Filing for bankruptcy is an extreme move, not a quick fix. It’s a long, painful process with a huge stigma, and you’re unlikely to be able to get any kind of credit for ten years afterwards. Yet bankruptcies are on the rise. Out of ignorance or stupidity, more and more people seem to be using bankruptcy as a first option, instead of a last resort. Before you do it, make sure you’ve considered every alternative.

Have You Reorganised Your Debt?

If you haven’t tried debt consolidation or negotiation, you really should. Yes, you’ll have to pay back your debts eventually, but surely that’s better than bankruptcy, isn’t it?

Sell Everything You Can.

It’s better to sell everything you own than it is to go into bankruptcy. Move to a smaller house. Sell your cars and take the bus. Take a good, hard look at your life, and realise that there are very few true ‘basics’: you can do without almost everything. Your house is probably full of quite valuable things that you never use, so bite the bullet and get rid of them. In short, subtract your debt payments from your income, and live like someone who earns that much.

You are going to lose almost everything you own if you declare bankruptcy, so you might as well try to sell it yourself at a better price and avoid the bankruptcy issue altogether.

Work More.

If you can get extra hours, do it. Being bankrupt is such an indignity that you should at least try going to your boss and asking for a pay rise or promotion. After all, the worst they can do is say no. They’re going to find out about it anyway if you declare bankruptcy, and they might wonder why you didn’t come and ask for their help. Also, if you’re married and only one of you works, try to get the other a job – you never know, it might even be fun!

Use the Power of Threats.

One of the best things to do when you’re considering bankruptcy is to write a letter to absolutely everyone you owe money to, letting them know. Make it a very clear threat: “if I cannot find a way of paying my debts then I will be forced to file for bankruptcy”. Most creditors would rather let you pay back a tiny fraction of what you owe than have to try to get money out of a bankrupt.

Know Your Local Laws.

Bankruptcy laws vary enormously depending on where you are. There are some places where you’ll be forced to give up everything you own to pay your creditors, some places where you at least get to keep your house, and some where you can declare yourself bankrupt and not even notice! Try to get a lawyer – you might think that you can’t afford one, but many will work ‘pro bono’ (for free) for people who really need a lawyer but can’t pay.

In all your dealings with credit cards, remember this one thing: they don’t want you to pay. The moment you pay back everything you owe, you’re free from their interest, and that’s not what they want. They want you to keep on paying them a little every month for the rest of your life, making them a steady profit on things you long since forgot about buying.

Revolving Debt.

Most credit cards are what’s called ‘revolving’ debt – the only real exceptions are American Express and Diner’s Club cards, which must still be paid off in full every month. They aren’t really ‘credit’ cards at all – they’re charge cards for people who could afford to pay in cash anyway.

Revolving debt means that you can pay off as much as you like each month, or you can just pay the minimum, and you can run up as much debt as you want each month, up to the maximum. Unlike a fixed-term loan (a 20-year mortgage, for example), you don’t know how much your payments are going to be, and you don’t know when you’re going to stop paying. Each new purchase can dramatically extend the time that it’s going to take you to get your balance back down to $0.

With a credit card, then, it’s perfectly possible to keep running a ‘balance’ (a debt) on your card forever, spending a little sometimes and paying a little back sometimes – and always paying interest. This is why credit cards are so profitable for them, and so expensive for you.

Add the Interest in Your Head.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you’ll never have to pay your credit card’s interest – sooner or later, for some reason, you will. A good strategy is to add your card’s yearly interest rates to everything you buy when you’re thinking about the price. If that thing is worth $100 to you, is it worth $115 (15% interest added)?

Likewise, if you buy something with your savings, take off the interest you get on your savings as a mental discount. This will help you to make the differences between savings and debt feel more real – saving instead of having debt is like having a money-off coupon you carry around with you all the time.

A Dollar Today Isn’t a Dollar Tomorrow.

You probably don’t think about it, but using a credit card basically makes your money worth less than it would be usually. That’s why it feels so hard to pay a credit card back – if you borrow a dollar from a credit card at 15% interest, sit on it for five years, and then give it back, guess what? You still owe them the dollar. The dollar you gave them back was eaten up by interest.

This is one of the biggest things you need to understand about credit card debt: the longer you have it for, the bigger the problem it gets. If you have a problem, the last thing you should do is ignore it, because it will only get worse – you have to try and beat it early.

Building your credit is a sure-fired solution for stopping creditors and collection agencies from nagging you every day. If you are attempting to reestablish your status in life, you must realize there is a bumpy road ahead. Creditors are people you owe and if you do not pay, the creditors will go lengths to get their money. Regardless of the laws and regulations stipulated on credit bureaus, creditors, collection agencies, and other sources that collect debt, many will break all the laws, simply because they want their money. Money has been the root of all humankind evil and when it comes to money, everybody wants some. The best solution to stopping creditors and collection agencies ahead of the game is to pay those bills on time. If you have utilities, insurance policies, car payments, mortgages, credit cards, and other debts you might want to layout a budget plan that you can meet each month. Combining all your payments will help you see where dangers lurk. If you see, any potential risks ahead make sure to find a solution ahead of the game to avoid creditors and collection agency hassles. No one likes it when people nag us, but when we owe money, you can bet your last dollar nagging is in the making. Do not bite off more than you can chew. If you see that, you are in debt deeper than you thought do not go out to the department stores and shop until you drop. This will only make matters worse and you are risking your home, car, and other assets in the process. If you see that you are in over your head or potential risks could develop, you might want to get ahead by selling a few valuable items. When you are paid for, the items make sure you apply the funds to your bills, or else open a savings account that will benefit you and your money. Savings that offer no start up fees or interest against your money is the best solution for saving cash. If you get money back or interest on your money in the bank, how much better, you are making money. Money is what makes the world go around, so if you can make money you will have a solution for building your credit. The last thing you want is escalating to a debt you can get out of and having creditors call you daily. After creditors calls, then you will get calls from collection agencies. After the two are done torturing you mentally, you will have to deal with lawyers, judges, and other potential threatening personnel. I point this out because many people do not realize the severity of ignoring their bills. If you have a good credit standing currently, it is wise to get copies of your credit reports from the three B’s. Keeping your file on hand and current can help you to monitor your credit scores. If you notice any activity on your report that is against you and you did not agree to the debt, it is important to contact the credit bureaus immediately. Your credit is in all aspects of the word your life. If you have bad credit you can be turned down from a job, denied a rental, or turned down when you apply for any line of credit. If you have bad credit you might as well blackball today.

