You may refinance your home loan to consolidate credit card debt which will cause your mortage balance to go up but you will be able to pay off those debts with the high interest rates and fees in exchange for a home loan which always has lower interest rates than credit cards. Look up home refinance rates in your area and get quotes from several different lenders. With interest rates as low as they are these days, it sure will be nice to pay off your 18% credit card rates and replace them with a 6% mortgage rate before rates go higher which I believe is likely at this decade ends.

However, be sure to look at more than just the interest rates since refinancing also can mean closing costs and other fees you may have to pay which can add up to thousands of dollars out of pocket.

If you decide to preserve your home equity or you don’t have a home so you are unable to get a loan, you can consolidate credit card debt with lower rates using a highly regarded debt management company.

In each case, the fact that you already have bad credit is not a big drawback. In fact, it may make the decision to use professional debt relief easier since that is one major drawback to some debt relief solutions. People that have good credit but find themselves in trouble often do not want to risk poor credit unless they have no other choice.

What’s important in seeking debt help even with bad credit is that you have some income available to pay off your debt over time through a fixed monthly payment the debt relief company will set up for you.

Debt settlement can reduce the amount you owe by as much as 50-65%. With debt settlement, your credit score will get worse but you certainly do not need to start out with good credit to enroll and the damage it does is less severe than filing for bankruptcy. If your credit is very bad already you need to ask yourself, does it really matter if it gets worse in return for getting out of debt in 3 years or less.

Debt management plans will actually not affect your credit as much as debt settlement. However, your debt payments will not be reduced nearly as much as with debt settlement.