But They Also Don't Have To Be Forever
If you have serious debt problems, you know that every area of your life can be affected. Ignored, debt can be like a cancer eating into your lifestyle, your employability even your ability to insure your car. It may seem like every credit card company has the upper hand, and your only choices are bankruptcy or some shady credit counseling company or even shadier "debt settlement" or "debt elimination" company. Nothing could be further from the truth!
You're in a War ... and the Enemy Wants Your Wallet
Creditors are hard at work every day figuring out how to get the most money out of you. They use psychology, economic research, modeling, and good old fashioned trial and error to find the strategies and tactics that will squeeze the last penny out of every one of their debtors. The good news is that you're not alone. Not only are you among millions of consumers who are growing savvier by the day, but federal and state agencies, consumer attorneys, reputable credit counseling agencies, and even sympathetic courts are there to help you. But you need to know what to do and how and when to do it.
Will Paying that Debt Help You or Hurt You?
There are types of debts you want to pay before touching other debts. There are things you want to demand of every creditor to whom you are paying a debt. There are smart ways to pay ... and ways you never, ever should pay. There are methods you can use to discriminate among creditors who seem to have debts that should be paid at about the same time--once you take a look, you may definitely want to pay one before the other! There are some debts you will be better off never even trying to pay on at all.
Store-Bought Books Won't Tell The Whole Truth!
The books on the shelves in your local bookstore will tell you what you already know, or they will stop well short of giving you the kind of in-depth strategic understanding of the methods needed to resolve serious debt issues. At worst, they will parrot the party lines of the banking and credit card industries designed to keep every good little consumer coloring inside the lines and to provide no succor whatsoever to anyone who has fallen on hard times. The industry wants for the overburdened consumer to declare bankuptcy, giving up nearly everything and getting right back into the cycle of debt!
You Can Break Through!
Creditors are playing a numbers game. They don't have the time or money to go to the nth degree to collect the last dollar from every debtor, they won't obtain the intelligence necessary to exhaust every opportunity. In a high-stakes game that combines elements of chess and poker, you can hide your cards (and sometimes even some of your pieces) and make the right strategic moves while finding ways to peek at their cards and get them to make critical blunders.
