If you find yourself needing debt help there are a number of strategies you can employ to try to get out of debt. Some are easier than others but they all have merit and depending on what ultimately works for you hopefully you can become debt free.
- Negotiation. If you find yourself in debt you can always ask for forgiveness. Debt negotiation is not always easy to do. Pride can get in the way. It is hard enough to admit your debt let alone discuss it with your debtors. Most people just want to hide from their debt. But when confronted by your debtor why not try to negotiate the debt down?
- Consolidation. If you have debt chances are good it could be spread across a number of accounts that all have different rates. Some rates may be reasonable others may be very high. Consolidating your debt under one low interest loan will free up hundreds, perhaps thousands in interest payments both monthly and over the term of the loan.
- Pay off Largest Interest Rates. Attack the debt with the highest interest rates first. The sooner you can get rid of this debt the sooner you stop paying a ton of interest. We just did that when we paid off my university student loans. Simple enough logic, right?
- Maybe not! Pay off your Smallest Debts. There is a certain satisfaction to paying off a debt. The easiest way to do that is to pay off the smallest debts you have. Eliminate one and you gain confidence to tackle the next in line. Perhaps take out one or two small debts than go after that massive high interest debt? Just a thought …
- Make a payment plan. You really need to figure out that one of the best ways to get debt help is to make your payments on a regular basis. Talk to your debtors. They want your money and prefer to plan with you than against you.
- Pay with cash – Stop borrowing. Stop putting more credit onto your debts. STOP. Heck, stop buying stuff. You need to control your spending and budget properly.
- Declare Bankruptcy. You’d almost think this would be a last resort and in my opinion, it is. The damage from declaring bankruptcy will follow you for years and years and years. There are options, take this as a last resort and as such …
- See a credit counselor. Pay the person and get your finances in order. Get some debt help. If you can’t handle any of the above this is a good idea in my opinion (which is not professional financial advice).
I think these are all excellent things to consider. I especially like the first one, negotiate and open up the lines of comunication. You never know what you will get if you don’t ask. Yes, also stop buying stuff, harder than it sounds, but critical.
Ultimately, the lender wants their money and if approached civilly may help you make those payments by providing an interest moratorium or if you’re lucky agree to forgive some of the debt.
Great tips SPF – Thanks!
#7 should have bee at last. nice list it is. Another point is to increase income, somehow
Thanks SB. I think most people would increase income if they could.
Great tips! I agree with you, declaring Bankruptcy should always be the last resort. Nothing good can really come of it! Also, I would suggest making a list of expenditures and really starting to cut expenses as much as possible to limit the increase of debt and to be able to pay down the debt.
Another good idea. Spend less = more to apply to debt.
Great tips! Don’t forget to sell stuff. Get rid of all the extra stuff around your home to generate extra money to pay off some of the debt.
Great point. De-clutter with a garage sale works well to drum up some cash.