Get Out Of Debt

Is Your Credit Card A Great Financial Tool Or A Weapon Of Mass Financial Destruction?

A credit card is a great financial tool but sadly its one of those “tools” that can cause a lot of damage too if not used with the utmost care. You might be up to your eyeballs in debt at the moment and wondering how, if ever, you’re going to be able to become debt free. Well this article is going to show you some simple credit card debt consolidation techniques that work.

Jake, a friend of mine described the best thing about having a credit card as it being


“a great way to carry a large amount of money around in a convenient manner.”



…true in some respects and like any other convenience there’s a price to pay.

Credit cards offer ease for you to spend money whenever you want to and like in my friend’s case you usually end up spending too much. Sound familiar? The problem is you’re spending money you don’t have. Because you have an enticing option to payback only the minimum amount each month it’s an option a lot of people are then forced to take because they cannot pay anything more.

The Dark Side Of Credit Cards

You know what the worst part about credit cards is? It’s this. For each balance that still is unpaid at the end of each month you’re adding to your interest and as a direct result, in just a few short months you’ll find yourself overloaded with credit card debts. Jake bought some furniture for around $5,000 and was only making the minimum monthly payment of $50! – This left him with $4,950 that he still owed and while it appeared convenient at the time he was being smacked with interest on the balance…ouch!

There are ways to avoid this problem and the best piece of advice is this … find the best debt or credit card debt consolidation guide you can find and follow the steps as you read them. When you do this you are guaranteed to become debt free in a few months or years.

Stop Paying The Minimum Amount Each Month

Simply paying a minimum amount on your credit card is NOT an option for you. That is the core message of this article and the one thing you should take away from it. We’re just warming up, so be sure to look out for part II of this series titled “Credit Card Debt Consolidation Guide To Help You Legally Get Out Of Debt Fast”

Credit cards are nice to have and to use when you need to buy things online and if you need to get things in places that accept nothing else as payment. But if you use them too much you run the risk of getting into credit card debt and this means that things can go pretty bad if you don’t take care of it quick.

It can even get as bad as having to apply for bankruptcy in the long run! But it doesn’t have to be that bad. Some people will go to great lengths just to get debt consolidation offers so that they can get rid of their credit card debts. But these loans can get them into even deeper debt because of the interest rates that they have to pay off on a monthly basis.

One solution for this is to get credit or bank card loan consolidation instead. They are like unsecured debt consolidation offers and they can help you to really get rid of your debts. Debts can vary and be accumulated any number of ways but this won’t matter if you get a credit card loan consolidation. The point is that you need to get this option so that you can get rid of the debt and then pay off the loan with less interest rate.

This means that you can erase your debt and even improve your credit score so that you can have a better chance of getting loans that you need in the future. Think about this option if you really need to get rid of your credit card debt before trying out another solution that may not work.

This article is written because it has come to the attention of this author that too many people are being scammed out of their hard earned money trying to restore their credit. You do not want to try to restore by paying a debt or trying to cancel a debt. Your objective is to eliminate debt.

Restore credit, Repair Credit, are terms that many companies use. These companies that promise this will charge you an upfront fee, then a monthly fee for their services. What they do is write a common letter, that anyone can get a copy of, and send it to the credit reporting companies. This letter simply states that the item is not correct, or not your debt. They write this letter month after month hoping the reporting agency will get tired of hearing from them and cancel the debt. This typically does not happen. What does happen is, you get charged the fee every month. You will not eliminate debt this way.

Simply writing a letter requesting a debt be removed is not a successful way to eliminate debt. If you hire a company to eliminate bad credit from your report and they succeed, it is not permanent. This debt will return. Collection companies like to sell bad debts to other companies. As soon as your debt is removed, it is sold and within a couple of months placed right back on your report again.

Some companies will try to tell you to pay off your debt if it is in collection or charged-off status. This will do nothing for your credit score. You have not succeeded to eliminate debt. When you pay off a debt, the only thing you have accomplished is now that collection or charged-off debt reads paid. It is still on your report and still hurting your score.

