This may come as a complete surprise but the first thing you could do is negotiate with your credit card issuer to get that 20% interest rate reduced. You will need to contact the card card issuer, explain that you’re having a serious financial emergency and ask if it would be willing to lower your interest rate. As the following video reveals an if you were able to get that interest rate reduced to 15% and made a payment of $400 a month, you’d have that debt completely paid off in 79 months.
This might seem like a long time
This might seem like a long time but at 20%, it would take you 109 months to pay it off or almost three years longer.
In addition to getting your interest rate reduced you should try to heavy up on your payments. Instead of paying $400 a month maybe you could pay $500 and you would then have your debt totally paid off in just 56 months.
Other options for credit card debt
Unless you can prove you’re truly having a financial emergency that credit card issuer is very unlikely to agree to an interest rate reduction. In this case, your best option might be to contact a company such as National Debt Relief where you’d have a debt counselor who would review your finances and explain some of the other options available to you. For example, given the fact that you have $20,000 in high interest debt he or she will probably suggest a debt settlement program. This is where you would make one affordable payment to the debt settlement company each month, which will be deposited in an FDIC-insured trust account. As soon as enough money has accumulated in your account the settlement company will use the funds to negotiate a settlement with one of your lenders – probably for around 50% of your actual balance. This process continues until all of your debts have been settled to your satisfaction, which generally takes from 24 to 48 months – depending on how much you owe.
100% satisfaction guarantee
A reputable debt settlement company like National Debt Relief won’t collect its fee until it has settled all of your debts. This results in a 100% satisfaction guarantee because if you were to become dissatisfied with your debt payment plan at any time and for any reason you would be allowed to cancel out and wouldn’t be charged a single cent.
Another important advantage
Another advantage of using a debt settlement company is that it will contact your lenders and any debt collection agencies that have been hounding you, let them know it’s managing your debts and ask them to stop contacting you.
Debts that can be settled and those that can’t
While it’s almost always possible to settle credit card debts it’s important to understand that not all debts can be settled. For example, it’s not possible to settle secured debts such as a mortgage or auto loan. And there are some types of unsecured debts that can’t be settled including student loan debts, alimony, child support and past due taxes.
If your credit card company won’t help you then you may have to resort to a more aggressive tactic to get your debt paid off. Visit www.nationaldebtrelief.com to learn the best ways to reduce credit card debt.
