Hello my name is Steve Bis and I’ve been assisting people that are in debt with their unsecured credit card debts for a while now and am aware of the effects it has on their lives. When you have credit card debt and think that this matter is no longer something you can control, you must make a choice on what to do and make it as soon as you can. You don’t want to wait until it is too late. As plenty of you already know is that the creditors are not polite when you contact them with issues with billing. It’s very exciting 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 contact them to complain about a late or over limit charge and attempt to have it reversed enough trying to maintain payments with 9.9% or even the 7.9 % interest that they are charging on your accounts. How are you suppose to come up with the money for the higher payments now? It was dreadful enough to manage before the interest was raised. This is the reason U.S. citizens are searching for other options such as debt settlement (http://www.uscaonline.com/What_Is_Debt_Settlement_Credit_Card_Debt_Settlement_Programs.html) vs. credit counseling, or bankruptcy. If you are not familiar with any of your options then I will give you a little information on them.

Bankruptcy

Up until late 2004 bankruptcy was to be used for people who were having serious financial troubles. Sadly it was mistreated by far too many U.S. citizens who wanted to avoid paying their debts. They didn’t want to be accountable for their misgivings. The credit card industry was fed up with this so they lobbied to have the laws changed. It is now referred to as the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection act of 2005. This would make it harder for most debtors to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy. Bankruptcy should only be considered as your last resort option after you have tried every alternative option. Also you should contemplate the negative aftereffects that might come back later down the road. You would have to locate an attorney, go to court and that could cost you a lot of money. There is also the issue of it being on your credit history for a long time. When you filling out any significant application or document you will always have to answer yes when inquired about your previous bankruptcy, so this does have a extremely long lasting effect on your ability to obtain future credit.

Consumer Credit Counseling

Everyway you turn, either it is advertised on the radio or television, you will hear about consumer credit counseling. A credit counseling organization will attempt to get the creditors to lower the interest rate on your credit cards. You then make one monthly installment to the consumer credit counseling organization and they then make your payments to each one of your creditors on your behalf. The down fall to this choice is even though they lower your interest rate on your credit card balances you might still pay back as much as 130% of what you currently owe.

This is because with this sort of plan you will still be paying back what the full original balance was plus some of the interest for around possibly five years or more. Almost 50% of the debtors that are in credit counseling don’t finish the program for one reason or another. Another downfall to credit counseling is that if you have a money problem and are miss your monthly payment they will kick you out of the program instantly. They will also increase your interest back up and the creditor could keep you off for a minimum of one year and sometimes even longer. This could put you right back to where you started from, if not in a tougher situation.

Credit Card Debt Settlement

This is the avenue where you can save the most amount of money. A good debt settlement company (http://www.uscaonline.com/What_Is_Debt_Settlement_Credit_Card_Debt_Settlement_Programs.html) will save you at least 40% of what you are said to have to payback. The 40% should include all the fees as well. Just as with consumer credit counseling, you will hear a lot of TV and radio advertisements very frequently. These companies are starting up all over the United States. Some of these companies try to make it sound like they have a magical wand and are going to make all your debt vanish overnight.

There are also many companies that try to use religion to obtain the trust of debtors. No matter what organization you intend on hiring it is your responsibility to due diligence on them. You can always begin with the BBB (Better Business bureau). You may be able to find out quite a bit about a company from them. If you soon realize that a company has only been in settling debts for a little while and has a lot of complaints against them, then you know to avoid them. One more thing to keep an eye out for is how long has the company been around. Some companies only make it a couple of years before they go out of business or get caught stealing people’s money. Then some of them only stick around to make as much money as they can and close down just to open up right next doorwith a different name] and will continue to do this over and over.

You need to feel secure with the person you are conversing with as well as the debt settlement organization. If they are really pushy and trying to get you to sign a contract within the first few minutes of the conversation you need to be very careful. This is not a financial decision you want to rush into head first. Really, how can a company know they can help you out without going over your situation first? There are far too many companies out there that only tell you all the positive aspects about debt settlement. They tell you not to fret anything. This is a extremely simple process and nothing negative will ever happen to you. That is a crock of you know what. It is not a extremely simple process and it is not the best choice for every debtor. Some debtors still get duped by them because that company candy coated everything and did not offer them full disclosure. For many debtors debt settlement can really get you back on your feet and out of debt in under three years, while saving you thousands of dollars off your current balance.

One more issue to remember is most of the companies make all their money within the first six months of the the program. Now I will ask you this question, what motivation will that company have to negotiate the best possible settlement on your behalf if they know that they are not going to make any more money from you? There is none! So you see, if that company understands that why would they keep working on trying to get you the best settlement. This happens all the time. They really don’t care at that point. They take anything your collectors’ offer, in turn meaning you put out more of your hard earned money You need to locate a company that makes its money the old fashion way, by earning it. Make sure they answer all your debt settlement inquries. I hope this has offered you a good understanding of the varied choices you have to becoming debt free. Thank youThanks a lot and have a good [night.

source : http://www.uscaonline.com/