Consolidate Student Loans

If you have thousands of dollars in credit card debt, like many North Americans you are probably paying a very high interest rate just to stay even and pay those "minimum payments". A good option in many cases is to avoid filing bankruptcy and consolidate your debt. If you have $15,000 dollars on your credit cards right now, you may be paying as much as 20% interest per year. That is close to $300 dollars per month and you are not even paying off your debt. You are just maintaining... If you consolidate your debt into one, low monthly payment, you can probably trim that down to $100 dollars per month, or even less. In other words, you can become debt free faster. (Or, if you want you can buy more stuff, but I would not recommend that. )

Credit reports often have incorrect items on them. A credit repair company can help fix these items so you get the loans you want without paying higher interest rates reserved for those with low FICO. You can also do it yourself with a credit repair kit, or a simple letter to the credit bureaus. However, doing it yourself takes a lot of time, so you must decide how much your time is worth and do a cost-benefit analysis. If it takes you 10 hours to fix your credit report, and a law firm charges you 40 dollars to do the same thing, it might be worth it. The only way to know for sure is to investigate your options.

More than 50% of college freshmen today owe over $1,500 in credit card debt. When kids have such credit problems it is no surprise that, as adults, we have even bigger problems. We are trained from when we are young, some would say brainwashed, to use credit like there is no tomorrow. For kids, there never is. But when you want to get a loan, our credit is the single most-important factor in the rate we will pay. Keep your credit report clean, pay off your debt, and if you need help, contact a credit counselor at one of the non-profit organizations in your state.

Watch out for bankruptcy firms that mascarade as debt consolidation companies. You do not want to declare bankruptcy in most cases. Visit the FTC's web site for more information Ads Promising Debt Relief May Be Offering Bankruptcy

The FTC also offers some good advice in picking choosing a credit counselor: Choosing a Credit Counselor.