Need Help Paying Bills?

Interview with Kelly Shelton Vice - President of Consumer Education for the Nonprofit Family Financial Education Foundation

www.ffef.org

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Mike Carruthers:
Credit card defaults are on the rise. A lot of people are really struggling to pay their bills. The good news is…

Kelly Shelton:
All of the credit card companies, and mortgage companies and even car loans have programs available to consumers that are going through a financial hardship.

Kelly Shelton

 Kelly Shelton Vice President of Consumer Education for the non-profit "Family Financial Education Foundation" says if you call your creditors before you get too far behind they may be able to help - by doing things like "re-aging" your account.

And re-aging the account essentially brings you 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. And they’ll typically take those payments and roll them back into the balance so that helps your credit, and makes it so you can make those monthly payments on a consistent basis. Some lenders will lower their interest rates - they’ll modify the loan.

But you have to call the creditors to discuss the situation. And Kelly recommends before you do call, you analyze your entire financial situation.

And there are companies out there that are nonprofit credit counseling companies that are designed to offer this service to the community for free. Where they can go over your income and your creditors and expenses and then determine what strategy for taking care of this debt is going to be the best suited for your needs.

To get a free financial analysis, call 877 - 789 - 4173.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here.