Credit Card Debt Advice for Indiana

The state of Indiana is recognized for a variety of accomplishments. Famous celebrities like James Dean were born in this great state, and Indiana is home to the first long distance auto race in the country. Do you know what it is also home to? High credit card debt. Indeed, Indiana remains among the top five states with the highest credit card debt per consumer. The average citizen of Indiana has an amazing $9330 in credit card debt to pay off, surpassing the national average by more than $3000. Some may question why this number is so high as residents of the state don't have to very high interest rates. The state average is a mere 13.9% APR, which is an immense improvement over other states like Idaho who maintain more than 20%. Why are those numbers so high then?

Well, that low interest rate may actually be fostering an increase in credit card debt for the state rather than lessening it. The reason is that a lot of people get into debt is because they find it easy to gain credit. Low interest rates only fuel that fire. A consumer in Indiana sees that he or she does not have to pay much interest in the event of a defaulted payment, so he or she accepts the card feeling a false security about spending money on it. This small rate actually causes people to spend twice as much. Thus people in Indiana have fallen into immense amounts of debt because of loose credit stipulations.

Indiana also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country with more than 10.6% of its citizens without a job. This has only caused more problems in credit card debt for the state as people have to resort to credit cards to pay for things and then cannot pay the debt that they accrue. It doesn't help that credit cards are accepted as payments for just about anything nowadays. In fact, the American Bankers Association reports that more than 24 million locations currently accept credit cards for payment, resulting in more than $2.5 trillion in transactions every year. As the access of credit cards and the frequency of their use increases, so will the credit card debt rates in the state of Indiana.

If you have fallen victim to this sad but necessary trend, we offer some tools that may help you get back on your feet again. On our site, we provide a credit card debt optimizer that allows you to select from the credit cards that you have to pay so that you can determine which one you want to pay off first. With this, you can ensure that your money is going where you need it to, and you can also monitor your payoffs so that you know if you are headed in the right direction. To be on the safe side, either choose the credit card that has the most debt or has the highest interest rate to pay off first as either will make good use of your money.

If you have started saving to pay off your credit card debt, you can look to our credit rolldown calculator to start making payments and get yourself on the path to financial freedom once more. With this tool, you can allot money for credit card payments and it will go directly toward the card that you have selected to pay. Once one card is paid off, any excess funds that you have in the account are put towards the next card on the list until eventually everything is paid off. This is ideal for people who know that they want to put money away to pay off their debt but don't know how as they can essentially let the machine do the work for them.

Sometimes a simple save and pay method just isn't an option though. In that case you can turn to debt consolidation to help you reduce and eventually eliminate your credit card debt completely. The way debt consolidation works is it allows you to "consolidate" or combine all of your monthly credit card bills into one easy to make payment. In this process, you must work with a credit counselor to figure out a plan that fits your current financial situation. If you are living in highly populated areas like Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Evansville or South Bend, you will have a greater chance of finding a financial adviser as there is a higher demand for them in those cities.

Once you meet with a financial adviser, you will be able to determine how much debt can be eliminated right away from a simple negotiation with your lenders. Most lenders will except some sort of reduction in the loan amount if it is matched by a longer term so that they can make back their money in the interest that you pay. If you pay everything off early though, you can save a lot of money through this form of debt consolidation. Even if you don't pay off anything in advance, it is still nice to get a lower monthly payment as it will be more manageable and therefore you will be less likely to default in payments. Though the time it takes for you to eliminate debt in general may be extended, you will at least have a security knowing that you won't fall further into debt due to missed payments.

Most people are in debt because they either didn't manage their money correctly or had no other option than to take out some sort of credit to pay their bills. In Indiana and the nation as a whole, people are forced to turn to their plastic cards just to survive. Surprisingly enough, this need for money has not resulted in much of a change in the credit score of the average consumer as most people in the US have scores around 680. The average for Indiana falls just shy of that at 676, which is still considered "OK" by FICO standards.

The reason that the scores are fair in spite of the economic downturn is because good credit spawns from debt. Debt in and of itself isn't necessarily a "bad" thing; it's how people manage their debt that becomes the issue. As long as people pay their bills, their credit scores either remain the same or increase, depending on their situation. The state of the economy has impacted the amount of money that people have to borrow, but it hasn't showed a tremendous influence on people's ability to pay bills at this time. IF conditions don't improve soon though, those scores will decrease, as will the opportunities for credit in the future.

Sadly, over 28 percent of Americans have recently found that their ability to pay off their credit cards has become more difficult because of the downturn according to Javelin Strategy and Research. You very well may be one of those people experiencing difficulties. All you can do is use all the tools you can to keep your debt under control in this ever-changing world. Hopefully in time, the nation will get back in good standings again so that you may regain your financial independence once again.

Contact Your Senators About Reforming Credit Cards
	Senator Evan Bayh PHONE: 202-224-5623 (DC office) FAX: 202-228-1377 (DC office)		Senator Richard Lugar PHONE: 202-224-4814 (DC office) FAX: 202-228-0360 (DC office)