Monday, March 16, 2009

Credit Card Debt Elimination, Part IV

Getting Help

There is hope in getting help for your credit card debt elimination, you just have to do a bit of homework in finding the people/company/resources to get you to whee you want to be. I know that I spent countless hours on the Internet, sometimes late at night, sometimes very early in the morning, but I know that it was more hours than I was used to spending. If you want to meet with somebody in your community, you can use the consumer credit counseling service. The first time in getting help with my debt challenge, I contacted my local chapter of the service. They assisted me in analyzing my spending habits, looking for ways to save money, and developing a budget that was reasonable. I would send them a monthly check for a certain amount, and they would apply it to my creditors. I got a nice spreadsheet showing me how much each month was going to each credit card company that I owed money to. When one was paid off, the money that was allocated to the now paid-off card was split evenly between the rest. It took a while to see any results, but after several months, my lowest one was paid in full and I started seeing the remaining ones diminish at a faster rate.

I guess that I didn't learn my lesson well after the cards were all paid in full because a year after I was free from them, I found myself lured into the credit card lie again. (It didn't help that I was also single again and attempting to furnish my new digs. I had been given a beautiful piano/keyboard near the end of my second marriage, along with the payments on it). I couldn't make those payments despite working nearly seventy hours a week. I had weekends off, so you do the math. Needless to say, the credit company that had loaned us the money was eager for payment or repossession of the piano. Working as much as I was, I finally go hold of them and they showed up to repossess the piano at two o'clock in the morning, just minutes after I got done working my second job. It was a very humbling and eye-opening experience to say the least. At that point, I was determined not to let that ever happen again. I was ready to once-and-for all eliminated my credit card debt.

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