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You’d love to pay off your debts but you have bad credit. This may not even be your fault. You may have lost your job and have had to use credit cards or borrow money just to get by. Or someone in your family may have had an emergency medical condition that resulted in high medical bills being unable to pay off.
Almost everyone has a problem with debts at one time or another. It has been reported that American families are not carrying $19,000 plus in debt and you can guess that many of them now are also struggling to achieve credit card debt consolidation with bad credit.
There is no miracle cure
Have you seen ads for credit repair companies that promise to get your credit fixed–100% guaranteed? Or that claimed they could get bad credit reports erased?
Don’t believe them. In fact, they are probably scams. The fact is, nobody can remove negative information from your credit report that is accurate. If you find there is information in your file you believe is not true, you can ask for it to be investigated. You will not be charged for this but if it turns out the information is accurate, it will stay in your file. If you have filed for bankruptcy, this will stay in your file for 10 years, as will any accurate negative information.
There are three credit reporting bureaus: Experian, Trans Union and Equifax. All three keep track of your credit history by accessing information from those companies with which you do business–banks, credit unions, credit card providers and any others that provide you with credit. Once a bankruptcy, judgment, lien or bad loan goes on your credit history there is nothing that can be done to erase it – unless you can prove it was false – which may not be easy.
Your alternatives
If you do have bad credit, one good alternative is to go to your local consumer credit counseling agency. One of their counselors will analyze your finances and develop an affordable repayment plan. She or he will contact your creditors to convince them to accept the plan and usually at lower interest rates. Assuming that all your creditors agree to the plan, you will then send a payment monthly to the consumer credit counseling agency and it will pay your creditors. This is one option for debt consolidation with bad credit
Debt settlement
If you choose debt settlement, the company or law firm you select will negotiate with your creditors for a lower payoff amount and reduced interest rates. This usually means you’ll have to find the money to settle your debts, which the company or law firm will then put in trust until all your credit card debts have been paid off. Of course, the big issue here is where do you get money to settle those debts?
Bankruptcy
Of course, the ultimate way to get credit card debt consolidation is by filing for bankruptcy. If you have assets you want to keep, you can elect to file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. This gives you the opportunity to reorganize your debts and pay them off in anywhere from 3 to 5 years. A Chapter 13 bankruptcy is often called the “wage earners” plan because it allows you to keep your properties and your income stream. However, the type of bankruptcy chosen by many American families is a Chapter 7 that allows you to discharge your credit card debt and other unsecured debt. However, you could see some of your assets seized.
Debt relief
Even if you have bad credit, you may be able to achieve credit card debt consolidation through a technique called debt relief. This is where you hire a company to negotiate debt settlements with your creditors where you get as long as 24 to 48 months to pay off your debts. A skilled and experienced debt relief company such as National Debt Relief should be able to negotiate a settlement that would reduce your debt to a fraction of what you owe.
