So with that said, I thought I would give you 4 alternatives to bankruptcy that you may not have considered.

These are real christian debt solutions that can save you the financial devastation that going bankrupt can cause.

#1 Stay away from debt. I know it seems simple, but it needs to be said. In today’s financial climate, staying away from debt is the single best option to help you avoid bankruptcy.

Unfortunately, I am guessing that since you are are here, it is too late for that, right? No problem, here are 3 other solutions to your debt problems.

#2 Christian Credit Counseling. Sometimes all you need is a push in the right direction. In most cases, a little help from a professional counselor can help you set up a budget, get on a reasonable repayment plan and ultimately get debt free. With the form at the right, you can get started with a no obligation free counseling session.

#3 Christian Debt Consolidation. With a good consolidation plan, you can shrink your monthly payment to a manageable amount that can be easily payed down over time. Here the company you choose to consolidate with will contact your creditors, negotiate lower payments and interest rates and handle all of your payments. A pretty sweet deal as long as you understand this one debt consolidation warning.

#4 Christian Debt Settlement. With settlement you are essentially negotiating with your creditors to take a one time reduced payment to clear your debt away. If you have a reserve of cash, this may be a valid option for you. But if you are like me, when I was in over my head in debt, a large reserve of cash wasn’t an option.

So if you are a Christian considering bankruptcy, please consider these 4 options first. They could save you years of financial regret.

Good luck and let me know what you decide!

Chad

Well, if you find the right home budgeting software, staying on top of your finances will be easy.

So what should you look for?

Well, first of all, free is good. I mean, if you are planning to live on a budget, why set aside part of your money just to  have a tool to track your money. Know what I mean?

Secondly, I think you need a mix of a powerful spreadsheet software and a easy to use financial calculator.

Lastly, the software needs to be easy to access, use and provide relevant information to help you make decisions in your money management.

There are 3 online tools that I think are the trifecta of budgeting software awesomeness.

First is Mint.com. Here you have all of the most important features at hand. It’s free. It is easy to set up. It let’s you track by category, expense and nearly any other method that you want. It even let’s you compare your spending habits with those of other Mint users.

Second is IsDueOn.com which is a free bill notifier. You never have to worry about being late on a bill again because you legitimately forgot. Is Due On send you a text or email message just before your bill is due.

And third but definately not least, Xpenser.com, similar to mint give you all of the power of standard budgeting software, but one really cool feature is that you can log your expenses by email, voicemail, IM or twitter. So you never have to worry about loosing a receipt again. Just email your account as you are walking out of the store.

Well that’s it for free online Christian budgeting software. Let me know what you think once you have tried them out.

Chad

What’s great is that credit counseling involves a professional counselor negotiating with your creditors to create a money management plan that will work for you. In fact, counseling is a solution that can help you get rid of not only credit cards, but also car loans, payday loans, medical bills and even, believe it or not, some utilities.

Now, credit counseling does not involve you getting a loan or even filing for bankruptcy. And it is not the same as debt consolidation.

This counseling is all about you learning to manage your money.

Your free professional consumer credit counselor will offer you advice on how to deal with your debts better and avoid negative items showing up on your credit report.

First a good Christian counseling service will help you figure out how much debt you owe. Secondly, your counseling agency will help to bring any delinquent accounts current while at the same time negotiating down you interest rates. And then, they will teach you how to manage your debts in the future.

Here is the sad thing, the main factor holding most consumers back from getting started today is that they assume that the amount of debt they have relative to their income (the debt to income ratio) would disqualify them from getting help. And so they go farther into debt because they are afraid to enroll in a reputable credit counseling plan.

And the truth is that the best credit counseling services are there to help people just like that. People who are behind on their debts, but desperately want to get back on their feet

And for the Christian who is concerned about “stealing” from their lenders, debt relief through consumer credit counseling can be the absolutely best route to take, especially if you have no idea on how to move forward on your own.

You really do get the best of both worlds (so to speak). You get relief that allows you to “afford” your monthly payments, while at the same time, you are paying back your full debts in a way that completely satisfies your lenders.

