Credit card debt has always been a problem but at no time has it been as prevalent as it is today. This article looks at the steps you can take to get back on track and gain control of your finances.
It is so easy to become heavily in trouble with your credit cards. Debt takes no prisoners and the only way to deal with it is to hit it head on.
It is always admirable when people decide to sort out their problems themselves but; if you are one of those people who are not very good at dealing with things like this then you need to seek out free professional services that are only too willing to help people in your predicament.
How do you know if you have a problem?
Well,
quite simply, if you are struggling to make the minimum monthly payments on your credit cards you have a problem. You may be one of these people who never keeps track of their balance, shame on you if you are, and, as a result of that, the first indication you may receive are the unexpected calls from collection agencies or the mailings threatening legal action from your credit cards. Debt collectors may even be visiting your home which is upsetting when expected never mind as a surprise visit!
OK, I have a credit cards debt problem, what now?
The first step is to collate your credit cards debt so you can see the size of the problem and then you need to list your monthly income and all of your essential monthly outgoings. The essentials are those items that are required for you to function normally on a daily basis, and a regular list would normally be composed of ; mortgage or rent, fuel, council or property tax, utilities (gas, water, electric), telephone, insurances, food, housekeeping, travel, clothes etc. By compiling this list you leave yourself an amount that is available for payment of non secured debt such as unsecured loans, credit cards and overdrafts.
How to Deal with your Creditors.
This is the part of getting back on track that a lot of people worry about. They shouldn’t be; it is relatively straight forward and there are procedures and simple steps to follow and as long as you are doing things correctly you will have nothing to worry about.
You can either, write to each of your creditors independently and send them your proposal for a lower monthly repayment and a copy of your budget to back up your proposal, OR you can contact a debt management / settlement firm who will do this on your behalf. Personally, I think it is much better to take care of this yourself as it gives you greater control and it will be cheaper in the long run as many of these management firms will carry a cost of sort, even if they are non-profit.
In the attached letter to your creditors, always remember to explain your circumstances and that you are contacting all of your creditors with proposed lower repayments based on a pro rata system.
There is no guarantee that your creditors will accept this proposed repayment but if they see that you have supplied them with a budget plan and that you are distributing what you can afford evenly amongst you creditors it is likely they will accept your proposal.
You can ask them to freeze the interest on your debt to stop the debt getting any bigger and in a lot of cases this will be agreed to.
If a creditor refuses to accept your proposal and you cannot afford the payment they are asking for, repeat the process continually and make your proposed payment to your creditor as and when you have proposed.
They will either eventually accept your proposal or they may pursue the owed amount through the courts, which is highly unlikely as it is not cost effective to them; but SHOULD they do this you have done, and can prove you have done, everything you possibly can to continue payments, and this will be looked on favorably by the court; and your creditor knows this.
You can free yourself from debt in as little as three years using ethical methods of debt elimination that are perfectly legal yet disliked by banking institutions around the globe, who have known about these methods for decades. If you would like to learn more about these methods visit the sites at the end of this article. As stated, these methods are moral, ethical and legal…so is it any wonder the financial fraternity, who would rather keep you in ‘debt bondage’, doesn’t like them!
