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Do-It Yourself Debt Management Plans
You do not have to look far seeking for debt management plans provided free of charge. The first place to look is at home. Find time to sit down and sort your debt problems yourself. Analyze your monthly expenses vis a vis your monthly income. Trace the root of your financial burden. Sometimes it is obvious, such as additional medical bills for a sudden ailment, a divorce or you or your spouse become out-of-work. At other times, you have to be honest to yourself and admit that your unhealthy spending habits may have pushed you into the money hole.
If your debts piled up because of the latter, you can do a lot by reforming your spending pattern. The first thing to do is cut your credit cards so that you do not get tempted to use it to buy items which you do not really need.
You can approach your creditors to negotiate lower monthly payments that you can afford. Some may acquiesce in it while others may not. But take the chance. Unlike if you are enrolled in a debt management program where you will just be sending a single payment to the debt management provider, you may be paying multiple accounts yourself the way you used to. Just develop a system of how you pay them. Once you have negotiated more affordable monthly payments, allocate monthly an amount which you can afford to cover the debts. Assign the bulk of the amount to pay for debt with the least “balance-to-minimum due ratio” while keeping in mind to pay more than the minimum monthly due for the other debts so that it will not take forever to pay off your debts.
To have the funding to pay more than the minimum due, forego of monthly expenses that you do not really need. You can also look for an extra job or sell off stuff at home that you do not really need.
Free Debt Management Plans Offered By Certain Groups
If you have searched the Internet, you may encounter certain websites offering free debt management plans. These may be not-for-profit debt solution firms that aim to help individuals who are clueless on how to get rid of their debt. Be careful though because oftentimes, cluelessness can push you deeper into the money pit. In fact, several scam artists are using the “not-for-profit” ploy or “free” scheme to attract uninformed consumers to pay them for “services” to help them handle their debt problems. But some really are just there to collect “set-up fees” and then refer clients to legit debt management companies who can really handle the job. Some companies that claim to offer free debt solution programs do not collect fees. However, they underhandedly make money from clients by incorporating their cut into the reworked total monthly payment of the client, without the latter’s knowledge and consent.