Understanding Your Debt Situation - How to Know What You Owe Before You Go For Debt Relief

If you want to seek debt relief help, you must first gather a lot of information. Much of this information will be focused on your credit card debts. A debt relief company needs to know how much total debt you have, which credit cards you have, how much you owe on each credit card, and exactly who that money is owed to. At first glance, it seems pretty easy to determine how much money you owe. On that same note, are you looking at updated information or is it old and outdated? Here are some ways for to determine exactly how much money you owe, which is important when it comes to seeking debt relief.

• Call and Ask: You know what credit cards you have in your wallet. Take out those cards and get the phone number on the back. Now, place a phone call, give them your account number, and ask what your balance is right now. Note, you don't want the total of your last credit card bill. That might have been two weeks ago and during this time your total owed increased because of interest rates and possibly additional purchases. Get the most updated total owed. Please note that if you have more than one credit card, you must do this for each card.
• Request a Copy of Your Credit Report: Before we go into more detail, know that this isn't going to give up an updated total owed. Most credit card companies only update the information on your credit report once a month. So why do you need to request a copy of your credit report? First, you want to ensure that there isn't a mistake. Then, you want to ensure you haven't forgotten about anything like a credit card you have a balance on but haven't used in four years.
• Gather Your Most Recent Bills: This is one of the easiest ways to get a total for the debts you owe, but you may run into a few problems. As stated above, you want the most updated total possible. Things might have changed since you got your last bill three weeks ago. Moreover, you will stop getting traditional credit card bills in the mail once your account goes into default; you will now likely get debt collection bills and letters. This method should be used as a last resort because it is better to just call your creditors over the phone.

Regardless of which method above you use, you should have an accurate total of all your credit card debts. Now what? It is time to take action. You can now enroll yourself in a debt relief program. A debt relief company will need all of this information, so you should go ahead and gather it first to save yourself time.

There has really never been a more advantageous time for consumers to try and eliminate unsecured debt. Creditors are very concerned about collecting and most have government money to make eliminating some of your debt financially feasible.

Check out the link below to locate legitimate debt relief companies in your area:

Free Debt Advice(http://www.FreeCreditCardDebtAdvice.org)