There is hope however if you have bad credit. Government agencies and private institutes are teaming up to help those of us with bad credit. The impossible has happen, because now even if your credit is bad you can get a loan, a home, car, or even a credit card. Pre-paid cards are available to those with bad credit. Pre-paid cards are the same in contrast as major credit cards, only you apply money to the account, paying a low fee and then you can use the card. The world is starting to recognize the struggles that happen every day for many families and individuals, the best solution however for stopping creditors is to build your credit by paying those bills. Never give up hope!

A problem called ‘Credit Card Debt ‘

Credit cards are no more a luxury, they are almost a necessity. So, you would imagine a lot of people going for credit cards. In fact, a lot of people posses more than one credit cards. So, the credit card industry is growing by leaps and bounds. However, the credit card industry and credit card holders are posed with a big problem called ‘Credit Card Debt’. In order to understand what ‘credit card debt’ actually means, we need to understand the workflow associated with the use of credit cards as such.

Credit cards, as the name suggests, are cards on which you can get credit i.e. make borrowings (your credit card debt). Your credit card is a representative of the credit account that you hold with the credit card supplier. Whatever payments you make using your credit card are actually your borrowings that contribute towards your credit card debt. Your total credit card debt is the total amount you owe credit card supplier. You must settle your credit card debt on a monthly basis. So, you receive a monthly statement or your credit card bill which shows your total credit card debt. You must pay off your credit card debt by the payment due date failing which you will incur late fee and interest charges. However, you have the option of making a partial (minimum) payment too, in which case you don’t incur late fee but just the interest charges on your credit card debt. If you don’t pay off your credit card debt in full, the interest charges too get added to it. So your credit card debt keeps on increasing, more so because the interest rates on credit card debt are generally higher than the interest rates on other kind of loans/borrowings. Further, the interest charges add on to your credit card debt each month to form the new balance or the new credit card debt amount. If you continue making partial payments (or no payments) the interest charges are calculated afresh on the new credit card debt. So you end up paying interest on the last month’s interest too. Thus your credit card debt accumulates rapidly and soon you find that what was once a relatively small credit card debt has ballooned into a big amount which you find almost impossible to pay. Moreover, if you don’t still control your spending habits, your credit card debt rises even faster. This is how the vicious circle of credit card debt works.

Building credit is building a better future. Nowadays it takes good credit scores to purchase a home, buy a car, and get a credit card and so on. If your credit is bad usually more bad follows. It takes you to find a solution to repair your credit. The fist step in repairing your credit is to take a look at each bill, including your past due bills. Make sure the current bills are paid in full if possible to avoid any more reporting on your credit report. Once you have taken care of your current bills work toward paying off your late bills.     Some current bills such as utilities or other unsecured bills can wait longer than others, so you might want to payoff your secured bills first. Secured bills means that you have more to loose so you want to take care of those first before paying off nonessential bills and risking losing your home, car or whatever you are paying on.  Most utility companies will wait on a bill if you don’t have the funds. You may be able to get some help paying utilities. The Social Services and some Religious Organizations offer support to low-income families. If you have a loan with a bank you might want to contact your lender to see if there are options for reducing your monthly mortgage or car payments. Some banks are waiting for financial burdens to occur and offer a solution, such as refinancing your home or car. You want to be careful since some of the loans have high interest rates attached. Some loans may even have hidden charges attached so it makes sense to read the fine prints thoroughly so that you are not taking advantage of. Remember you are attempting to repair your credit so finding the best deals is important. This brings us to cut backs. When we are striving to repair our credits we want to cut back on spending as much as possible. Sometimes we have to do without in order to better our future. Credit repair is the process of building your credit history and reestablishing your life. This process means that you have to look at all angles to find a solution to repair your credit. When you are searching those angles you need to consider all aspects of what the solutions include. If there are added charges you probably are getting in deeper rather than building a better future and repairing your credit. Debt Counselors, Deb Consolidation, Bankruptcy and other companies that offer credit repair solutions are often the last resort to repairing credit. Even if you think bankruptcy is the answer you must realize you will need a few hundred dollars upfront to start the process. Lawyers are not cheap! On top of the high prices you will have to pay you will also go through court proceedings as well as many other headaches. Therefore if you can find a way out of debt on your own this is the best solution. If you are in over your head and have nothing to loose it might be wise to ignore your debts. This sounds ludicrous but if you can’t get out this sometimes is the only answer to debt relief. If you are on the spot and not so deep in debt you might ask your family or friends for a loan, only enough to pay off your debts. You might have to pay interest, but friends and family will often charge less and give you a longer time frame to repay your debt. The solution is often better than applying for a loan to payoff your debts from a bank. Most lenders at bank are welcoming people that are struggling and take full advantage by finding you a loan with high interest rates. Your monthly installments are often lower, but your price in the end is steep. It makes sense to search all options before deciding which solution for repairing your credit is right for you. Always keep in mind when you are repairing credit that you are working toward a better future.