Negotiation with Creditors and Collectors

Talk to your Creditors

If you find that you are unable to make your minimum payments don’t hide, hoping that your creditors won’t notice. Take the initiative and talk to your creditors. Let them know you are having some short-term problems, that you intend on paying them back, but you need some leeway.

Review your Interest Rates

Review the interest that you are paying on each type of debt / credit card that you have. These rates can vary widely from 5% (Prime Rate) to a whopping 33% on some types of debt. As a general rule, a line of credit has a lower rate than credit cards, and credit cards (Amex, Visa, etc.) have lower rates than charge cards (Sears, Zellers, etc.).
If available, move all your debt to your lowest rate card, or attack your highest rate card first, reducing the balance as quickly as possible.