Clear Debt Solutions: How To Eliminate Credit Card Debt

1. Credit Card Debt Management
2. Credit Card Debt Consolidation Loan
3. Credit Card Debt Settlement

There are hundreds of "non-profit consumer credit counseling agencies" that have sprung up in recent years. They work with the credit card companies to reduce interest rates and work out a clear debts management plan over a two to five-year period. They usually collect a monthly servicing fee along with a lump-sum monthly payment and forward the individual payments to your creditors.

This is only a good option if you are not self-disciplined enough to handle the plan I'll discuss later on your own. Consumer credit counseling may be reported on you credit report and reduce your score.

A better way to manage credit card debt is to add up all of the monthly payments you are making. Let's say you have 5 accounts and you can afford to pay $200, $100, $75, $50, and $25 for a total of $450 per month.The minimum required payments are $300 which is mostly interest. Instead of spreading that extra $150 over all of the accounts, make the minimum payments on all but the lowest outstanding balance. Apply the extra $150 to the lowest balance accounts first. Once that one is paid off you will have an extra $25 on top of the $150 to apply to the next highest. Then another $50 by the time the next one is paid off to apply to the next highest balance. By the time you get to the last account with the largest balance you will have the full $450 per month going just towards that account.

You can reward yourself with a special dinner or something you like to do. Each time you payoff an account. Your accounts will seem like they are being paid off a lot faster and you can have a little fun each time you pay off a credit card account.

If you have good credit there are several options for a credit card debt consolidation loan.

• Person to person lending sites offer better interest rates than most credit cards. Your credit score will also increase by paying down the balances and getting a new installment loan.
• Various home equity loans, lines of credit and even a bad debt remortgage or refinance loan.

Make sure you are saving money on monthly payments or interest and not just lowering your payments and stretching out the credit card debt over a longer period of time.

Credit card debt settlement is when you or a debt settlement company negotiates an amount less than what is owed to payoff and satisfy the debt. Sometimes settling or filing bankruptcy is the only option for someone who has poor credit or has defaulted on a debt.

Many companies advertise they can reduce your debt by a very large percentage. Beware of these tempting offers. Usually you can a get 40% to 50% discount but larger discounts are few and far between.

Whichever clear debt option you choose to eliminate credit card debt make sure you do you research and don't rush into a plan that will put you or your other assets in jeopardy.