dread opening the bills every month because you don't know where the money's going to come from to make even the minimum payments, let along to pay them off. You might even be taking cash advances from one card to make the payment on another.

If this sounds familiar, then you need to read this article. We're going to look at three simple steps you can take to get your credit cards paid off for good.

Now please understand, just because these steps are simple doesn't mean they're going to be easy. I'm not here to give you magic button you can press that will wipe out any trace of the debts you owe. But taking these steps will get you on the way to being debt free, and they won't take very long to implement.

The first step you should take is to try to get a better deal on the terms from your credit card companies. The credit card business is highly competitive, and they don't want to lose their cash cow (you) who is earning them a pile of interest every month.

If you call them and ask for better terms, such as a lower interest rate or a reduction (or elimination) of any annual fees, you might be surprised at how willing they are to help. Especially if you've got any competing credit card offers you can use as leverage.

The second thing you need to do to pay off your cards faster is to make more than the minimum payments. Did you know that by making the minimum payment every month you could be paying that card off for almost 20 years? How would you like to still be paying for that new outfit you bought a couple of months ago when it's long since worn out or gone out of style?

Whatever extra money you can pay every month, do it - even if it's only $10 or $15 it's going to help.

The third step to getting your credit cards paid off is to focus on one card at a time. Make the minimum payments on all other cards to keep them in good standing, but put as much as you can against the bill for one card until it's paid off, then move onto the next. This will give you a lot more momentum than paying a little extra on a bunch of different cards.

If you follow these three steps, you'll have your credit cards paid off a lot sooner than you might think is possible. Trust me, I've done it.