Christmas time is a time to party hard, shop, eat out, and of course who can forget the gift frenzy! But wait…all of it can make you run up credit card and break your pocket. I’m sure that of all the weirdest and crazy things that appear on the Christmas wish-lists, Santa never gets such wishes “I want more debt”. But that is exactly what thousands and thousands of credit card users get on Christmas….more and more debt .

Holiday shopping is a temptation and it can lead to overwhelming debt so much so that people exhaust all their savings and investments to get out of it…but they still can’t get out of it. I have seen my cousin getting buried into Christmas credit card debt last year. His finances were out of control to that extent that he had to get enrolled in a debt settlement firm. Prior to settling his debts, he was in a desperate state; he was swimming in a pool of high rate credit card debt but now…he has reduced almost 56% of his debts and that too with in a year.

In the initial days he had shut himself from the world, he was embarrassed. He didn’t want to let all of us know about his financial position. He was getting statements in his mail but he ignored them, you know the typical “bury your head in sand and the problem will vanish” kinda attitude. But does the problem really go off? He got the answer but at that moment he was already in mess….credit card debt can be compared to a mold it grows wildly.

Better late than never…he started thinking of the way outs to get rid of the mess. He never considered bankruptcy as an an option because he knew that he owes the debt he has to pay it off…he did not want to run away from the problem anymore. He called up the credit card companies but at that time he could not afford to pay what they were asking. He did a bit of research on several debt reduction options and finally became convinced that debt settlement was the way to go.

But the road wasn’t smooth either….he had to work harder to save money for the settlement funds. The settlement amount was decided by the firm itself and while zeroing in on the amount his monthly expenses and budget were taken into consideration. The whole debt settlement program was tailored to fit in all his needs and it worked for him!! He does not use credit cards anymore.

I was really amazed at the change he have had after this whole experience, I spoke to him last week and he said “I probably get five to six credit card offers a day but I toss all of them. I’ll never go there again. Now I can start saving some money too”