More and more people these days are finding themselves struggling with debt. While there are a lot of options to help people get back on their feet, none of them make the process truly simple or easy. It's up to you to take a hard look at your situation and figure out the solution that works for you, even if it takes work. If you've got a decent credit history or happen to own a home, things will be less difficult for you. If you don't fall into those categories, things will be rougher, but not hopeless.

First you can contact a debt management service or a consumer credit counseling service to help you with your debt. By doing this you are taking your first steps towards financial freedom. A debt management service works by becoming a middle man between the creditor and you. You will pay them a monthly fee and they will forward the payment to the correct creditor.

Before you choose a service you should ask them what will happen if some unforeseen financial emergency arises and you miss a payment. This way you will not be surprised if you do encounter this problem. If going the debt consolidation loan route is not right for you there are other options available.

Debt management services to suit your needs fall in two distinct categories and therefore you need to carry out some research before deciding on the best service to use.

If you've gotten yourself into debt in a variety of ways, but feel like you could pay it off if only you had a little immediate leeway, you might want to try for debt consolidation. Debt consolidation is a service that rolls all your debts into one big package, and tries to reduce the immediate expenses involved with paying various rates and fees.

When the process of debt consolidation is finalized, you can make your payments to the consolidation company rather than to all your different creditors. You can expect to benefit from a significantly lower interest rate, allowing you to pay off the overall debt more quickly. But the longer you stay in debt, the more you end up paying, so you'll want to pay it off as quickly as you can.

Unlike debt consolidation services where the customer still pays the full debt, debt settlement firms cancel a large proportion from the full debt amount. This can be up to 50% such that if you have a total debt of $60,000 the debt settlement service can help you pay only $30,000.

Be careful when using debt settlement, though. It's no magic bullet to cure all your problems! The end result of debt settlement is that you have a worse credit score in exchange for the money saved. Because of this, settling your debt is usually a last resort. However, it can be just what you need if you've tried everything else and are at the end of your rope.