Finding yourself in financial trouble can be a bit frightening if you do not know where to go, who to call, or what to do next. Your creditors may be calling and sending letters asking about overdue payments or your landlord may be asking about your past due rent payments. With all of the options available to you promising to help your situation, how can you be sure they will actually benefit you? Today we will talk about where to go when you need financial help.

The first place you should go when you need financial help is to your current creditors and financial institutions. You should start by calling all of your creditors and letting them know of your financial situation and ask if there is anything they can do to help you. Most creditors are willing to work with you if you take the initiative to reach out to them and make them aware of what is going on and that you want to pay them back. If you show your creditors that you are still willing to pay them back, they are less likely to send your account to collections. You must be clear on what you can do realistically, how much can you afford to pay each creditor each month. Then you have a place to negotiate from. You should never ignore your bills or your creditors, it will not benefit you in any way. Be honest with yourself and know when you should ask for help. If you are in need of quick funds, you can try contacting your bank or credit union to ask if they can offer you any low interest rate personal loans.

If you currently can’t handle the minimum payment of your creditors even after asking for help, you may want to consider working with a debt settlement company. Debt settlement companies work with you and your creditors to determine all of the debt that you have and the amounts you owe. The debt settlement company negotiates and settles your outstanding debts on your behalf. In return, you will make payments to the debt settlement company for an agreed amount until all of your debts are paid off. This is a good option if you have lots of outstanding debts with not enough income to pay them all back. Working with a debt settlement company will ensure that all of your debts get paid back, most likely for less than your original outstanding amount and interest rate. While having an account on your credit report that shows it’s been paid off with debt settlement does not look as good as it being paid off in full, it does look a lot better than having lots of missed payments or worse—marked as a charge off.

When searching for a debt settlement company, be sure to read reviews about different companies first to make sure they are a credible source. Avoid working with any lawyers for help with debt settlement cases. Lawyers are expensive and only helpful if you are planning on filing for bankruptcy or there are debts on your record that are not yours. Be cautious of lawyers and debt settlement companies out there that say they can eliminate your debt. The technique they use is to claim your debt is false or inaccurately reported by the creditor. They are betting on the fact that the creditor will not respond, and if they don’t the negative mark is removed from your credit. This practice is illegal but you will see many credit repair companies try to do it. You should always do your research by reviewing more than one debt settlement company and read multiple reviews to ensure you are working with a good company that will actually help you.

The toughest part about being in financial trouble is facing the people you can’t keep your commitments to. But for yourself it is better to face your creditors than to hide or ignore them. When you ignore an issue you allow in yourself a seed to be planted of unreliability and this will hurt you as you try to get yourself out of a financial situation. Be as reliable as you can be and you will find a way out of your financial troubles!