What are some good avenues to seek out credit card debt help where the amount of debt does not require a bankruptcy?

If you are only behind with one or two credit card companies, you might want to just call them up and see if they would be willing to lower your annual percentage rate. Some of them will do this, particularly if you’ve been paying on time. They don’t want to lose your business. If they won’t help you in that way, ask them if they would be willing to decrease your monthly minimum payments for a set period of time, say, for six months or a year. If you still can’t obtain any helpful concessions from them, give serious thought to signing up with a credit counseling service run by your county. If you can’t find a government- sponsored program, call your nearest bankruptcy court and ask them which debt  counseling or debt consolidation groups they often recommend to their many petitioners.

Debt counseling services often provide classes that can help you better handle your earnings and create a workable budget for yourself. If       necessary, they can often get all or most of your creditors to agree to a debt management program that involves lowering all of your monthly credit card payments (by lowering the interest rates). You will just need to make sure you pay the designated lump sum of money to this debt management group on time each month. They will usually make all of the payments to your creditors for you, for a small monthly fee. Whatever you do, check to be sure the group you decide to work with has a very positive rating with your local Better Business Bureau.