Some companies will tell you that because you are not a professional negotiator, credit card companies will still take you for as much as they can. That is a possibility. If you are unsure about taking above steps yourself, you can check into debt settlement, debt consolidation, or consumer credit counseling services. All of these options promise to reduce your debt by anywhere from 40-60% and to be debt free within 1-5 years. Be careful, though. Some will take an upfront fee of up to thousands of dollars, which doesn’t get applied to your creditors. Others claim to be non-profit and will take a donation, but donation may seem like just another bill to pay. Further, they may guarantee to protect your credit rating from bankruptcy, but that doesn’t mean that your credit rating will come through cleanly because you are dealing with a debt relief service.

Do plenty of research before signing on with any of them for debt relief.

If you think that you may have a debt problem, there is help. Credit counselors are trained to help you get out of debt in a very short period of time. Some can even help to make you debt free in as little as 18 months. Your individual situation may take more or less time. Even if you have good credit but have made unwise choices while using your credit card and you want to preserve your good credit, you mat benefit from credit counseling. Many credit counseling agencies will provide you with a free debt analysis to help you understand what actions that you can take to reestablish your credit without bankruptcy.