Are you looking for help with credit card debt? Are you feeling overwhelmed with your mounting debt problem? Are you confused by the various solutions available to you? This article will outline a brief strategy on how to cope with your credit card debts. You must bear in mind though that there are no quick fixes but you'll feel a lot better knowing that you are dealing with the problem.

First things first, how much do you owe? That's right, to get help with credit card debt you need to open all of those credit card statements and record all of the following information either on a sheet of paper or on a spreadsheet. Record the names,addresses and telephone numbers of all of the creditors in one column, the total outstanding balance in the next column, then minimum monthly payment in the next column and finally a column for the APR. If there are any gaps call your credit card company. This may make you feel uncomfortable but you can't ignore these debts as it only makes matters worse.

So you have worked out how much you owe. Are there any easy quick fixes which you can do to reduce the debt? Surprising the answer is nearly always yes and quite easy to do, just a few phone calls! Ideally you want to transfer all of your debts onto one cheap credit card; debt consolidation. Unfortunately, many cards charge a 2.5% balance transfer. So to get round this you need to phone up each of your credit card companies and say that you are going to be closing your account with them and that you need an accurate figure for your outstanding balance. They will do one of two things, either they will do as you have asked or they will say if we offer you a lower rate will you stay. Be pushy about getting a lower rate, try to get the interest fixed for the duration of the balance. Do this with all your credit cards. Now your debt is no longer increasing by the amount it was, simple and all it costed you was a few phone calls.

You now have stabilised your debt levels. Still need help with credit card debts? The next thing to look at on your spreadsheet, is can you afford the monthly minimum repayments? In order to work this out you need to know how much you are spending each month on essentials, use our Statement of Affairs Calculator (Statement of Affairs )to work this out. If after all your essentials have been taken care of there is money left and it more than covers the monthly repayments then you should be reducing your most expensive debts first by channeling your surplus into it, credit card snowballing.

If you don't have any surplus or are even in deficit at the end of the month you will have to consider either one of the following options, debt consolidation, debt management or insolvency either IVA (PTD Scotland) or bankruptcy. If you are in control of your spending and the debt is not too big then you may benefit from a debt consolidation loan. This can either be secured, on a property or unsecured, a personal loan. You will need to do the maths on this one to see if this is the best route for you. You may be able to consolidate all of your credit card debts into one cheaper personal loan which will be probably cheaper than your credit cards. Alternatively, if you have a house you may want to consolidate your debts by taking out a secured loan against it. The downside of this is that if you fail to keep up the repayments of your new secured debt you may loose your house.

If you need more help with credit card debt either speak to your local money advice centre or CAB or pop over to our forum where we will try and sort things out for you. Above all any help with credit card debt you get you need to act upon to stop to for getting worse.