The nice thing is that everything can be done right over the phone, so there is no need to “come face to face” with any one. It will just be you and a counselor who is willing to teach you everything you need to know about getting and living debt free!

Are you ready to learn? Do you want to get the late payments, the over the limit fees and the harassing calls behind you? Most importantly do you want someone to take you by the hand, lead you out of debt and teach you how to never find yourself in a financial mess again?

Then you might want to sign up for free debt counseling today.  I mean, why wait?

If you do, please let me know how it goes for you!

Chad

You know the signs that it is time to call for credit counseling help, right? But do you know how to maximize the help that your counselor can offer you?

If not, here you go.

There are 5 key pieces of information you need to gather before you talk to your professional consumer credit counselor. All are easy to get and you can even make your appointment and have plenty of time to pull these things together.

1. You need to know your total debt amount.  This doesn’t have to be exact, but a close approximation is fine. When your counseling service is contacting your credit card companies they will be able to get the exact amounts.

2. You need to know your interest rates. The closer you are here the better, so grab those bills that you have piling up and go ahead open them up and take a look.  If you are anything like me, it isn’t too uncommon to have a couple from each company laying around. Last month’s that I was just getting ready to pay and another one that came too soon for this month.

3. While you have those bills open, make note of your minimum payment. Not necessarily your current minimum payment because it might include late fees and over the limit fees, but what is the payment if you were up to date.

4. You will need to know your other bills, payments and financial obligations that you have. This will be vital in determining your budget and also deciding how much you can afford to pay.

5. And lastly, how much do you make. Take into your total income, but be conservative. There is no use in trying to impress anyone here. If anything you want to go in a little low so that you build a cushion into your budget.

And that’s it.

The 5 pieces of information are enough to help a professional counselor do their thing.

And when they do their thing, you end up debt free. Ahhh… and debt free is good.

Do you have questions?

Drop them in the comments or use the page above. I am glad to hear from you.

Chad

Step #1 You have to determine if you bill problems were created by life happening to you (ie. medical, layoff, emergency, ect.) or if you are the source of your financial woes.

If it was life, then that’s easy, skip to step #2.

But if you are the source of your problems, then you have to get you under control. Whether that means counseling or some other money management program, you have to get yourself under control. Otherwise, there is nothing that will help you… sorry.

Okay step #2 Are you willing to work your way out of your money mess? Are you willing to take a second job, learn a new skill that will help you make more money or even find a new job with a higher income? If yes, then you are set. Debt relief is doable.

If not, if you have a lazyness problem. If you are not willing to go the extra mile to get caught up, well, you are probably stuck. Your situation is probably going to get worse and quite honestly, you are wasting your time even dreaming of being debt free.

You should probably get friendly with the collection agencies.

Again, sorry to be harsh, but it really is going to take you working hard to get the solution you want.

I am guessing if you are here, trying to learn, you are willing to put the effort into your future… so good luck and please, let me know how it goes.

Chad

So what is it?

A budget!

Eeewwwh. I know. Budgeting is probably the worst part of money management, at least to me. I mean cutting back… no problem. Saving a little for a rainy day… easy. But sitting down to develop a budget that I actual live with… horrible.

And yet, if you want to succeed at consolidating your credit cards or any other obligation that you have… you must take the time to layout a realistic plan to ensure that you are going to be able to keep your new promises.

I mean a consolidation loan is just that, a loan, so if you don’t want to be under even greater stress in six months, you really have to be sure that when all is said and done, you can afford to pay the new consolidated payment that you are agreeing to.

So now you know.

I would suggest that you look for some free counseling and get help setting your budget from a professional counselor. If you pick one of the no obligation services online, you can get their input before you even sign up with them.

Good luck and let me know how budgeting works out for you.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Chad

Well getting into financial trouble is the easy part.  It can even be fun, right? It’s the getting out that stinks. So really the main questions you should ask yourself to find out if you are ready to take the next step towards consolidating are these three easy ideas.

First even Christian consolidation doesn’t eliminate your debt. But it does do away with the late fees and the over the limit fees. Unfortunately, you will still have a monthly payment.

