Are you so overwhelmed by credit card debt you could just scream? Are the credit card companies calling you at all hours demanding payment? Are having trouble just making minimum payments each month? Do you lay awake at night just praying for credit card debt help?
You’re not alone
Millions of Americans have the same problem. In fact, on the average, credit card holders have $5,100 in debt and this is expected to grow to $6,500 by year’s end. Two million or more American homes now owe $20,000 to credit card companies. The total amount of consumer debt in the US in 2010 was nearly $2.4 trillion. That’s $7,800 of debt per person. And here’s another amazing statistic – 1 in 10 consumers has more than 10 credit cards.
Credit card debt help options
If you are one of the two percent of Americans with $20,000 or more in credit card debt, there are options available that can help you get help with credit card debt. Unfortunately, not all of them are that great.
For example, you could file for bankruptcy. Many Americans have. As you might guess, that number has gone up significantly in the past few years due mostly to unemployment. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) the number of unemployed persons in March of this year as 12.7 million and the unemployment rate was 8.2 percent. And according to USA Today, there are now 6,000 bankruptcy filings a day – if you can imagine that.
The last resort
Filing for bankruptcy is usually the last resort because comes with a severe penalty. You will be allowed to keep your house and car but may lose a lot of your other assets when they are sold off to satisfy your creditors. Plus, there are some debts that cannot be discharged by bankruptcy, including student loans, taxes and tax liens (read IRS), alimony and child support and condominium or cooperative fees or assessments.
There is definitely a stigma attached to having a bankruptcy and it can affect your credit report for as long as 10 years. There are so many bankruptcy filings these days (see previous statistics) that it can take months to get in front of a judge to get your bankruptcy settled. You will need an attorney and this can cost you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars – leaving you with that debt to worry about.
You can always go to a credit counseling service. This is where a counselor will work with you to develop a repayment plan and then “sell” this plan to your creditors. Once your creditors accept the plan, you’ll send the credit counseling agency a check each month and it will then pay your creditors. If you go to a reliable, nonprofit credit counseling agency, it will cost you basically nothing. However, your repayment plan could take anywhere from 3 to 5 years to complete. You will need to be very careful with your money management during that period of time, or you’ll start adding new credit card debt.
Help with credit card debt through debt settlement
If you’re sick and tired of trying to make at least minimum payments on your credit cards each month and if bankruptcy looks like a really bad alternative, there is a solution to help with credit card debt called debt settlement or debt negotiation. This is where you choose a debt relief company than negotiates with your creditors to actually reduce your debt. In fact, a company such as National Debt Relief can probably get your debt reduced by 50% or more and have you completely out of debt is as few as 24 to 48 months. And just think how good it would feel to be totally free of debt.
National Debt Relief is one of the country’s highest ranked debt settlement companies. You can learn more about its credit card debt relief plan by filling out the free debt analysis form to learn what National Debt Relief could do for you.
