George Wassell

So many of us have been affected by the poor economy. And there may be many legitimate reasons we have fallen behind, including reduced family income due to furloughs, cutbacks and layoffs. Yes, it seems the economy is improving, but still many of us have used our credit cards more than we wanted to over the past year or so. Our balances are higher than ever and our interest rates have gone up dramatically so our minimum monthly payments have jumped to levels that are hard to keep up with. Maybe we’ve fallen behind on car or mortgage payments and have had to pay penalties and are struggling to stay current or at least not to fall further behind.

What can you do? The most important piece of advice from the experts is NOT to ignore the situation. COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE says Mitch Allen, the author of A Survival Guide to Debt. In an interview with Something You Should Know radio program he says “Banks don’t want your house, car dealerships don’t want your car back, they lose money when they do those things.”

It’s natural to want to avoid money troubles, we tend to think: what good will it do to call my creditors, all they want is their money and they won’t be helpful at all. Also from an interview in Something You Should Know, Kelly Shelton, Vice President of Consumer education for the non-profit “Family Financial Education Foundation” says that if you call your creditors before you fall too far behind they may be able to help – by doing things like “re-aging” your account. This essentially brings your account current so that you’re no longer behind and you don’t have to come up with two or three payments to bring yourself current. Some lenders will lower their interest rates – they’ll modify your loan.

But you have to face your debts head on and call your creditors to discuss your situation. There are companies that will help you do this, some good and some not so good. We’ve all heard the debt relief commercials that sound too good to be true. Usually they are. At Solutions EAP we use a non-profit organization called American Consumer Credit Counseling (ACCC). You can access them through us by calling 800-526-3485 and there is no fee for the initial consultation. Check out their services online at http://www.consumercredit.com/

In the coming weeks I’ll provide more tips and guidance on ways to settle your debt and resources for mortgage assistance.

If you would like to talk about this or any other problem or concern, please call Solutions Employee
Assistance Program at 1-800-526-3485 or www.solutions-eap.com