Reducing credit card debt can be done in a few ways. They are completely different and it depends on how much debt you have and your capacity for repaying it. And the desirability of these methods is completely different. It is important to evaluate your options carefully, but on the other hand the sooner you can put a debt relief plan in place the better off you are going to be.
If you are current on your payments, but making only minimum payments you are going to have to take a good hard look at how you are spending your money. Keeping a journal will help you locate areas of overspending or unnecessary spending. You may not think that you have extra money in your budget, but if you are not tracking your spending I guarantee you that you do have money that can be used towards debt.
Set yourself up on a 1, 2 or 3 year repayment plan. You can use one of the many repayment calculators available to find out what you will have to pay each month to be debt free in your allotted time. If you need to come up with extra money that is something you will have to figure out. You can begin by selling things in your home that are not being used. Many people that have credit card debt often have items in their home that are not being used. Finding a way to make extra money is often not as difficult as you think. It is getting started that often delays people.
If your debt has not had a payment made on it in more than 3 months and there is no chance of you being able to get it caught up. You may want to consider asking the lender if they will accept a settlement. This is where the lender agrees to accept less than the total balance as payment in full. This can eliminate your debt quickly and sometimes for about half of what is actually owed on the account, but this option is not without its disadvantages.
Debt settlement will negatively impact your credit and you will be expected to pay income tax on the amount of the debt that is forgiven. But if you are in a position where you just cannot pay what is owed, this is an alternative to bankruptcy and it will resolve the debt. Generally the agreed upon amount has to be paid within a short period of time. There are options for reducing credit card debt!