Are you worried about your credit card debt? Well, you’re certainly not alone. The last statistic I saw was that consumer debt had increased to an amazing $2.2 trillion and that much of this was revolving credit, which is mostly credit card debt. The ugly fact is that most Americans now spend more than they take home and have to make up the difference by drawing down their savings or by tacking more and more debt onto their credit cards.
20% or more
Have you recently checked out the amount of interest (APR) you’re paying on your credit cards? If you are typical, it’s probably 20% or higher. Just think about this for a moment. If you owed $10,000 at 20%, you would be paying $2,000 a year just in interest charges.
If you’re making only the minimum monthly payments
Next time you receive a credit card statement, check the interest you’re being charged versus your minimum monthly payment. You may find the minimum monthly payment is only enough to cover the interest you’re being charged. If this is the case, and you keep making just your minimum monthly payment, you will literally never get out of debt. This is because everything you’re paying the credit card company is being eaten up by your interest charges and nothing is going against your balance.
Credit card help
If you feel like you’re about to drown in credit card debts, there is help available. Three of the most popular ways to get credit card help is through a debt consolidation loan, consumer credit counseling and debt settlement.
A debt consolidation loan
If you can borrow enough to pay off all of your credit card debts, you’ll have just one payment to make a month and it should be much less than the total of your minimum monthly payments. The reasons for this are twofold. First, a debt consolidation loan should have an interest rate of 8% or less and second, you’ll have much more time to pay back the money.
Consumer credit counseling
A second way to get credit card help is with consumer credit counseling. If you choose this option, you would go to a credit-counseling agency where you would sit down with a debt counselor who will review your income and expenses and help you develop a plan for paying off your credit card debts. If you are seriously in debt, that plan will probably take you five years to complete. But again, you will have only one monthly payment and it should be less than the sum of the payments you’re now making.
Debt settlement
Many families choose debt settlement over credit counseling or a debt consolidation loan for one simple reason. Whether you choose credit counseling or a debt consolidation loan, you’re just moving your debt from one set of creditors to another. In contrast, debt settlement can actually get your debts reduced.
How it works
The way debt settlement works is that you contract with a company such as National Debt Relief to negotiate settlements with your credit card companies. In most cases, the settlements will be for thousands of dollars less than you actually owe. Once your debts have been settled, you will no longer be required to pay the credit card companies. Instead, you will send the debt settlement company one check a month until you complete your program. This generally takes from two to four years depending, of course, on how seriously you are in debt.
Get credit card help today
Don’t let credit card debt turn your life into a living hell. Call us today or start a chat so we can explain the details of debt settlement and whether or not it could help you.
