Partners For Life: Credit Card Bills and Debt ConsolidationMeet the

Partners For Life: Credit Card Bills and Debt Consolidation
Meet the Batman - Robin tandem of the 21st century. Or the New Mr. and Mrs. Tom Cruise. Or Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie if and when they 'fess up. Today, thanks to inflation, terrorist threats, the euro going up and the dollar going down, citizens of the United States of America realize in horror that they are just a statistic in a financial report. Their horrific situation is utterly ordinary. They're broke. And what do the government have to say? Get over it and go back to work.

So that's where debt consolidation comes along. The credit card is an amazing thing because it lets you spend so much. Actually, it lets you spend money that you don't really have. But in the end, well that's when it gets tricky. Credit card bills start knocking on your door and you find yourself wondering if you really spent all that or was it your alter ego holding the credit card in a trip to Macy's. But of course it was you. And since borrowing more from your bank is totally out of the question, you have to take the next option available and that could be debt consolidation.

Debt consolidation is where you gather all your bills together, credit card bills especially because they're somehow more harrowing than the others, grab a calculator and add them all up. When you're done, you present this to the representative of a debt consolidation company and see how he or she works out everything.

Now, don't start thinking that debt consolidation is like a modern fairy godmother out to make your credit card bills disappear in one big poof. Sorry, folks but this is reality and things don't work out quite that way. Sadly, your credit card bills would remain visible and concrete, proof that you owe loads of money to several financial institutions. And that's when the debt consolidation rep you're talking to comes in. First, she'll ask you your budget and just how much you can afford right now. Debt consolidation companies have to know about their clients' financial history to be able to negotiate more competently with their clients' creditors. They have to know how much you're earning, how many credit cards you have, what loans and bills are there to be paid off etc. When that's done, these debt consolidation companies then approach the people behind the bills: the creditors, in other words. They talk to the managers behind that credit card bill staring at you so accusingly from your office desk. They ask if it's possible to give you some more leeway so you have an opportunity to continue paying them. If you go bankrupt, neither would win. Debt consolidation representatives can make the interest rates of your credit card bills lower, the monthly payments decrease, the payoff time shorten and so on.

The important thing to know before choosing this particular tandem approach however is being sure that you can really work things out this way. If you feel that using debt consolidation to pay off your debts, like credit card bills, is just like papering cracks on the walls then don't do it. You'll simply be worse off. Debt consolidation, like most things, requires determination, self-control and dedication. And if you are incapable of any of those qualities then my advice is to find another solution.


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Pay it Back Strategically.When you're paying back debts, a little

Pay it Back Strategically.
When you're paying back debts, a little strategy can make a difference of hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The best strategy is simple, but effective.

List Your Debts.

Write down a list of every debt you have, how much it is, and what the interest rate is. You might have trouble finding this information, but it's worth getting it all together in one place and write it down. You can't manage your situation strategically if you don't even know it, can you?

Remember to include your credit cards (with the different rates and balances for purchases and cash advances), other cards, loans, mortgages, and even money you've borrowed from friends and family. Every bit of debt counts, and you're trying to get it down to absolute zero.

Bad Debts and Good Debts.

Go through your debts and mark them 'good' or 'bad'. You might think this is odd, but some kinds of debt are nowhere near as bad as others. A mortgage, for example, is an investment in a house, paid over a fixed term - there's no real risk of paying a ridiculous amount of interest or never getting it paid off, like you could with a credit card.

Good debts: mortgages, student loans, car loans.
Bad debts: credit cards, store cards.

As a rule, good debts are for a fixed amount of time and allow you to buy something valuable that you cannot afford, while bad debts are 'revolving' and are just used instead of cash.

Time to Prioritise.

Cross your good debts off your list, for now - you shouldn't think about paying them off more quickly until you've got all your bad debts out of the way.

Now, arrange your debts in order of interest rate, with the highest interest rate at the top. The chances are that the debt at the top will be a store card or credit card, which could have a really huge interest rate. Try to transfer as much money as you can from the high-interest cards down the list to the lower-interest ones.

Once you've done that, focus all your energy on repaying the new top debt. Pay the minimum on everything else, and throw as much money as you can find at the problem. If you have any non-essential monthly commitments, consider cancelling them for a while, and putting that money towards your payments. Stop saving, just for a while. Try keeping track of where your money goes, just for a month - you might find that you're spending loads on something you don't even want or need.

Do your best to give up any expensive habits you might have. You'll be shocked how fast your debts can go down if you put the money you'd usually spent on smoking, drinking or gambling towards them! I'm not trying to spoil your fun here. You're just making some small sacrifices for a while, and your life will be so much better for it in the long run.

You have to be aggressive against that top debt, and determined to defeat it. This is a war, you're on the attack, and you want to win against your debt. Don't you?


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