Legal Credit Card Debt Elimination Programs
I can tell you from personal experience that getting buried in credit card debt is one of the most awful feelings you can ever experience. It really feels so hopeless. Once you get to a certain point with your debt – say above $15,000 or $20,000 in credit card balances – and you have this realization that you basically need to win the lottery or inherit money from a rich uncle you don’t know about if you ever want to be free of your debt again. Not much could be worse, and once you get in that situation you may find yourself seeking legal and ethical credit card debt elimination.
It’s a bit of a misconception that there’s some form you can fill out, some government program, that will let you get rid of your credit card debt without any negative repercussions for you. That wouldn’t be fair to the credit card companies. So, if you want to legally eliminate credit card debt it’s going to come down to a negotiation between you and the credit provider. You’ll be negotiating two things: 1) the interest rate they’re charging you on your unpaid balances, and 2) the manual reduction of those balances.
It’s not a pretty situation, but you’re basically saying to the credit card company “look, we can either come to an agreement on how much I’m going to pay you on these balances, and at what interest rate, or I’m going to have to file bankruptcy.” And you’re not bluffing, so the credit provider will have to weigh out whether they want to reduce your balance and get some of their money (maybe 30 cents to 40 cents on the dollar), or whether they’re willing to walk away from their money entirely. It’s common sense that they’d rather get something than nothing, so they’re probably going to work with you.
There will be consequences for you though. For starters, your credit cards will all be canceled (which may not matter if they’re already maxed out anyway). Even worse, your credit score will be destroyed. And that may not be much of a concern because at this point you probably have several late or missed payments and your fico score is in the dumps anyway.
I would ask you this: do you have to go through this process? Have you exhausted all other options? Could you borrow some money from family or friends, use it to get caught up on some payments, and then take on a second job to make it possible to keep up with your debt? I understand you might not be able to do this, but I think as a matter of integrity you should at least try.