Relief from Debt Through Debt Management in Your Day-to-Day Life

The road to a debt free life
Getting out of debt is tough, but achievable if you do two things right: find the right option for you and be disciplined enough to follow your plan.

Once you are on the road to recovery there are some additional things that you can do to build up those good debt management habits and an excellent free debt management program.

Cars & Auto Insurance
• If you’re buying a new car, check out new car guides at the library. By finding a car that has a low purchase price, low financing, insurance, fuel costs, and repair costs, you can save hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Comparison-shopping can add to the savings even further.
• If you’re buying a used car, check the seller’s asking price against “blue book” guides at your local library. This will give you the average retail price of that car’s make and model year. Have a trusted mechanic check out the car if you are serious about buying it.
• When buying auto insurance, shop around – it really can pay off! Your state insurance department can also usually provide information about typical prices charge by various insurance companies in your state.
• Raise your deductibles to drop premiums or eliminate certain coverage on an old car - make sure you still have the state-required insurance levels though!
• When renting a car, shop around for the best rates, as they can vary greatly. Also, check with your credit card company and auto insurance agent about coverage for rental cars – you may be able to avoid paying for expensive duplicate coverage through rental car companies.

Banking, Credit Cards, and Mortgages
• Find a checking account with a low/no minimum balance requirement to save high monthly fees that can easily top $100 per year.
• Some banks drop or lower checking fees if you have direct deposit your paycheck.
• Pay off your entire credit card bill each month to avoid interest charges.
• Reduce your number of credit cards to one or two to save on fees.
• Avoid late payment and over-the-credit-limit fees by watching your spending carefully.
• Consider refinancing your mortgage if you are able to get a rate of more than a full percentage point lower than your current rate (and you plan to keep the new mortgage for several years).
• Home equity loans can be a great way to help manage debt but if you foresee being unable to make any payments, beware that you could lose your home.

Life Insurance
• Buy term life insurance if you want insurance protection only (ie. not a savings and investment product), since it’s cheaper.
• If you are buying a whole life, universal life, or other cash value policy, plan to hold it for at least 15 years, since if you cancel these types of policies after just a few years it can easily more than double your life insurance costs.

Telephone
• You will usually save money by buying your phones instead of leasing them.
• If you have optional services that you don’t need or use (such as call forwarding), drop them and save up to $50 per year.
• Subscribe to a calling plan if you make more than a few long distance calls each month.
• Dial long distance calls direct wherever possible, since using an operator can cost up to $6 more.