You don't have to hire a pricey credit repair service to fix your credit and get rid of your credit card debt. In fact, you can fix your credit yourself for free if you want to. I can't say that it will be easy, but neither are the easy promises that professional services make.
Do not sign a contract with an expensive credit repair service that locks you in for a long time. Don't buy any books or software to help you fix your credit. Instead, you should focus on three easy, free steps to get rid of bad credit.
First, find out what's really going on. Check your credit reports. Every consumer can get a free credit report once a year from the three major credit reporting agencies. Also, if you've recently been turned down for credit, you can ask for a report at that time. You can get your credit report without paying for it or joining a programme. This will give you a good idea of how your credit is doing, but you should also get the most recent statements from each of your creditors. Not only will these give you useful contact information for the next two steps, but they also usually have the most up-to-date information about your payments, balance, and interest rates.
Once you have summed up your situation, you can move on to step two, which is easy: take all of your credit cards out of your wallet. You can cut them up and throw them away, but you need to do something else important after that. Close those accounts and don't get any more credit cards until your credit is good again. If you keep adding to your debt, you won't be able to get out of trouble.
The last step in fixing your bad credit and getting rid of your credit card debt will take the most time, be the hardest, and cause you the most stress. Now you need to figure out what to do. Stop making payments on your credit cards. This is the first step. Now, put aside for a few months the money you would use to make those payments. When your credit card company calls about late payments, be polite but clear that you can't pay the bill right now but are working on a plan to pay off your debts. Tell them to wait until next month to call again. Minimum payments will never be enough to pay off your debt, so it's best to combine the money until it adds up to a sum that can help you the most. After a few months, when you have enough money to pay about one-third of one of your bills, call the company and offer to pay that one-third. Some companies might agree to the settlement right away, while others might take a while. Most of your creditors will likely settle for half or less of what you owe if you stand firm, combine your payments, and wait them out (on average).
With these three easy steps, you can fix your credit and get rid of your credit card debt on your own. Just explain your situation, take out your money, and start calling. You can do it.
