Getting to sleep at night can really be a challenge if you are facing bad credit card debt. I have had such bad credit card debt at a few different times in my life, and I was certain that there were at least a few contracts out on me issued by MasterCard and Visa. Screening my calls or avoiding the phone altogether, jumping every time the doorbell would ring, and constantly feeling overwhelmed are just a few of the symptoms brought on by very bad credit card debt.
I'm not really sure that there is a quick fix for bad credit card debt, or if there are any real sure fire solutions to get out of it either. Bad credit card debt does not go away all on its own, even though everyone today wants an instant solution to everything. The few people who I know have used the sites or services that claim they can reduce your payments by X percent every month have ended up having to pay more money, so I am always a little suspicious of those services. There are, however, genuine credit counseling services that would like little social service workers, who offer some guidance free of charge. While these counselors will not do all of the work for you, by all means they can be quite helpful.
In order to get out of bad credit card debt, the best way that I have found is to avoid getting to that point in the first place. When you don't have any credit card debt to pay, then credit card debt is much easier to pay off. Make sense? It's surprising how easy it is to forget these simple things, that maybe are so incredibly obvious, when you have several available credit lines and lots of things that you want to buy. One almost compulsive behavior is over spending. Actually, in many cases that are much like my own, you can take the 'almost' out of that description. You just can't help but to buy buy buy, even though you may very well know that you are making a mistake.
I try to reduce the freedom I have to dig myself into a hole. This is just one of the simple things I do to avoid having bad credit card debt. I only have one credit card, since the first thing I did was cancel all of my other cards. If I only have one line to worry about, it is a lot easier to manage my credit. I also only have made a rule for myself that I can only use my card once a week. I try not to add to my debt by ensuring that all other purchases I make have to be made by cash or check. Little rules like this, even though I don't always follow them like I should, can help you (and me!) avoid bad credit card debt in the future.