I soon discovered how easy it was to plop down the credit card to buy something I wanted. Furniture, dinners, cell phone bill, and worst of all airline tickets quickly maxed out my card. “No Problem” I thought “They gave me one credit card why would they not give me another?” I was right, because I was sending in my minimal monthly payments on time I had a good credit history. I had no problem getting more cards even-though I was living well above my means. Credit cards became a crutch and balances just kept getting higher.

Flash forward 15 years, I was $60,000 in debt, still paying off some of those same cards from when I was 19. Think of the interest those companies made off me!! I was depressed, ashamed, and hopeless. I finally reached the tipping point when I could no longer afford to make the minimal monthly payments (which added up to something like $500 a month.) I had to do something and do it fast.

I hastily called a Debt Consolidation Company that I saw advertised on T.V. The smooth talking "Debt Consultant" threw a bunch of numbers at me and explained that this was really my only way out. I took the bate, signed the contract, made a HUGE MISTAKE.

The first thing I didn't realize is that this company was going to stop paying the minimum monthly payments on my account!! Up until this point I had a great credit history because I had managed to make my minimal payment every month. No more, they killed my credit rating.

The next thing that started happening is the collection calls. Now the debt consolidation company assured me that if I referred the calls to them, they would take care of it. NOT TRUE, I soon realized how ruthless these debt collectors are some times calling five times a day and when I stopped picking up the phone, they called my family members!!! Talk about a nightmare.

I soon realized that this debt consolidation company was not going to work, thank god I was able to get my money back. I started negotiate with the credit card companies and debt collectors myself and found that I actually had more leverage then the big bad debt consolidator. I cut my debt from $60,000 to about $22,000 just by talking to people being honest and setting up payment plans that I knew I could afford, I took a second job on weekends and with in a year I was free!

I learned my lessons the hard way. The reason for posting is so you don't have to go through the same thing. There is a wealth of information available on this subject and I have taken it upon myself to wade through and find the information that is useful and correct.