Debt Distress

As prices go up, consumers get worried – and rightly so. Interest rates just went up as of July 1^st, gasoline prices have gotten so high it is ridiculous – with no signs of stopping, and most Americans just aren’t sure what tomorrow will hold for them. Credit counseling agencies are overrun with clients who just need help sorting all of it out.

Consumers have more debt than they know how to handle, and are turning to agencies to help them get some relief. The percentage of bank cards 30 or more days past due increased to 4.4 % in the January-March quarter alone. With short-term rates increasing for the 17^th consecutive time, consumers cards will start piling on even higher interest rates, making payments even more difficult – as well as all other forms of interest debt as well.

After the law change last year that made bankruptcies harder, a large number of people had initially run to take care of it before it went into effect. However, you now have a whole new group of people who were barely handling their bills before the increases in gas and interest rates, and now they are just drowning in debt. Juggling payments, paying one creditor one month, then skipping them the next to pay someone else, is really just a vicious cycle and it ruins your credit. You might want to go see a financial counselor if any of the following apply to you:

-       You are only making the minimum payments on your bills

-       You are using credit cards to pay other credit card balances

-       You are late, or you miss, payments on the important things like
    your mortgage

?       You don’t go to the important stuff like the doctor or dentist because you just can’t afford it.   ■