There are plenty of Non Profit Organizations that cater to people such as yourself. They provide financial advice or debt repayment plans and charge a small fee for the same. You simply pay one fixed sum to them who then disburse the same to all your creditors in an agreed proportion.



A major benefit received from enrolling in such a service is understanding that these counselors have a lot of clout with creditors. Firstly, creditors are happy to see you pay a little extra to manage your finances rather than quickly declare bankruptcy. Also, a lot of these creditors have already built a previous relation with your counselor. Finally, the creditors also save a bunch of money (up to half) in not having to employ collection agencies to recover their dues from you.

Choose a Debt Counselor hailing from a non profit firm as you have already spent too much and these organizations get their funding from creditors not you. Privacy is not usually an issue and they don't sell your information but make sure you confirm this first.

Make sure you know what you are signing up for. You should be receiving services such as Credit Counseling, a Debt Repayment Plan and Budgeting Advice. Check your enrollment and service fees. Needless to say the more you receive for less, the better! It is also good idea to have all this put in writing and sent to you before you proceed.

Finally, ask if the organization belongs to any professional groups such as the Better Business Bureau or the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. Since you will be sending them your money get to understand how they are audited and how your funds are protected.

After you have done all the above research put all your bills together and talk to the credit counselor. See if you can have them help you reduce your interest rates and waive late fees to help reduce the burden a little. It might also be possible to get the counselor to have your account made current, with no pending dues from the past.

Once you have got back on track in repaying your dues it is extremely important that you watch your expenses very carefully to ensure that you don't find yourself in the same situation. Most of us realize only what our large expenses are without a clear notion of the smaller ones.

It is after all, the small things in life that make a big difference.