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How to Get Your Payments Lowered On Your Credit Card Bills

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By mommymail
User-Submitted Article
(0 Ratings)

If you are struggling with your credit cards and are having a hard time trying to pay the bills, here are some ways that you can lower your rates, thus lower your payments.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging
Instructions
  1. Step 1

    The first thing you need to do is to call your creditors. Explain your situation and ask them to lower your rates. If they do not, then go to step 2.

  2. Step 2

    Contact a non-profit credit counseling service. They will contact your creditors and negotiate a lower rate and help you to pay off your credit cards. Most of the time they can lower your rates from 0% to 9%. This is big if your rates are currently over 15%. The money you are using to pay your monthly interest on your accounts can be used to pay for everyday necessities. If you are paying your minimum payment every month and your interest rates are high, you will dig yourself deeper into debt. This will take 20-30 years for you to pay off and you will eventually end up way over your head. A credit counseling service can help you to get control of your life again.

  3. Step 3

    There is another way to lower your payments, but be advised that this should be the final step before you decide to claim bankruptcy. You can try and settle your debt. This can be done if you have some money saved up and you are willing to call the creditors and tell them you can't afford to make the payments and that you are willing to settle right away for a lower amount In other words, if you owe $10,000, they might settle for $6000 but you will need to pay it right away. A lot of people use a debt settlment company for this but you will have to pay their lawyer fees first(which can be thousands of dollars. Do your research before you go this route.

Tips & Warnings
  • Credit card companies hate the word "debt settlement company". They will work with a credit counseling service but will not warmly accept a debt settlement company.

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