1. If you spend more than 50% of your credit limit every month, this indicates to the Credit Bureau that you do NOT have enough cash on hand to meet your monthly expenses. This will identify you as a high credit risk and will actually reduce your credit score by 60 - 70 points overnight (Fair Isaac).

2. If you miss 1 or 2 payments on your credit card debt, the issuing company will skyrocket your interest rate to a whopping 27% - 30%!

3. Out of a random sample of 3 million American consumers (included in Experian's National Score Index), 51% of them have at least 2 credit cards and 14% of them have 10 or more credit cards.

The secret to eliminate debt with El Paso debt consolidation loans

The Debt Cycle

It starts slowly. You get a credit car or two and decide to make a few purchases. The bill comes in and you see that you don't have to pay the whole thing off. So, you make a minimum payment and figure to pay it off sometime soon. Then an emergency arises, and you need to use a credit card for that purchase. Next comes Christmas shopping, and you find that there isn't enough cash, but you do have those credit cards. And so on. Pretty soon, the credit card debt is enormous, and you are making minimum payments on several and getting no debt actually paid down. Now, life is no fun. Your payments are leaving no money for fun things, and you feel you are working hard with no play.

Get Proactive and Learn the Secret

The real secret is that there are services available to you that can put you on a track of eliminating your debt and becoming debt free for a lifetime. You probably do not know all of the strategies that will accomplish this, so you need to find a professional who does.

You need a debt consolidation loan, but before you get that loan, you need to know that professionals can significantly lower your total debt before you ever take out the loan. This is a huge savings right off the top, and you must take advantage of it.

Find the Right Professional

Debt relief, counseling and consolidation firms advertise daily on El Paso television, radio, and the newspaper. The promises are huge, but are they for real? The answer is some are, some are not. Your task is to find a reputable, solid firm that delivers what it advertises, and it is not as hard as you think.

First, you want to look at the firms that are nonprofit and that belong to national credit counseling associations. These firms have agreed to abide by the guidelines of these associations, and that includes offering a wealth of services for free, charging moderate fees for debt negotiation and management plans, and pre-bankruptcy counseling.

You want a firm that will negotiate with your creditors to lower your overall debt, so that the amount you actually have to pay back is much lower than originally. This will give you lower monthly payments, and these are often are lower interest rates. Once this is accomplished, you really don't get a "loan." What you will do is make that one lower payment to the firm. They will deduct their fee and distribute the remainder to your creditors as agreed. You will know exactly how long it will take to pay off all of your debt, and you can always make larger payments any month you can afford to.

You're On Track, But Now What?

You have now moved yourself into a position of easier debt payment. This will all be for naught, however, if you do not make some basic changes. Your counselor has probably established your plan with you, but it is up to you to carry through, so that there is not a recurrence of your former situation. Learn to stay within your budget guidelines, and begin to pay yourself through some amount of savings each month. Find the small ways to cut costs, and the savings will add up. Cut gas, fast food, lattes, morning bagels, restaurant lunches, and so many of those little things you will never miss. And El Paso has terrific cheap entertainment that you can access. Take advantage of the great weather and get outdoors for exercise and fun.

Tourism in El Paso

El Paso is full of bargains for tourists, in attractions, accommodations, and restaurants. Reasonable attractions include the zoo, the Border Patrol Museum, the Chamizal National Memorial, the El Paso-Juarez Trolley, the Museum of Art, and the Franklin Mountain State park. Cheap but nice hotels include La Quinta Inn and Holiday Inn Express. Restaurants at the Kern Place Market and Kiki's offer great food at low prices, and, of course, there is always the essential trip across the border for shopping, authentic Mexican food, music and dance.