Resolve to Get Your Debt Under Control

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(ARA) - The bills are coming in, complete with due dates, minimum amounts due and debt dollars adding up. Sure, you had a great time over the holidays, but now it's time to figure out how you can prepare yourself to start the new year off right with your finances.

"Consumers are in a financial crisis; they are well beyond treading water; they're drowning in their debt," says Steve Ely, president of Equifax Personal Information Solutions. "Overspending during the holidays will only worsen their debt burden and make getting out of debt seem like even more of an impossibility. That is why having a plan for getting out of debt - a plan that they can actually stick to - is so important."

Here are some tips that may help you get your debt under control:

Get your debt organized.
If you don't know how much debt you have, or how much you're spending on interest, you'll never be able to get it under control. Equifax Debt Wise can help you to overcome one of the biggest challenges to paying off your debt - getting started. The Fast Pay Plan Wizard makes it easy because it automatically imports debts from your Equifax Credit Report so that you can easily select which debts to include in your plan. Your progress is monitored regularly and you'll receive monthly updates of whether you're on or off your debt payment plan.

This allows you to select the debts that you want to include in your plan. You determine how much money you have available to pay toward your debt each month, as well as whether you can afford to pay any additional money. The Fast Pay Plan Wizard selects a target account to be paid off first, and you pay the minimum balance - plus any additional amount you are able to over the minimum payment - while continuing to pay the required minimum payments on your remaining balances. Once your target account is paid off, the payments (including the first target account's minimum balance) are then applied toward the next debt on your list. This means you're still paying the same total amount of money each month, but the debt stacking strategy accelerates how quickly you can pay off your remaining debts. You follow this process as you pay off all of the different debts in your plan until you are debt-free.

Unlike other online budget and debt-reduction products, Debt Wise does not require you to import, synch or disclose the user names and passwords associated with your financial accounts to create a debt payment plan.

In addition, you will have credit monitoring, a commitment calculator estimating how long it will take for you to free yourself from debt based on the amount you are able to pay toward your debt, spend smart tools, four FICO scores each year and identity theft insurance.

Stop adding to your debt.
Paying down your debt doesn't mean you're going to be able to get out of debt unless you curb your spending. Create a budget for yourself, including your debt payments, and stick to it. In addition to your debt, add all of your required expenses like utilities, insurance, taxes and food costs. Also, to keep the January bills to a minimum next year, consider creating a savings account just for holiday presents, and contribute to it all year long.

Make cuts if needed.
As you start budgeting, you might find that your money isn't stretching as far as you'd like. Look over your expenses and determine whether you can make cuts. Consider cutting back on cable or satellite services and cell phone extras, switching to generic brands of food and clothing, leaving your car at home and taking the bus or walking or biking, and selling items you don't use. You might also decide you need to take on a second job to bring in a bit more money.

By getting a handle on your debt this year, you'll be less likely to feel the squeeze of holiday debt after the decorations come down.

Courtesy of ARAcontent