Managing Your Debt

Even the smallest amount of debt can start to feel like it is getting out of control. If your circumstances change, you are still going to be liable to cover the charges, interest and the balance of your debt. If you are juggling a little bit, or a lot, it doesn’t matter. The principal is the same – you have to tackle it.

Total

People really don’t like to do this, but it is essential that you spend some time to tally up what you owe. Make a note of who you owe money to, the amount and you can even write down your payment due dates and monthly repayment.

Once you have everything in front of you, you can get a clearer idea of what you really owe. It is essential that you don’t just make a list and leave it. Ideally, you should put it in some sort of order. Most often it will go either highest interest or more significant debt at the top (and the most critical to pay down).

Call Them

If you aren’t making your monthly payments on time, or you are struggling, then start making calls. You might be able to negotiate an interest freeze or lower your monthly payments. But, they aren’t under any obligation to do this for you, so you might need to get a company to help you out.

If you don’t feel comfortable talking to lenders on the phone you can get great templates online that you can use to send to all of your creditors and instead of calling you, they will only communicate by letter. This is a typical move by many people in a lot of debt, it puts a stop to calls demanding money.

Budget

If you haven’t already made a budget of what you need to pay, now is the perfect time. You can use that budget to work out how much you can afford in terms of repayments and if you need to lower them. You can also find your wiggle room. Often we spend money without noticing, on things like Netflix, take out and coffee on the go. You don’t have to cut out everything that is fun, but in order to manage your debt better, you might like to try and pay more off.

Needing Help

Once you have worked it all out. Rather than trying to make ends meet and struggling. Or taking smaller loans to pay other things off, make some calls. Paying off debt can be really difficult, and often people turn to quick solutions that mean they have more to pay out. A great option for debt relief is calling and speaking to a debt line, and then getting advice from chapter 7 bankruptcy lawyers to see if they can help.

In the meantime, cut up the credit cards, store cards and any other credit lines you keep heading back to. Implement a 30-day spending rule – as a minimum. And use the time to declutter and make some extra money with the things you don’t use anymore. Debt can be hard to manage, but if you tackle it head on and actively, you will be released from the pressure in no time.

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