Failing to make timely payments on your credit card debt or personal loans could render lasting, costly consequences. However, there are several credit card debt solutions and methods of relief. Every financial consulting firm, consumer credit counseling service, debt consolidation, debt settlement and debt negotiation company can get you out of debt. Each approach to debt relief is similar when considering a clients overall financial goals. Before deciding which debt program is most beneficial it's very important to understand how each component within the financial sector differs.

Consolidation Loans
A debt-consolidation loan allows you to pay off the balances of some or all of your bills, thereby eliminating the monthly payments for those accounts. Then you are left with one payment to make that should be considerably lower than the total of the payments you have eliminated.

These loans work well if you have the discipline to cut up your credit cards and change your spending habits. Most, if not all lenders require some sort of collateral, usually your house to obtain a debt-consolidation loan. In other words, lenders do require homeownership. There will always be lenders promising to give you a quick, easy loan, but dealing with one of these companies may only get you into deeper trouble.

Debt Management Plans / Programs
Debt management plans consolidate your debt into a single adjusted / low-interest monthly payment that can save you thousands of dollars and accelerate the life and overall process of paying off debts.

The debt repayment plan Citizen Debt Relief offers can help relieve the stress of dealing with creditors and overdue bills, but like every solutions you have considered, it, too, requires a change in your lifestyle and spending habits.

Debt Settlement / Negotiation
Many people have debts totaling thousands of dollars and are still able to save a good amount of money to settle their debts successfully while avoiding bankruptcy and restoring their credit ratings in a faster period of time. Once your enrolled into a debt settlement program your creditors are notified and very aware that you've entered a hardship program known as "debt settlement" you are immediately instructed by your debt counselor to stop paying your creditors and instead build funds in your trust account until the amount can suffice your debt load. Once your account reaches 40% of your original balance owed a designated debt negotiator then approaches your creditors to negotiate a payoff that results in a 40-60% savings. After 6-36 months of waiting your creditor(s) are much more likely to agree on a sensible settlement amount.

There's no sense in trying to negotiate a settlement within the first month or two, why because creditors don't consider you a risk for bankruptcy, and settling or negotiating is not policy or procedure until your considered a risk. If you don’t have the time or expertise to successfully negotiate and settle with your creditors, Citizen Debt Relief is available to help you. Our company and affiliates range from accredited credit counseling services to aggressive debt negotiation attorney's.

Consumer Credit Counseling Services
Consumer credit counseling agencies are organizations funded primarily by major creditors, such as department stores, credit card companies, and banks, who can work with you to help you repay your debts and improve your financial picture. To use a credit or debt counseling agency to help you pay your debts, you must have some disposable income. A counselor contacts your creditors to let them know that you’ve sought assistance and need more time to pay. Based on your income and debts, the counselor, with your creditors, decides on how much you will pay to your creditors each month. You then make one payment each month to the counseling agency, which in turn pays your creditors. The agency asks the creditors to return a small percentage of the money to fund its work. Citizen Debt Relief and it's affiliated programs generally take 36 to 60 months to repay debts. The amount you save is far less than what you'd save in a debt settlement program, however some people prefer consumer credit counseling for the simple fact that credit counseling companies work with, rather than against creditors.