Credits cards can become a vicious cycle were the person is trapped in debt making only minimum payments and often making them late resulting in highest interest rate accompanied by late fees.
Every time there is a financial crisis they spend whatever credit is available getting themselves further and further into debt.
There are solutions to this situation that can lead to reducing or even eliminating your debts.
The solution will depend on your situation.
If you own a home for example, you may be-able to refinance or obtain an equity loan to pay off all your other debts.
Even if you have bad credit you can refinance your mortgage or obtain an equity loan assuming you have adequate equity.
The danger with this approach is that once you pay off your credit cards you will continue to use them and run up new balances.
It is imperative that you establish a budget to control your spending in order to get out of debt.
If you do not own a home or you lack the equity for refinancing or an equity loan there are other options.
You may qualify for a debt consolidation program.
This is where a debt consolidation company sets up a plan to pay off all of your unsecured debts, gets your creditors to agree with the plan then you make one payment to the program which then pays your creditors.
This type of plan works well for some people, especially considering that the creditors often agree to remove late fees reduces interest and even sometimes educes the principle.
The hard part is that the debtor must stick with the plan until the debts are paid which can take several years and must make the payments on time each month.