Credit Consolidation has a track record of not helping a person eliminate debt. You may end up with lower payments but you are still paying off your debts and it will take much longer. In the mean time, they are still on your report hurting your credit.

Bankruptcy is another avenue some are talked into. Not only is this way not good, it is totally unnecessary. Bankruptcy will be on your credit, hurting you, for no less than ten years. At the end of this time, you still have to fight with the reporting agencies to get this removed.

If you have a low credit score, collections and/or charged-off debts, all of these companies that give nothing but false promises will not help you. They will do nothing but add to the problem by charging you monthly fees. Debt consolidation or bankruptcy will definitely do more harm than good.

You need a company that will eliminate debt not hide it. Your debt needs to disappear, forever, not come back in a few months. You should only have to pay a fair one-time charge, not monthly fees.

Credit cards are not difficult to get today. You can apply and be approved online, through the mail and even at the cash register. Most people have at least one credit card and it is probably more common than not to find that most people have multiple credit cards. With the increase in credit cards, though, more and more people are finding it difficult to pay more than the minimum monthly payment. If this sounds familiar and resembles your situation, you may have considered credit card debt consolidation.. This is a step in the right direction and there are a few ways to accomplish this.

A common way today is to simply transfer all of your credit card balances onto one credit card with a lower interest rate. This is probably the easiest way to consolidate your credit cards. You can take advantage of introductory rates many companies offer, often rates as low as 0% APR. First, be aware of any transfer fee which can go as high as $75.00 per transfer. Second, you must confirm that the total amounts you will transfer are not more than the credit available on the card to which you are transferring the outstanding balances. Third, pay attention to the promotion periods. The low introductory rates typically end at some point, sometimes six months up to a year. Once that time has passed, the standard and much higher interest rate will apply to any balance remaining on the card.

Another option is to borrow money from a friend or family to payoff your credit cards and then pay them on a regular basis the agreed upon amount. Having the agreement in writing is important, even though you may not feel you need it originally. This can help avoid any unanticipated problems in the future should there be any misunderstandings. If this is an available option, though, it is an effective form of consolidation.

Finally, credit card debt consolidation can be accomplished through more formal terms by utilizing the services of a debt settlement program or the debt consolidation services through an organization, company or bank. Many non-profit organizations or similar debt settlement companies will negotiate with your creditors for a reduced interest rate and payment amount to help you avoid the need to take out a consolidation loan. If you do need to take out a consolidation loan, these companies or a bank can assist with that as well.

Debt settlement, debt negotiation, debt consolidation, and bankruptcy. The ways to get out of debt are numerous. Each method has its pluses and minuses. But are there ways to get out of debt without ruining your credit? This article will give you some tips on how to get out of debt and preserve a good credit rating.

The way debt settlement works is that you put money each month into a settlement fund that you can use to “settle your debts” when the time comes. In the meantime you are not making any payments to your credit card companies and that makes them unhappy so they charge you the highest interest rate they can and charge you as many fees as they are legally able to. You can imagine what kind of effect this has on your credit rating.

When you go with debt consolidation, you make a payment to the credit counselor and they distribute your payment to the credit card companies. Minus their fee of course. They can lower your interest rate and lower your payment but most of the time, this is due to extending the term of your consolidation loan.

The credit card companies will report the act of using a debt consolidation company as working with a third party. This has a negative effect on your credit report.

Which leaves bankruptcy. Do you even need to know what this does to your credit? It is ruined for a minimum of 7 years, usually 10 and possibly much longer.

So how are you to get out of debt and have a good credit score? To have a good credit score you have to make your payments on time. When you go with any of the above debt relief methods, you are not making your payments on time so your credit rating drops.

You can get out of debt yourself, you can make higher minimum payments, increase your income, cut back your spending, and cut up the credit cards to eliminate the chance you get tempted to charge something you really don’t need. It will not be easy to get out of debt. If it was, no one would be in debt.