About 1 in every 3 Americans has a problem with debt and just about 99% have had a problem with debt at some point in their lives. Americans are now carrying more than a trillion dollars in revolving credit card debt. This is not good news for people who want to be debt free. These days that figure is growing at an alarming rate. When the economy suffers, so do everyday American families.

Now is as good a time as any to be debt free. Becoming free of debt is not a simple task however. It's a little like losing weight. There are no quick fixes or, like with weight loss, the quick fixes can end up getting you in more trouble than you started with.

Do it Yourself Debt Settlement

One of the ways that you can become debt free is to pay more than the required monthly payment from your creditors. The way some companies calculate the required minimum payments, it could take you as long as 30 years to pay off your original purchase. By just paying a few extra dollars each month, you could be debt free in considerably less time.

The first step in becoming debt free is to know where you stand. Put all your bills in a pile. Then list your debts in order, starting with the largest balance first. Next to the amount, list the minimum monthly payment, and the interest rate you’re paying on that card. Now you will start to get an idea as to where your hard earned money is going. One of the best things to do is to get organized.

Get Organized

Take a tally of all your bills. Put the people that you owe the most at the front of your list. List the total due as well as how much you have to pay per month.

Also be sure to list the interest rate that you are currently paying. Using the criteria of total amount owed, total minimum monthly payment and interest rate, you can now list your debts in order so that your worst debts are listed first. These are the debts that you will want to pay off first if you are to have a chance to be debt free.

Start paying them off, one card at a time. After you pay off a card, close the account. However, if there is no annual fee, you may want to hand on to the account in order to improve your credit rating.

You need to know exactly where your credit currently stands so go to The Free Credit Report Website and get your scores. Study your reports to see if there are any errors. This is something that happens far more frequently than you may realize.

You might even consider paying the extra money for one of the credit monitoring services so that you can keep track of your progress. Stuff doesn't always get reported to the credit agencies and you want to make sure that anything positive you accomplish is reported so that you can get full credit for your hard work.

If you have a problem with spending money then you may have a behavioral issue that needs to be addressed. However, there are many people who simply fall prey to bad luck and circumstances beyond their control. Stuff happens and they just fall behind in their payments. Medical bills, loss of job, there are many reasons why people get into debt.

All that doesn't really matter. What really matters is what you need to do in order to be debt free. Sometimes you just need to seek help from the professionals.

You can seek help by looking for debt counseling so that you can get some reliable debt advice or you can choose to go with one of the more reputable debt consolidation specialists.

Generally speaking, debt consolidation refers to getting a consolidated loan and debt negotiation and debt settlement refer to the act of coming to a compromise on the money that you owe to your creditors. As stated earlier, it is a good idea to learn as much as possible before you dive right in and hire some help.