For those of us in debt there are a few options that are available to us. None of them particuarly attractive, but then, debt is never attractive!
The first option available to you is a debt management plan. There are plenty of companies out there that if financially it is the best option for you, will put you on a payment plan. This consists of them working out how much money you have spare each month. You will then pay them that money, and they will divide it among your creditors. You no longer have any communication with anyone you owe money too. You only communicate with your debt management company. Most companies will charge you a fee for this service, but one who doesn’t is www.payplan.com.
You could also consider bankruptcy if the situation is dire, but this is not a reccomended course of action, otherwise there are IVA’s. An IVA is an arrangement where for a period of five years you pay as much as you can each month (a set amount of course) and after five years your debt is wiped.
It also may interest you to know, that in the UK all credit card contracts taken out before April 2007 are actually unenforcable, and you may well be able to get your credit cards wiped, and the accounts closed. You can do this by visiting www.cartelclientreview.co.uk – However, with the fees they charge you are essentially only cutting your credit card debt by two thirds.
It may benefit you if you have lots of credit card debt and are only making minimum payments, to look for a low interest loan. This way you can ensure that your debt will be paid off at a set date, and you are actually paying back money you have borrowed instead of just paying interest every month. It also best to find a loan that you can pay off extra as and when without getting any penalties. I have a loan like this with www.egg.com.
The only other ways to clear your debt is to decrease your outgoings, and increase your income.
Decreasing your outgoings by a bit is normally not too difficult. When I looked at my bank account I had at least 50 worth of stuff going out each month that wasn’t neccessary….Union membership, Lovefilm, World of warcraft. xboxlive and more. So take a look. If you’re paying for anything you don’t have to be paying for then cancel it!
If you drive everywhere, try and walk more places if you can, or carpool f possible, to save money on petrol, and when you’re doing your food shopping experiment with the value brands….Yeah, thats write…That really cheap stuff. Suprisingly, some of it really isn’t noticably different….yeah, so, some of it’s gross, but thats why I say experiment! You can save a fortune!
Another thing I do to help pay off my debt is not buy things! Sounds pretty obvious doesn’t it….
I mean this – Whenever I am shopping, and I pick something up and put it in my trolley (a dvd, or computer game for example) I think twice. I put it back, and then as soon as I get home I go online, and pay the amount that item cost off my debt!
I find that this works well, because generally my attitude is ‘I can’t afford to pay off any extra this month, blah blah, excuses excuses’. Well, if you were just going to spend 25 on a computer game then obviously you CAN afford it. This method really helps me knock my debt down!
Ok, so, the other thing we need to do is increase income as much as possible. This isn’t easy in the current climate, work is not easy to come by. The best advice is to take overtime whenever you can! However, the internet does have some good earning opportunities! It’s more pocket money than a wage, but every little counts!
The best websites I have found for earning money are www.ciao.com and www.dooyoo.co.uk. These are both review writing sites, where you get paid a dollar for each review you write. The best thing is that you can publish the same review on both sites, as long as you declare that you’ve published it on another site.
You can also blog! Most blogs make money from google adsense, but Today.com pay you up front $1 a day, for a post over 100 words. However, you can have two paying blogs with them, so you can earn more than $60 a month by updating two blogs daily.
Other sites that might be interesting for anyone looking to earn a bit of extra money are www.letterrep.com, www.mylot.com, www.gptreasure.com, and www.onepoll.com.
Between helium, and all of those sites you should be able to increase your income a fair amount in your spare time. What I do is pay off everything I earn online off my debt as soon as I get it.
Hopefully this has helped you a bit on your quest to become debt free, and good luck!