One of the most difficult aspects of getting out of debt is taking a hard, long look at how much money you really owe. It is really easy to just keep ignoring the phone calls and letters, and pretend that the debt does not exist. It may surprise you that you do not owe as much as you think you do, since the brain tends to exaggerate things like this when we are stressed out. If this sounds like you and you have multiple debts that need to be paid, it may be time to consider debt consolidation. Debt consolidation has a few forms. Some people still have a decent enough credit score to apply and qualify for a loan to take care of this themselves, while others (like you and me!) will have to use the services of a debt consolidation company to work this out.
Credit card debt consolidators operate by taking all of your open debt and consolidating it into one amount that you pay to them each and every month. What this means for you is that your debt slowly and steadily gets paid down each month, and you pay an amount that you can afford to do so. Most credit card debt consolidators will add on a fee to each monthly payment, but this fee will be a fraction (a small one at that) of what you would have been stuck with in interest, fines, and penalties on your credit cards. The fee is also usually less than what you would pay in interest on a loan that would do the same thing. The worst thing you can do right now is to keep paying it off. Your interest is growing as you read this, so get started!
A debt and bill consolidation program is an agreement where you work with a debt consolidator to clear all of your outstanding debts in a slow and calculated way. The credit consolidator will work with the companies that you owe money to work your debt down to a smaller amount by removing some of the fines and penalties. It will not always work, but many credit consolidators have a very high success rate in negotiations. Keep in mind that a creditor or collection company would much rather get a portion of your money than nothing at all from you. After they have completed negotiations, the consolidator will work with you to create a budget that you can manage, and a monthly payment you can afford. They then pay your money to the creditors to take care of your debt.
There are lots of places and websites that offer free debt advice. They will usually offer advice on credit consolidation and debt management, but rarely on how to prevent getting yourself into credit card debt trouble. The most helpful free debt advice I have seen is for people who are in tax debt. The IRS website is chock-full of hundreds of articles on managing and dealing with tax debt. As for credit card debt, a simple google search will turn up thousands of articles for you to read. Be sure to read a lot of them so that you can get a feel for what is honest and helpful advice, and what is not. Be wary of people who are looking to charge you for advice on the internet, most everything that you need to know will be available for free somewhere else.
Bill consolidation is the best option to get out of debt after all other methods have been exhausted and you are not ready for the repercussions of bankruptcy. The reason that you should do your best to pay off your debts on your own is because the use of a debt consolidation company will remain on your credit score for years to come, and prevent your score from rebounding as much as it could have. If you cannot make even the minimum monthly payments on all of your debts, it may be time to look into bill consolidation. If you have defaulted on loans and credit cards, but want to do what you can to not have to take the route of bankruptcy, consolidation is also a good option.