If you are on a fixed income you may be considering that bankruptcy is your only way out of debt. There is a way to eliminate your credit card debt without having to resort to bankruptcy. In this short article, get the information you need to know before you make a 7 to 10 year financial mistake. You don't want to have to ruin your credit for 10 years or more and still be in debt.

This is not credit counseling or debt consolidation. Those debt methods do not eliminate your debts. They only spread out your payments over time and reduce your interest rates and maybe your payment amounts. So these methods are thrown out. Even though they are touted as some of the best debt cures you can find.

But look at who is promoting these methods. The banks started the credit counseling organizations out there. So they have a big interest in steering you to credit counseling.

So that leaves only debt settlement or debt negotiation as you may know it. With debt negotiation, you negotiate with your creditors and offer a partial payment for the full balance you owe. You would be surprised to see how willing the credit card companies want to settle when you are 6 months past due.

Using debt settlement and debt negotiation you can clear away half your credit card debt in less than a year and a half. You can get a 60% settlement on a $50,000 balance and save $20,000 for example. You may be able to save more or less. But with so many people struggling to keep up with all their bills, the credit card companies are seeing more and more of this everyday. People are deep in debt and keep falling behind on their bills.

The creditors lose money when they have to write off or charge off what you owe so they would rather get 50% of the balance instead of recording the full 100% as a loss. They still have shareholders to please.

Best of all you can do it yourself. You can settle all your credit card debts on your own and save an extra 15% off your debt. So read a book, or buy a home study course on how to do it yourself debt elimination. This is the best way I've read about that can help you eliminate credit card debt without bankruptcy.