As I said before, I have paid all of my credit cards off. But I realize that there are many people who can’t pay their debt off and are struggling to get back on the track. So I decided to do some research about ways that you can get rid of your debts (pay them off, consolidate, and more) and write a post about it here - without any affiliation or bias toward any service that is offered out there…
There are actually quite many options in front of you if you are in debt and it seems like you can’t get out of them:
1- Debt Consolidation: is when you owe money to different credit companies and can’t make your minimum monthly payments. You can go to one of the debt consolidation companies and they will pay your debt off. Now you owe all of that previous money to only one company who understands that you are in financial trouble. So they usually give you a better interest rate and lower your monthly payments - sometimes the debt consolidation companies simply negotiate with your current credit card companies to get you the better rates and lower monthly payments.This way you can start paying the minimum amounts, which in time pays your debt off and also builds your credit back. However, be careful as there are many dishonest debt consolidation companies. So it is always a good practice to read some reviews about whoever you are trying to contact before actually doing business with them. Here is a
calculator that can show you how much you can save by consolidating.
2- Get money: Obviously if you can get your hands on a good amount of cash you can pay your debts off and with some self restraint you can get back on the track. One way is getting a school loan (if you are in school) more than what you really need for school (sometimes this is against the loaners policy so read their policies first) and use the money to pay your debt off. You can also get a new mortgage on your house. This is exceptionally good right now due to low interest rates. But remember money doesn’t solve money problems. If you pay your debts off you still should be careful not to get back to where are right now.
3- Bankruptcy: This should be your last resort. Filing bankruptcy is really bad for your credit and it take decades to recover from. But you always have this option if you have absolutely no other options. I will later write a complete post just on bankruptcy, how it works, how you can file one, and how it will affect you.
Categories: Paying Your Debt Off
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