Credit Card Debt Program

A credit card debt program is sorely needed by many Americans who have gotten into very high unsecured loan debt. Unfortunately, too many people have chosen to live above their income means and the result is a mountain of revolving charge account borrowed money. And if not another purchase is bought on any account and the minimum payment is made, the debt will clear just about the time term limits are voted in for members of Congress. Those mired in steep plastic card liability will find there are two ways out. One is to let a credit counseling company assist, which has its own set of problems, and the other is develop a plan oneself.

A debt counseling service exists everywhere; online with dozens of choices, or perhaps on a street in a town nearby. Many of these services are non-profits which means they started out with the intention of truly serving the public. But make no mistake, both profits and non-profits in this business make money, and even some non-profits have lost their way when it comes to genuine service for the client first. These counseling services offer a credit card debt program designed to get a client out of financial liability within five years. Every company and agency has a different name and a different looking website, but their credit card debt program is the same from company to company. After getting a lot of personal information from the client, these counseling services through negotiations with the card lenders, will cut monthly payments down to between fifty and sixty percent of the original expenditure. These lower payments are due to much lower interest rates and if the client continues paying for the full five years, revolving account obligations will be wiped clean within five years.

But there are a couple of things that are a prickly reality when using a credit counseling service. First, only about thirty percent of clients who begin using the program stay with it to the end. Let's face it; if a person needs a credit card debt program, he has lacked the financial discipline to say no to luxury items that were outside the consumer's income means. Examples would be eating out a lot, a large screen television, that DVD collection, really nice vacations, weekend getaways, some extra clothes or a few expensive pairs of shoes and many other things that just weren't possible unless the plastic was pulled out and scanned. But the problem comes when a person enters into a credit card debt program and the client must discontinue the use of credit cards. The ability to charge without prejudice was an inbred behavior and for almost seventy percent of clients, a behavior that could not be overcome.

The second even more serious drawback to credit counseling is the damage it will inflict on a person's borrowing history and the resulting score. Since chapter thirteen bankruptcy and credit counseling have the same basic idea, that is giving the consumer a plan around the current plastic card lenders' requirements, they both put a large black smear across credit histories that will remain for years. The result for the consumer in either case is more trouble getting future credit when really needed, such as a mortgage and much higher interest rates for the loans that can be obtained. A credit card debt program that requires negotiations for lower payments on charge account debt will hurt the consumer in the long term. God requires that we love Him more than any other thing or person. Jesus made that very clear with these potent words: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." (Matthew 10:37)

But anyone can do a number of things to craft their own credit card debt program and wrestle that debt doggie to the ground and tie it up for good. These first suggestions are not fun, not without some pain and certainly life will be different for a while during the implementation stage. Here is the first thing to do: get busy and sell a bunch of stuff! Clothes, furniture, car, boat, jewelry, electronics can be put on EBay. Listen, lawn furniture in the living room can be kind of chic. Remember that debt decay will not be removed with a root canal. Secondly, and take a deep breath, an extra job nights and weekends with every penny going to debt reduction will be a huge factor in roping in that doggie.

A credit card debt program must include a plan of picking the card with the highest interest rate and begin working on that one first. Pay as much as possible each month on that one, far beyond the minimum payment. The other accounts can be paid with a minimum payment until that one is paid off. Then take the money that was directed toward that account and put it on the next highest interest card. Keep following that pattern until all obligations are obliterated and during all this painful time, have a real long mind forum about materialism in general. The recent bank and stock market upheavals may be an American wakeup call to for all people to get to a much simpler time when a person's character was much more valued than the neighborhood in which he lived.

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