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My name is Steve Bis and I have been helping those that are in arrears with their credit cards for a considerable amount of time and know the negative consequences it has on people’s lives. When you have credit card debt and believe that this matter is out of control, you need to make a choice on what to do and make it as soon as possible. You should not procrastinate until it is too late. As the majority of you must already know is that the creditors are not helpful when you call them with issues with your statement. It’s extremely remarkable the way it works because when you first get the card they are pretty nice people while you are on the phone. Then if you call them to dispute a past due or over limit penalty fee and try to have it , they might let you off with one a year, if that agent is in a pleasant mood. When it comes down to it what choices do you have? It’s not like you can stop making payments on your rent/mortgage or other requirements for you and your familyget bye with day to day living expenses.

The credit card industry made a chilling 17 billion dollars in over limit and late fees in 2006 and it will be a lot higher in the near future. Now I am sure that it has happened to you, where you’ve gone and open your monthly credit card bill only to discover that your APR has just about doubled or even tripled. It is bad enough trying to keep up with 8% or even the 7.9 % interest that they are charging on your accounts. How are you suppose to cover the elevated payments now? It was cumbersome enough to manage before the interest skyrocketed. This is why many U.S. consumers are seeking out other options such as credit card debt settlement vs. credit counseling, or bankruptcy. If you are not familiar with any of your options then I will offer you a little bit of an education on them.

Bankruptcy

Prior to 2005 bankruptcy was to be used for consumers who were fighting through serious money troubles. Regrettably it was abused by thousands of Americans who were trying to evade paying their credit card debts. They didn’t want to take responsibility for their actions. The credit card companies were sick and tired of this so they pushed to have the legislation changed. It is now referred to as the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection act of 2005. This would make it more difficult for the majority of consumers to file for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy should only be exercised as your very last choice after you have considered every conceivable option. Also you should think of the negative aftereffects that very well might come back later on down the road. You would have to find an attorney, go to court and that could cost you a substantial amount of money. There is also the matter of it being on your credit report anywhere from 7 to 10 years. When you filling out any significant application or document you will always have to say yes when inquired about your previous bankruptcy, so this does have a very negative long lasting effect on your ability to obtain future credit.

Debt Consolidation Credit Counseling

Everywhere you look, either on TV or the radio, you will hear about consumer credit counseling. A credit counseling agency will try to get the creditors to lower the APR on your credit accounts. You then make one monthly payment to the credit counseling agency and they then pay each one of your creditors on your behalf. The downside to this method is even though they lower your APR on your credit card accounts you might still pay back as much as 130% of what you actually owe.

This is because with this sort of program you will still be paying back what the full original balance was plus some of the interest for around 4 to 7 years. Almost half of the individuals that are in credit counseling don’t graduate from the program for missing as much as one payment. Another downfall to credit counseling is that if you have a cash flow problem and are miss your monthly payment they will kick you out of the program immediately. They will also raise your interest back up and the creditor could keep you off for around one year and sometimes even longer. This could put you right back to where you began, if not in a worse situation.

Debt Settlement

This is the debt relief method which can save you the largest amount of money. A ethical texas debt settlement company will save you at least 40% of what you currently owe. The 40% should include all the fees as well. Just like credit counseling, you will hear a lot of radio and television advertisements very frequently. These organizations are popping up all across our beloved country. Some of these companies try to make it sound like they have a magical stick and are going to make all your debt vanish out of nowhere.

There are even some companies that try to use religion to gain the trust of consumers. Whichever company you choose it is your responsibility to do research on them. You can always start with the BBB (Better Business bureau). You should be able to find out quite a bit about a company from the Better Business Bureau. If you find out that a company has only been in settling debts for a short time and has a lot of complaints against them, then you know to stay away. One more thing to look for is how long has the company been around. Some organizations only make it a couple of years before they go out of business or get caught ripping people off. Then some of them only stay around to make as much as possible and close shop just to open up a few miles awayevening.

Credit card debt reduction will save the consumer tremendous amounts of money.