Personal Debt Crisis – Expert Advice For Survival

Posted on Jul 31 2013 - 7:20pm by Stacy Becker

Money

Debt is a problem and an evil which has been making it hard for the people to lead a normal life. Debt is almost cancerous and you don’t realize the problem you are in, till it starts to grow out of your control. So, it would be better to take heed of your financial health from the beginning. Now, what if you are already in debt? You may have to get expert help or at least some expert advice. The professionals know it better, as to how you should manage your debt issues.

The personal debt problem

Debt problem is not new, but it aggravated with the economic downturn of 2008. In the last few years the debt problem for almost every household in the US, went on an upward spiral. Obtaining freedom from it was almost impossible as there was no job. Even in case of those who have had a job, the salary was not enough to manage everything. In addition, the housing price too lowered along with the minimized value of the homes. So, very few homeowners could either refinance or sell off their house.

Therefore, if you have too much of debt and if it is getting hard for you to manage the mortgage payments too, you can get expert advice. This may help you in bringing the debts under your control. When you go for expert advice like that of credit counseling, you get to learn as to how you should control the debts, how you should manage your finances, and what is the right way for you to negotiate with your creditors.

When you tend to have too many debt, you start forgetting the timely payments. As you start missing the payments, the creditors too, start panicking. This results in numerous collection calls and letters, and so the situation starts turning even worse. In this condition, if you go to a credit counseling agency or a debt advisor, the advisor will analyze your financial situation and the amount of debts you have.

Experts know how to handle the debts easily. They know how to negotiate with your lenders and the creditors. They are aware about the legal aspect of managing or not paying down debts. They also know which avenue to follow if any of the other debt pay off options, do not work out for you. one of the options can be bankruptcy. There are two options under which you can file bankruptcy and these are, the Chapter 7 and the Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

It is not easy to file bankruptcy and an advisor can help you in filing the same. As bankruptcy is a legal process, it becomes hard to file under a program without having the proper knowledge on this. Bankruptcy helps you discharge almost all or majority of the debts. With the bankruptcy filing, a stay order comes into effect and as a result, none of the creditors and lenders can pursue the collections.

In case of the other options, like those of debt consolidation or settlement and management, you cannot get the immediate stay order. So, the collection process will continue till you can manage to get a certain payment option as per your affordability and your needs. None of these are legal processes and so the creditors are not bound to follow the same. Therefore, even if you request your creditor to settle the debt, the creditor may or may not agree to your request. In this case, a debt advisor or a credit counselor knows it best as to how the debts can be settled.

So, if you are in debt and if you want to survive, it would be better to get some expert advice.

Photo Credit: Flickr/epSos .de

About the Author

This article has been put forward by Stacy. She is a web enthusiast and contributes her articles to different websites and communities.