subject: Credit Debt Relief - What You Can Do About Credit Card Debt [print this page] Credit Debt Relief - What You Can Do About Credit Card Debt
A lot of responsibility comes with having a credit card but the number of people who now have credit card debts is at an all time high; as they are accepted at almost any establishment, spending on them has increased dramatically.
People now owe thousands to finance companies because they do not realize they are spending beyond their means and by the time they do come to realize, the damage is already done. Once this point has been reached then it only remains for some form of relief from the credit card debt to be arranged.
There is no easy way around this but once you have come to this decision you must stop using your card to pay for goods otherwise you will never clear the debts. Often, it takes some time to realize the seriousness but credit card debt relief is possible providing certain steps are taken. The most frequent methods of debt consolidation are shown below.
Obviously, the easiest way to proceed is to apply for a credit card with a low interest rate on balance transfers where the debt can be consolidated where repayments can be made regularly within a specified budget. If this method is not available then a consolidation loan may be a debt relief answer where a number of debts can be replaced with just one at a lower monthly installment.
This option does require a certain willingness on the part of the person in debt to be strict about the payments and the regularity in which they are made if they really want to end the debt problem. This particular route is only viable if the person with the debt retains a good credit history and they have the means to pay back the loan once the debts are clear.
The next step if their credit history will not allow credit card debt relief is to use the services of a debt relief agency that can negotiate paying the debt off. Debt relief companies usually have a good track record at this type of negotiation with the usual arrangement of around half the outstanding debt will have to be paid and any balance can be dropped.
If all else fails the debtor is left with bankruptcy to clear the debts but this is not something that should ever be looked upon as the first course of action as there are serious consequences to be considered. This final option means that the slate will be wiped clean but trying to access credit of any kind will be very difficult whilst the bankruptcy is in force so rebuilding the credit history will take some time.
The most important point to remember is that getting relief from your credit card debt should only ever be used once, as valuable lessons need to be learned about fiscal responsibility. If you do file bankruptcy and you start getting back on your feet and in a more fiscally solvent situation, you can rest assured that the credit card companies will try to snare you in once again with their easy offers of credit.
