by Edwin Ivanauskas | Tags: Banking, Loans

Once a month you get the mail and dread what you see. You have accumulated an overwhelming amount of credit card debt and you see no way out of it. You could file bankruptcy but that will ruin your credit for a long time. You can't keep this up for long. Perhaps you are running from one card to the other without thinking, only shopping for the lower interest rate to put your balance on. How long can you do this? The debt is mounting and you can't keep this up. There is an alternative. You can do credit card consolidation.

What is Credit Card Consolidation?

Credit card debt consolidation is combining all of your cards and their debt into one monthly payment at a lower interest rate.

How Can This Help Me?

Credit card consolidation can help you get the creditors too stop calling you. A credit counselor will help you stop the harassment that you face daily with phone calls to your home and job. Consolidating your debt will insure that your payments will be made to your creditors and they will no longer call you. They will deal directly with the credit counseling company that you choose.

How Do I Choose a Credit Counselor?

When choosing a credit counselor you need to check to make sure that they are a reputable company and also check on what their stipulations are. Most credit counselors charge a start up fee and a monthly fee that they get paid. You need to be clear on what that fee is. Some credit counselors charge up to fifteen percent of the debt you are consolidating. There are government credit debt consolidating agencies out there that are non for profit. You can also contact them.

Credit counselors will not only consolidate your debt into one monthly low payment, they will also be able to deal directly with the creditors that you owe and either freeze your interest rate or lower it all together. This will help you to lower the debt without the mounting late fee's and penalties that accrue with it. The easiest way for you to know if you need to consolidate your credit card debt is to see if your income is less than you owe for your bills. If you are only making minimum payments and struggling with that, then you more than likely need to use credit card consolidation. Most people have an average of five credit cards at any given time and at least a minimum of $10,000.00.

There is hope and you do not have to immediately file for bankruptcy with credit card consolidation. The counselors are there to help you end your nightmare of debt and help you get back on the right track of saving your credit.

When you contact a credit counselor make sure that you have all of your credit card debt available with the balances, interest rate you are currently being charged, late fee's accrued and the contact information for each card. When applying for credit card consolidation be prepared to give them everything that they need to take the burden off of you.

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