Often when people are unable to pay bills on time, creditors will make one of 2 assumptions. Either they can pay it and will push for the whole due amount right now, or they will assume the payer can’t pay it and will make a payment arrangement. Later though, if the payment arrangement isn’t kept to they will revert to insisting on the whole amount. This does require actually contacting the creditors.

When you have many bills needing payment, it’s wise to payoff the most important first. Things you need and can’t afford to live without should be the priority. These may include your rent, utilities, and even food. With these paid, you can focus on other things while surviving. Some of these are open to arrangements on past due amounts, while others just want their money right now. There may be laws in your jurisdiction that can assist when it comes to pushy creditors with services that are required to survive.

The usual debtor assumption is that debt will only grow, and there it will never end.  Thoughts of giving up on life, and in general depression, anxiety and the like will often be there as well. The stress can be overwhelming. Eventually though, many do come around, and find alternatives.

Often eventually they will come across debt consolidation as an option. While this can be a good long-term fix, it can also simply be a new bill in addition to the others. A better choice which is another one people eventually come across is Consumer Credit Counseling. These are often professionals that can help sort out your situation, arrange reasonable agreements, and even take one payment weekly or monthly from you and split it out to those that get paid. They will look over your entire situation, bills, creditors, and make suggestions. On occasion instead of repayment they may suggest alternatives such as debt consolidation, or bankruptcy.

It’s certainly a great way to get creditors off your back, and work out more reasonable agreements. This definitely takes off a lot of the stress and lets the people enjoy life more. These services manage debt really, and often have additional services that can help. They deal with many types of debt such as credit cards, utilities, student loans, and even mortgages. Being this widely knowledgeable gives them an advantage at putting it all together.

This isn’t the only option though. You can do it yourself as well, though it will likely require negotiating your own payments and budgeting around them as well. What you will want to consider is which bills cost you the most when behind. Which ones can lose you needed items (house, utilities, necessary insurances and vehicles). You need to pay special interest to the utilities and the secured loans as they can be turned off or repossessed if you are behind. Beyond that are the unsecured ones that can still cost you more if late, often though you want to find the best solution at the lowest rate. With good planning, you may be able to eventually re-mortgage and payoff the rest. But keep your monthly payments as low as you can. It’s wise to put some in the bank too if you can in case a tighter month hits and you need to draw from it to make the payment(s).


Other things to consider, some accounts will have expensive fees when late or over limit. The biggest of these can be credit cards, and other forms of revolving credit. Often utilities “late fees” amount to a small percentage of the amount late. This just shows the work it takes to balance out to all payments though. If you don’t have the patience to keep up on all of these at the same time, credit counseling is a good idea, because they can do it faster and save you a lot of time, even if you know how and can do it yourself.

Never assume you can’t deal with your debt as there is always a solution. Other factors are minimizing your expenses, and cutting out items you don’t need all together. Getting all your bills current and keeping them there, while taking time and effort, in the end will give you a peace of mind you usually cant imagine beforehand.

To read more articles by Tony Robinson, check out http://best-cat-training.com.