Approximately 60 million Americans are seeking some form credit card debt relief. Credit cards debt causes a tremendous misery. It is responsible for more bankruptcy filings than any other form of debt. In reality credit card companies have replaced the mafia loan sharks by charging interest rates as high as 31 percent. In addition in the past year they made 90 billion dollars in penalties and fees from people who could least afford it. The best way to get out of debt is to quit borrowing money.

That being said if you have serious credit card debt you have several options that can be employed to eliminate you debt. Seeking good financial counseling may be a good option if your debt is out of control. These professionals will assess your debt load and use different methods to reduce it. They frequently use debt negotiation to immediately reduce your credit card debt level. They will also set up a debt reduction plan for you to follow.

Your financial counselors will also determine if you should consolidate all your debt including credit card debt into a consolidation loan. This has several benefits including lowering the interest rate on the debt. In many cases it can be lower from 31 percent down to less than 10 percent. Obviously this will mean a substantial reduction in your monthly payments. You can also extend the length of your payments which will reduce your monthly payment as well.

The down side of a consolidation loan with a longer payment period is that you it will cost you more over time to eliminate the debt. In addition unless you have a debt reduction plan, and are disciplined using the extra money to pay down your overall debt you will end up in serious debt again. If you are not careful you could end up in bankruptcy.

A good debt counseling service will help you pay your debts down by using every bit of you extra income you have beyond living expenses. The trick is to pay on the smallest credit card debt you own no matter what the interest rate until you pay it all off. During this time you will only be making the minimum payment on the rest of your debts.Then use the extra money that you save from paying the old debt to pay down the next one. You will be surprised how effective this method of credit card debt relief is.

Living on a cash basis during this debt reduction process will also make it much more effective. When you purchase everything with cash studies have shown that you will spend 15 to 18 percent less than if you use a debit or credit card. Spending cash makes you much more conservative in making your purchase choices. Saving 15 percent each month will really add up over the course of a year.

Using this method of credit card debt relief most people will end up pretty much debt free. It will only work if you are disciplined and really want to get out of debt. According to Proverbs: the borrower is the slave of the lender. If you use credit cards you will end up being the slave of the banks and credit card companies.