Put a plan in place to deal with deep debt

If you are living with deep debt, it’s likely that you struggle each month to pay the bills either on-time or at all. You need to put a plan in place that can help you deal with deep debt. We aren’t talking about car loans, student loans or a mortgage here. We are talking about thousands of dollars in credit card debt.

Before you do anything, you must pull your credit reports from all of the credit bureaus. Order one report from all three agencies through the central office so they all come at one time to your house.

You can now begin to chart a path for climbing ever so slowly out of debt. Try to negotiate with creditors about payment plans. Any missed payments that head to collection agencies will be on your credit report for at least five years, more than likely for the full seven years.

Your plan needs to be called what it truly is, a budget. Every household should operate on a monthly budget in order to make managing the money as easy as possible.

Pay all of your bills. With a budget now in place, you should know how much money you have set aside to make payments on bills. Pay your mortgage or rent first. Then branch out to utilities and other bills. Do not forget to pay credit card bills.

Do your best to establish good credit during your plan of climbing out of debt. It might be difficult at first, but it can be done. If your debt is so deep that an emergency plan or budget cannot help, your only option is to file for bankruptcy.

Handling deep, personal debt in Long Island does not have to overwhelm or ruin your life when you work with an experienced bankruptcy attorney.

Source: Bankrate, “5-step emergency plan for dealing with debt,” Sheyna Steiner, accessed July 21, 2017