So the question is this, Can you afford to make a monthly payments to repay the amount that you owe? Sometime it’s just the overwhelming burden of the harassing fees and phone calls that keeps people from getting ahead. Is that the case for you?

Secondly, If you said yes to the first question, then you have to decide if you are willing to change the habits that led you into your financial mess in the first place. Are you ready to live on a budget, cut out excess spending and commit to living within your means? If not, consolidation will not be able to help you.

Sorry to be so direct, but I went down this road once and it only multiplied my money problems.

Lastly, you have to ask yourself if you are willing to do the work that it take to find a reputable consolidation service. There are companies who are here to help and ones who are there to take your money. If you aren’t willing to sort through the good and bad ones you may be setting yourself up for even more financial trouble.

That’s it.

Are you ready to take the next step on the road to financial health?

Chad

The good news is that selecting the right consolidation service is not as hard as it seems.

First you must realize that neither “non-profit” nor “Christian” is any indication on the quality of the consolidation program that they can offer. In fact, it’s easy to add misleading terms to your name in order to scam those of us who have gotten in over our heads financially.

Here’s what to look for.

#1 Do your research. Check around online. It is likely that you will find both recommendations and complaints for every company that you come across.

But use your good judgment, are the reviews from people who are just mad because they can’t get a loan to further spend themselves into trouble OR are their legitimate complaints about not being able to contact their representative, mix up in payments or other shady business dealings.

I would say that if more than 2 out of 10 complaints seem justifiably negative, stay away.

#2 Once you have found a couple that seem to match up with the goals you have in mind for getting out of debt, contact them. See who in responsive, who is helpful and who you would most prefer to deal with in the long run.

So that’s the way you can find the best company to consolidate with.

Chad

But how do you know when your situation requires a professional consumer counselor to help you with your credit card debt?

Here are 10 warning signs that you may need to get help from the Christian debt counseling services that are available to you.

#1 You are spending too much each month trying to keep up with your bills. In general, if you are spending more than 20% (excluding your housing costs) of your take home pay… it is time to find a credit counselor to get things back into balance.

#2 You are behind more than one month on your mortgage or rent payment.

#3 You can’t even pay the minimum payments each month. This was when I knew I was too deep.  That first month that I didn’t have enough money to “move around” from one card to the other.

#4 Your electric, water or other utilities have been shut off.

#5 You and your partner are fighting over money. Normal disagreements happen in all long term relationships, but if the fighting continues month after month, it might be time to get professional help.

#6 A collection agency has turned your case over to the courts.

#7 Your car has been repossessed.  When they take your car that doesn’t eliminate your need to pay.  Once they sell your car at auction, they come after you from the balance.

#8 You’ve been turned down for credit.  If the guys whose job it is to make loans turn you down, there is a problem. You should get help to find relief.

#9 You have bounced checks. This could be a simple to correct problem like learning to balance your account. But it also could be a more serious problem that requires a credit counseling agency.

#10 You start to get those dreaded calls from several creditors. Being behind on one bill is relatively manageable, but the problem grows exponentially the more collectors who are demanding money.

So, if you are under the weight of any of these challenges, one simple and free credit counseling session is all that stands between you and the debt relief you deserve.

As the Bible says, when you don’t know how to do something… get help from those who do (Chad’s paraphrase of Proverbs 19:20 or 11:14).

So what is holding you back from getting the help you need?

Chad

With that said, I do have one word of warning. While a consolidation loan is far from some type of sinister scam the money guys pull over on unsuspecting victims, you do have to be careful.

And here is how.

Because when you consolidate it does exactly what you want, it lowers your interest rates, compresses your bills into one payment and frees up extra spending money each and every month, it also gives you the opportunity to continue spending.

And with continued spending comes the real chance that you could make your financial situation even worse than what you are trying to get out of.

So when you decide that a Christian consolidation loan is the way you want to escape the money trap, just be careful that you also are committed to good money management and controlled spending.

A budget will be your best friend when you decide to consolidate.

Let me know what steps you took or will take to keep the spending within your new budget.

Chad