Debt Relief Options

Did you know that Americans currently owe nearly $14-trillion in debt? While we can agree that not all debt is bad debt, such as mortgages – which is one marker of the sign of the health of the economy—we can all agree that too much personal debts from credit cards and the like is a bad thing. For most people, looking for a strategy to find debt relief doesn’t become a priority until things money is tight. At this point in the debt relief journey, many of the simple debt relief strategies may not be effective. It’s time to get creative – and this is where you run in to some tricky legal ground.

Some debt relief tactics are within the law, although they’re hardly anything to brag about. The first option to consider is a debt consolidation loan whereby you bad debts may be lumped together in one. While this may work for some debt relief, it doesn’t help your credit score at all. And being able to manage a home and business loan, which is a debt consolidation loan, is sometimes unrealistic. What if the needed consolidation is much more complicated than a simple home loan?

For example, one of the common requests I get from people looking for debt relief is for me to help them get their credit card debt. Most of the time, it’s because one of the interest-only payments was not made and the balance increased even with on-time payments otherwise. Because a credit card company doesn’t allow card holders to opt out of interest, even card holders who have excellent credit can run into trouble.

Loan counseling is another debt relief option. This option is usually intended for high-interest loans. A debt counselor works with you to negotiate the situation with your lending agency. They may also talk you out of getting a consolidation loan and work to get your credit score up in other ways. But, again, this can be a slow process and if you need debt relief now, it won’t be effective.

Another option is to file for bankruptcy. While this option may sound stressful, many people often find bankruptcy to be one of the best decisions they have ever made. They are able to reduce their debt and improve their credit. Ask an experience Houston bankruptcy attorney today how they can help you make an educated choice about your debt.