Government Credit Card Debt Help

Credit card debt can haunt consumers at every turn. If the purchaser makes only minimum payments on the debt, ghosts of old stereos and spirits of laptops visit the purchaser for up to 30 years. What's worse is that in times of economic crisis, the ghosts that haunt for years to come are the ghosts of milk and bread. According to the Center for American Progress, in 2009 credit card default rose to 9.6 percent of all credit card debt. That means nearly 10 percent of all credit card debt in the United States goes unpaid.

Government Help

In 2009, the short answer on how the government helps with credit card debt is that it doesn't. There are no programs in place to help extricate consumers from the situation. Rather, the government focuses its energy on prevention and self-help strategies. For example, the Federal Trade Commission offers advice on how to repair your credit and how to recognize a credit repair scam. The U.S. Financial Literacy and Education Commission provides a series of links to services, such as information on how to choose a credit card and how to avoid credit card fraud. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, on the other hand, offers a credit card repayment calculator, which allows you to fill in the amount of your debt and the annual percentage rate (APR) and then find out how long it will take to clear the debt and how much you'll actually pay if only making minimum monthly payments).

A test debt of $1,800 with an APR of 18 percent promised approximately 18 years of payments totaling around $3,263. However, if you're looking for government help for your credit card debt, you're probably already acutely aware of how long and how much it will cost you to clear that debt.

Government Benefits

There is hope. Although the government doesn't assist directly with credit card debt, it assists with other economic crises, which may make it easier for you to direct funds to debt. Benefits.gov is a website that can assess your situation and direct you to the benefit programs for which you qualify. The best thing about this site is that it consolidates the searching for the individual. Rather than going from government agency to government agency in an effort to determine if you're eligible for any benefits, or even what benefits exist, you can answer an anonymous 60-question questionnaire, which when complete will direct you to the correct programs and the correct agencies.

References

• Center for American Progress: Economic Snapshot for October 2009
• Federal Trade Commission: Knee Deep in Debt
• U.S. Financial Literacy and Education Commission: Credit

Resources

• Benefits.Gov