Millions of Americans are looking for credit card relief. Credit card debt is estimated to be over $10,000 for a quarter of the population. If people are only making the minimum payments each month then they will never be debt free. That is unless that take drastic measures to seek credit card relief.

There many ways to achieve credit card relief. The most widely used option is to obtain the assistance of a credit counseling or settlement agency that will actually offer a guarantee of how much they will reduce your balance by. The reduction can be as much as 60 percent. You have to be careful when choosing which agency to use, however. If you pick the wrong one you may very well spend all your supposed savings paying them to save you the money. If this is the case you might as well save the time, and headache, to pay the creditors directly.

What you have to look out for when choosing an agency is first see how much of an up front fee they want you to pay. Then is there a monthly fee that you must endure until the debt is paid in full. If you are not careful these fees can equal upwards to 50 percent of your debt balance. This really gives you a 10 percent savings at best. While this is certainly better than nothing, with a bit of home work you can save more and get some real credit card relief in the process.

When you choose to use a debt agency you need to take the time to add up the real cost of their services and be sure they are clear in stating what those cost will be. Before you sign any type of contract, check out the agency on a site such as http://ConsumerFed.org to be sure they are legitimate and see if there are any complaints against them. You can also check with the Better Business Bureau.

If you have an extreme amount of debt and are in such need for credit card relief that you are simply unable to repay at any price, you may think that bankruptcy is your only option. However, you need to understand that this choice can have serious long term, and often unrepairable, consequences to your credit standing. You need to dispel the myth that by filing bankruptcy you will magically get a clean slate because this is simply not the case.

The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 requires that, when filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you must pay at least a portion of your debt. This plan for payment generally last two to three years. These payments are going to be on top of your basic monthly expenses and can be set to be as much as 60 percent of your income. If you are already finding it hard to pay for basic necessities, having that much of your disposable income taken is going to be impossible.

If you are unable to keep up with the payments your Chapter 13 case will be dismissed and you will owe the full amount again. This will start the collections process all over and just make you even more desperate for credit card relief. A better option for credit card relief, if you own property with equity and have not damaged your credit too badly, may be an equity loan. While it may not seem wise to get credit card relief by simply shifting the debt to another source, it can save you a great deal in interest because equity loans charge considerably less interest than credit cards.

This option will, however, place your real estate at risk of foreclosure if you default on the equity loan. You need to be certain you will be able to continue to make the additional loan payment on top of any other mortgage payment and you basic needs for the long haul. Look farther into the future and if you are not fairly certain you are going to be able to maintain the payment, seek another option for credit card relief.

Author Bio: Andrew Allen is a top debt solution researcher who offers a variety of alternatives to debt relief on his site Debt Soultion Alternatives. You may also want to check out his 100% Free Get Out of Debt Course and Newsltter, click here.. That particular course provides a answers to take many of your debt related questions. If you are currently more than 10,000.00 in debt you can call 1-877-768-2856 for a FREE debt analysis.

Category: Finances
Keywords: credit card debt, credit card relief, credit card settlement, consolidation, debt solutions