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A Little History
The old saying, "Rob Peter to pay Paul" is alive and well today in America. How so? Those 1 billion credit cards in circulation, 4 for every person in America.
To top it all off, there are still 1 billion solicitations every year for more of these little wonders. No wonder, Americans charged $400 billion last year. For those of you doing the math, that’s $50 billion in finance charges. Ah-ha, what a fabulous cash cow.
So with the average credit card balance of $5800 at an average interest rate of 18.3%, yep that’s over $900 in interest payments alone. That gives new meaning to "living beyond your means".
Credit Counseling
That’s why organizations like Consumer Credit Counseling Services (CCCS) exist. They are also known as the Credit Card Collection Service.
They help those individuals nearest bankruptcy and develop debt repayment plans for a fee of up to $50. These counseling services will decide for you how much to pay and to whom, based on your overall debt and income.
It is in your best interest to listen to their advice and put it into action, but you should never completely surrender your income to anyone. How will you ever learn if you don’t consciously make the choice to repay your debts faithfully?
Creditors really don’t want you to default, but they aren’t usually that helpful until you are standing on the edge of bankruptcy. Just remember that unpleasantries such as uncollected debt remain on your consumer credit report for 7 years.
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